SO with only one round of games left before Finals Day on Sunday, July 2, when all teams will play their last "round robin" match, as well as the Final itself, everything was still to be played for in round four, with four teams still in contention to take this year’s winners prize – the Barrie Sparham OBE Memorial Trophy.

The first game last week saw Crediton Rugby Club stroll to an easy win against the Sandford CC Lads and Dads team.

Having suffered a shock defeat the week before, the Rugby Club were looking to make amends very quickly.

However, things didn’t go well to start with, as Sandford youngsters 15 year-old Joe Hopkins (28) and 14 year-old Ollie Knight (26) got the Lads and Dads team off to a blistering start.

However, once they both had to retire after reaching the obligatory 25, the scoring rate slowed dramatically against some tight Rugby Club bowling, and an eventual total of 105 in 100 balls was not realistically ever going to challenge the strong Rugby Club batting order.

And so it proved, even despite captain Lasher Leyman trying to make batting look more difficult than bricklaying.

However, he did manage to struggle to 25, and retirement thankfully.

It was then left to Simon Saunders with 20, and 16 year-old Elliott Butterfield with a quickfire 29 to lay the foundations which saw their team ease to victory in only 77 balls, for the loss of only three wickets, and so keep the Rugby Club in contention for a place in the Final.

COMMUNITY LEAGUE CRICKET CHAOS

The following evening saw a very entertaining game between two other contenders, Crediton Milling who beat the Rugby Club surprisingly the week before, and Sandford Football Club, with their very confident captain Nathan Keast at the helm.

Having seen a first-ever tie, and a last ball win in the previous round, the competition has certainly "hotted-up" in standards since its original inception 10 years ago.

This game gain took the competition to a whole new level. Although there was an instance of a team scoring 180+ a couple of years ago, there had never been a single game where over 320 runs were scored between both competing teams. This game proved to be yet another record breaker.

Keasty won the toss and asked the Mill to bat first. Steady bowling by Luke Knight, who only went for 15 runs off his three overs, (pity about his catching ability), was unfortunately not supported by the bowlers from the other end, who regularly went for between 10 and 20 runs an over.

Openers Will White (30 no) and Louie Gully (26) had the scoreboard ticking over very rapidly early on, with many cars in the car park in grave danger.

Tom Gulley (29) carried on the carnage after the openers had to retire, followed by "old man" Mark Gulley (22) trying to keep up with his kids.

More solid hitting lower down the order saw the Millmen rattle up their highest total since joining the competition last year – 170 for eight in their 100 balls.

Despite the carnage Louie Kinch - 3-30 off three overs, Rick Turner 2-16 (2) and Adam Bilcock 2-20 (2) came away with reasonably respectable figures, which doesn’t bode well for the figures of Nuggett Smith and Brad "Dick of the Day" Elliott (his captain’s words not mine I hasten to add), both of whose figures are too embarrassing to put in print.

With skipper Keasty thinking his team would struggle to get that massive total, he was not a happy bunny, almost to the point of being relatively quiet, if that is believable!

However, his troops rallied, and with Tipper Lyon (27), Jamie Forrest (26), Nuggett (28), Pidge (26) and Aaron Carpanini (25) all having to retire, it was the first time in Community League cricket the first five batters had all been required to retire.

This obviously helped set the Footie boys up for victory, and with Ricky Turner also belting a few (14 no) it was down to four to win off the last 10 balls with the now ebullient skipper joining Ricky at the crease.

The skipper duly obliged by pulling the first ball of the last over for four and the Football Club reached their goal (171) with nine balls to spare for the loss of only two wickets.  An amazing result.

Best not mention the bowling figures for the Millmen, apart from Mark Gulley who only went for 12 runs from his two overs – the rest were complete carnage.

And so with next week’s match between the Pigs and Graphic to come before Finals Day, the league standings are currently: Sandford Football Club six points for four games; Three Little Pigs and Rugby Club five points from four and three games respectively; Crediton Milling four points from four games, and Graphic and Dads and Ladds one point from three and four games respectively.

The good thing is no matter what happens in next week’s game, all three final round league games will have "something" on them, with two deciding who will play in the final and the other (Dads and Lads v Graphic) deciding who won’t finish bottom. Three Little Pigs looked "nailed on" to reach the Final, as they have Graphic and the Lads and Dads teams still to play, but it is a question of who will join them? Intriguing!

Phil Matten