TAVISTOCK suffered a bad five-wicket defeat at the hands of Budleigh Salterton that knocked them back in the promotion race.

The fourth-against-fifth clash was Tavvy’s chance to put some distance between themselves and chasers Budleigh.

Now the roles are reversed – it’s Budleigh who are fourth – and the gap between Tavistock and the top two has widened to 23 points.

As Tavistock totalled a hefty 262 for nine in their 50 overs – Billy Barriball smacking 141 not out – to lose with seven overs to go prompted skipper Shaun Daymond to wonder what went wrong? Tari Musakanda’s ton had a lot to do with it.

“Our bowling was very poor which cost us the game,” said Daymond.

“For the first time this season we were terrible with the ball, and you can't do that against a quality overseas player such as Musakanda.

“Although Billy Barriball's innings was superb, we knew 262 was good but not definite on a track like that.

“We still take the positives and go again next week.”

Barriball and Harry Geering (55) were Tavistock’s primary run scorers and out on 127 for the third wicket. No one else made more than 11.

There were three wickets each for Tari Musakanda (3-33) and Jack England (3-63).

Marc Troman (35) and Ed Doble (25) laid the foundations for Budleigh by taking the reply to 72 for two. Musakanda helped himself to an unbeaten 102 and with skipper Lloyd Murrin (33no) for company put on 108 unbroken to win the game.

Murrin said it was a ‘great win’ then added: “We let them get more runs than we wanted, but walking off we felt very confident we could chase 262 down and was great to do so with seven overs left.

“We were missing three key players, but the boys who came in did really well.”