WHEN Sandford Cricket Club started up a fourth team for the very first time this year, the plan was to give as many junior players the opportunity to play senior cricket as much as possible.

Whilst it was expected the team might win a few games, and lose a few along the way, the result of this experiment has proven to date, to be better than was originally expected.

Another example of this was last Saturday when our Fourths took on Cullompton Fourths, who admittedly were bottom of H Division East, but having scrambled around to try and put out four teams last weekend, the club could not have expected the end result that occurred.

Admittedly because of a shortage on numbers, a couple of “has-beens” were dragged out of the wood, but saying that, it was still mainly the youngsters who excelled in this match played on the second pitch at Creedy Park.

Having lost the toss and been asked to bat first, the Fourths got off to a brisk start reaching 125 for one in no time, with Devon County U15s girls player Ellie Knight having opened the innings cruising along to 44 (nine fours) before being dismissed. Alongside her for the second wicket partnership of 95 was 14 year old Buddy Singleton.

Buddy was next to depart at 138 for an excellent 55 (eight fours), which only brought together 15-year-old Samson Brooks, and his school's sports master the veteran Dave “Gibbo” Gibson, a legend at the club for being the captain of the First XI when they won their first ever Premier Division title back in 2001.

Gibbo took things easy at first, ensuring he wasn't going to be embarrassed but one of his protégés, but in the end, after sharing a fourth wicket stand of 80 with Samson, he was eventually out for 48 (seven fours and a six).

Samson continued along his merry way until he was finally stumped with the score on 268, of which his contribution was an excellent 60 (seven fours and a six).

The last few overs of the Sandford innings were carnage as “Skipper for the Day” Dan Knight got hold of some loose bowling to quickly thrash 27 (three fours, two sixes) in double quick time, along with an undefeated 16 (two fours) from 14 year old Jimmy Orchard, which eventually saw the Sandford innings draw to a close at 307 for six after their 40 overs.

For Cullompton, Sumeda Jayawardhana took 2-39 (8), along with Maisy Hodgkinson 2-40 (6) and William Benton 2-29 (3) who were the visiting wicket takers.

The Cullompton reply was dominated by skipper Richard Stevenson, whose excellent 88 (18 fours) in an all out total of 117 in 37.2 overs speaks for itself.

Veteran Brian Leach 3-24 (8) tore into the early batters, but it was then down to the youngsters again to finish things off. Jimmy Orchard 4-17 (7.2) was the pick of the bunch, along with Samson Brooks 2-30 (7) and 14-year-old Oliver Harding picking up the other wicket 1-9 (5).

An excellent win by 190 runs, but in fairness the Fourths will have tougher days, starting this Saturday when they travel to Filleigh Seconds with a 1pm start.

Phil Matten