WHEN Sandford Cricket Club decided to start a fourth team for the first time at the beginning of the 2026 season, the aim was to mix experienced players with youth, and to introduce the younger players into playing senior cricket.

Well last Saturday was a classic example of how this philosophy is starting to pay off. With a mixture of four senior players and seven players aged 17 or under, apart from one senior bowler bowling his allotted eight overs, the only other contribution from a senior player was one ball to hit the winning runs. The rest was left to the kids.

Having won the toss, skipper Jason Matten asked the opposition – North Devon Fourths – to bat at Creedy Park. Wickets fell steadily through the innings thanks mainly to last week's hero James Morgan bagging a couple of wickets, and Joe Saunders bowling well to dismiss the middle order all clean bowled - including the N.Devon top scorer Craig Tamlyn, who had stroked his way to an impressive 53 from only 43 balls (eight fours and a six).

The only other batter to make any impression was Mason Owen with 32 (four fours), as N.Devon were dismissed after only 28.2 overs for 129.

Despite losing an early wicket on the chase, Joe Saunders, opening the innings, completed a very good day for himself, with an all-round man-of-the-match display whilst scoring 54 runs (six fours and a six), to back-up his earlier bowling performance of 3-22 from five overs. Together with no.3 batter Max De Pelet 27 (four fours), they added 56 for the second wicket to make a huge impact for their side to chase down their target of 130.

Although three more wickets fell before victory at 131 for five in 30.2 overs was eventually achieved, all the batters were youngsters, which was very impressive.

Emilia Tamlyn with 2-23 (five) was the only N.Devon bowler to take more than one wicket.

And so another 20 point victory leaves the Fourths in third place in H Division East, one point behind leaders Culmstock, who they play in two weeks' time, but with a 22 point gap to Newton Tracey Seconds in fourth place. So all-in-all a very good start to the season for the Fourths with three wins, one loss and an abandonment in their first five games.

Next week the Fourths are at home again, with Bridestowe and Belstone Thirds being the visitors to Creedy Park with a 1pm start.

Phil Matten