National Cup defeats for Penzance & Grampound Road
Voneus Village Cup Semi-Final
Grampound Road v Foxton Granta
After Grampound Road’s Nathan Keevil struck in the fourth over a good bowling performance restricted Foxton Granta to 72-5 in the 24th over. A sixth-wicket stand of 63 helped a recovery to 153-8 in the 40 overs.
Alex Lean (39) and Jack Mingo (15) then put on 57 for the ‘Road’s first wicket inside 15 overs. With Chris Roberts and skipper Tom Orpe going well the home side looked on course for victory at 97-2 in the 27th over.
However, the return of opening bowler Sam Beer saw the wickets of Orpe, Harry Gregory and Alex May fall for only six runs at 103-5. Roberts was stumped for 26 in the 34th over to set up a nail-biting finish.
With 26 needed off four overs Henry Campbell only conceded two runs leaving 24 required off three. Chris Willett hit a six to leave 13 needed off the last two overs. Campbell dismissed Lewis Sanders, who was batting with a runner, and next ball David Neville was run out by a direct hit.
The last pair needed 11 off the final over and after getting a two Tom Fox-Dean was bowled off the third ball from skipper Lewys Hill to see the visiting supporters invade the pitch in delight and the home batters sink to their knees.
The last eight wickets had fallen for 48 runs. Foxton Granta will meet Gloucestershire’s Dumbleton at Lord’s on 15 September.
- Grampound Road – Foxton Granta (Cambridgeshire) 153-8 (A Webster 40, L Hill 40, H Hopwood 32; T Fox-Dean 2-20, C Roberts 2-32) beat Grampound Road 145 (A Lean 39, C Roberts 26; S Beer 3-33, R Kaufman 2-25) by eight runs with three balls remaining.
- Scorecard / Video
Vitality Club T20 Area Finals Day at Bridgwater CC
Penzance fell at the last sixteen stage despite hammering Newport by 86 runs in the afternoon semi-final.
Bristol had also emphatically beaten Exmouth in the morning match.
In the final Penzance got off to the worst of starts losing Christian Purchase, caught at deep cover off the first ball of the innings. Ben Seabrook followed bowled for a single in the second over.
Dylan Blignaut made 24 and Dan Lello was last out for 43.
In the reply, Sam Bracey and Nic Halstead Cleak put on 86 for the first wicket in just eight overs.
The comfortable seven-wicket victory followed with 25 balls to spare.
Bristol will be joined in the Regional Finals day by Kent's Hayes for whom Cornwall professional Will MacVicar took 4-31 and made 30 not out in the seven-run win over Shepherds Bush in the Area Final at Wimbledon.
Semi-Finals: Exmouth 128 lost to Bristol 129-1 (9.4) by nine wickets. Scorecard/Video
Penzance 262-5 (B Seabrook 81, D Blignaut 60, J Paull 52no; J Cosker 3-31) beat Newport (South Wales) 176 (M Bevans 58, M Ilyas 55; G Lawrence 4-19, A Libby 3-40) by 86 runs. Scorecard
Final: Penzance 139-9 (D Lello 43, D Blignaut 24, J Ludlam 21; R Panchel 2-17) lost to Bristol 141-3 (15.1) (N Halstead Cleak 43, S Bracey 35) by seven wickets. Scorecard/Video
