ECB CORNWALL PREMIER LEAGUE (SATURDAY)
Callington v Werrington
WERRINGTON are now just nine points ahead of bottom side St Just after a six-wicket defeat at neighbours Callington on Saturday.
On a used pitch, Werrington, who were without the likes of Sam Hockin, Ben Smeeth and Ryan Pooley, won a seemingly important toss and chose to bat, but inside three overs had lost both opener to Ben Ellis.
Thulina Dilshan (5) went in the first over, caught at short cover by Luke Brenton, before John Moon (1) edged a catch behind to Joe White (10-2).
Ben Jenkin and Tom Lyle rebuilt the innings with a stand of 39 before the latter was superbly stumped by White off Aidan Libby for 19.
Jenkin was lbw to White for 19 with the score at 60, and from there on wickets tumbled, several to balls that kept slightly low.
Hugh Tomkinson was bowled by Liam Lindsay before Adam Hodgson, batting at seven after arriving late due to traffic, was lbw to the same bowler.
Wagg returned to run through the lower order on the way to figures of 4-16 from nine overs as only Mark Gribble with 28 got himself in.
Werrington were dismissed for 109 in 44 overs.
Openers Aidan Libby and Liam Lindsay batted positively against seamers Dan Barnard and Jordan Duke as they serenely added 45 before Libby was bowled by Hodgson (2-28) for 19.
Lindsay (24) went two runs later (47-2) when an attempted paddle shot off Mark Taskis saw him top edge it via his thigh pad, and was well held by Moon running around from slip.
Two more wickets fell before the end, Luke Brenton (14) edging a catch to Dilshan at second slip off Hodgson, and Wagg caught and bowled by Taskis for a quickfire 21, but Waller (22no) and Matt Shepherd (6no) finished things off.
Werrington skipper Nick Lawson admitted his side’s performance wasn’t good enough.
He said: “It was a bit of a disappointing performance from us with the bat.
After about 20 overs we thought if we could get up towards 150/160 we’d be in the game, but it didn’t really happen.
“When I was batting with Grib (Mark Gribble), the plan was to knock it around and go hard in the final few overs, but we kept losing wickets which is why were bowled out for just 109 instead of making a total which we could defend.
“We knew a couple of early wickets could make it interesting like last year when we won a low-scoring game after batting first, but it didn’t happen.”
Werrington visit second bottom Camborne who are five points behind on Saturday, in a crunch clash at the bottom of the table, and defeat at Warrior Park and a win for St Just at Helston would likely see the North Cornwall side end the weekend bottom of the pile.
Lawson said: “We’ve got two really big games coming up now against Camborne and then Helston.
“The only positive thing is we’ve got three or four players to come back in on Saturday for what is a very important game.”
Werrington should have Sam Hockin, Ben Smeeth, Ryan Pooley and George Rickard back in contention, although batsmen John Moon and Tom Lyle are missing, and Lawson expects another tough challenge.
He said: “They’ve got two overseas players and are always good at home, so it’ll be tricky, but we’ll just focus on ourselves and putting in a good performance.
“I don’t know too much about them, but the MacDonald brothers (Alfie and Jacob) are good spinners, but for us it’s about implementing our gameplan and getting a positive result.”