By Ollie Smith
CORNWOOD’S 4th XI secured their G Division status after defeating Whitchurch’s 2nd XI by 39 runs at Delamore Park.
The ‘Wood were put into bat first, and lost Charles Knight (13) early on. Ollie Offer (35) and Rocky Travers (28) built a platform for Cornwood to kick on, however that was looking like as good as it’ll get for the hosts, as they slipped from 79-1 to 98-5 in the space of five overs.
Simon Garland’s 21 put the hosts back on track, he was aided by the 35 extras his side were gifted, too. Garland was the last man out with the score on 161, aside from the top three, he was the only other player to reach double figures.
The run chase swung in Cornwood’s favour straight away, they dismissed their visitors to 8-3, Eoin Hewitt (1-14) and Dave Stubbs (2-29) claimed one of the openers each, the third wicket was a run out by Hewitt. 
Stubbs claimed the fourth wicket, however Whitchurch were stabilised by Neil Tamblin and Nathan Endean. Overs wouldn’t be the issue with run chase, something that Tamblin knew, as he took his time with his innings.
Endean were scoring slightly quicker, and had hit seven fours in his knock before he was trapped lbw by Simon Garland for 36. The score was 96-5, and evenly balanced.
The game was tipped well and truly in Cornwood’s favour in the 24th over. Lennon Way was handed the ball to begin his spell, and claimed the wicket of Matt Sleep with his first ball.
The next ball was a dot, Whitchurch captain Jason Webber safely navigating it; however, he and the two batters after him fell victim to Way in consecutive balls, giving him a hat-trick and four wickets in five balls. The double was prevented by Ben Jones, who scored a single from the final ball of the over.
Whitchurch had fallen from 105-5 to 105-9 in the space of five balls, still needing 56 runs to win. Tamblin was at the other end for all of these wickets, and must have been well versed in what to say to the batters by the end of the over!
The game was done and victory for Cornwood secured when Garland (2-6) claimed the final wicket, taking a catch off his own bowling, he and Way (4-11) were the two bowlers to cause the most damage to the Whitchurch batting line-up.
Cornwood captain Marc Whaley was delighted with his team’s performance, but also kept one eye to the future.
“We’ve used 17 colts who are under 17 or below this season, six of whom were new to Saturday league cricket this year.” Said Whaley. “This experience should only strengthen the 4s, and feed the pathway through the club, into the 1st XI.”
On man-of-the-moment, Way, Whaley had nothing but praise for him.
“It was one of those days for Lennon where everything he did worked. We needed a couple of quick wickets, and to get four in an over is something for him to cherish.”
“You don’t often get days like this when you come on and go W . W W W 1”
