THE latest round of Sandford Cricket Club Community Hundred League fixtures have been played leading up to Finals Day on Sunday, July 24, when the last group games and Final will be competed for.

Following victories by Crediton Rugby Club and Sandford Football Club, these two teams will compete in the Final on Finals day, no matter how they get on in their last group matches.

In the latest round of matches, Rugby Club secured their Final place by beating the Sandford Lads and Dads team quite convincingly. Having restricted the Lads and Dads to only 100 from their 100 balls, the Rugby Club were brutal in achieving their win inside 76 balls.

Ollie Knight again showed his confidence and obvious talent for the Lads and Dads with another retirement meaning he had to succumb to the regulations of the competition to retire after scoring 25.

Not bad for a 14 year-old, who is also starting to show his worth in the Club’s Third XI.

The only other batsman to make any runs of note, came when veteran Adrian Partridge came in late down the order to score a respectable 20. But with the batters having no real answer to the young Blackburn brothers, Oscar and George, the Lads and Dads struggled to get going, and the innings petered out to only a run per ball.

In reply, the Rugby Club batters laid into the Lads and Dads bowlers, and although despite taking a couple of wickets, Steve Saunders 26 (Retired), Jay Harris 20 not out and Ian Gillard 27 (Retired) saw their side to victory. This enabled them to book their place in the Final, having gone through the season undefeated to-date, with one game cancelled because of inclement weather.

It was then up to Crediton Milling to see if they could win their first game since joining the competition this year. Their opponents were Graphic, and it was the men from the Mill who triumphed.

Batting first the Mill men were given a tremendous start by old stager Dave Manning (25 Retired), and young brothers Tom and Louis Gulley who both had to retire after scoring 25 and 26 respectively.

So they had three batsmen back in the hutch without losing a single wicket. This allowed them to rack up a very good total of 137 from their 100 balls, with Ethan Power weighing in with a brisk 13 not out towards the end of the innings.

Once again International Bowler, Ian Bond, showed what an all-round talent he has as a sportsman, by taking two of the Millermen’s wickets at a cost of only eight runs from two very economical overs.

Unfortunately the rest of his fellow bowlers could not keep the total down, especially opening bowlers Jack Hookway and Phil Greenslade who both took a right pasting from the Gulley boys, with Tom in particular reaching his retirement score in only six scoring shots.

And it was Tom Gulley again who ended any chance of Graphic reaching their target. He had dangerman Ben Trenaman caught off his bowling early in the Graphic innings for 22.

Not only that but a further three wickets followed for him, as he finished with 4-13 in his three overs to leave Graphic wondering what had hit them. In the end Graphic did fight their way back to 115 from their 100 balls, with late contributions from the Hookway boys, Father Andy (23) and son Jack (25 Retired). However, they still lost by 22 runs.

There was much merriment amongst the Millermen following their first win, and in doing so they reckoned their victory warranted an extra days holiday or large pay rises from their boss, Mark Gulley. We’ll see what the outcome of this will be in due course.

The last game of the current round saw Sandford Football Club up against the Three Little Pigs, with much depending upon the result. If the Footie Club won, they would qualify for the Final, but if the Pigs won, everything would go down to their last round of matches on Finals Day.

With rain threatening to spoil the evening, the Football Club was asked to bat first. Surprisingly captain Nathan Keast opened the batting with Steve Lyons, and believe it or not, Chairman Adam Voisey, who hadn’t scored a run since 2015.

Things started badly as Lyons departed for a first ball blob, and although Aaron “Bish Bash” Carpaninni smothered a quick 25 before retiring, followed by an even quicker 26 from Stu Moss (what a class act he is), the Chairman was still left trying to hit anything near him.

He eventually hit a four to everyone’s astonishment, before running out Rob “Nugget” Smith, when Nugget’s phone fell out of his pocket, and he decided to pick it up before completing a run.

Eventually Voisey succumbed for a paltry eight runs scored in 11 overs. The slowest scoring rate in Community League history. To make matters worse, he came back to his teammates with every excuse under the sun as to why he didn’t score more.

The innings was finished off by the sheer class of Adam Bilcock (22 not out) and Ricky Turner (23 not out). Final total of 136 from their 100 balls. A good effort.

In reply to Pigs made steady progress in response to the task that had been set. Although Lee Waring (11 from 6.1 overs, but missing nearly everything) had caught Voisey’s disease, the majority of his other teammates got on with things. Youngster Jack James creamed a quick 26 before retiring, as did Will House with 25. Further knocks of 19 from skipper Ben Wonnacott, 11 from Alex Stevens and 15 not out from D.Carbines, took the Pigs to within touching distance of their goal, but eventually they fell eight runs short on 128.

So after four rounds the table looks like this:

Rugby Club seven points Avg Runs per ball 1.62, Football Club seven (1.32), Lads and Dads three (1.18), Crediton Milling three (1.12), 3LP two (1.29) and Graphic two (1.16).

Without doubt the unluckiest team not to be able to reach the Final this year will be the Pigs. They lost two games to the weather, but in particular after scoring 135 against the Rugby Club, their game was abandoned six overs into the Rugby Club’s innings when the Rugby Club had managed to score two runs more than the required run rate to achieve victory. The Pigs have actually scored more runs than any other team so far this year (518), but lost three of their four games when their opponents have managed to outscore them.

So to Finals Day on Sunday, July 24 - 11am start. Graphic v Crediton Rugby Club are first up, followed by Sandford Football Club v Sandford Lads and Dads around 1.15pm, and then Three Little Pigs v Crediton Milling at approximately 3.30pm. The Final between Sandford Football Club and Crediton Rugby Club will be held at 6pm, with the Rugby Club looking to hang on to the title they won last year.

Phil Matten