Having lost only twice during the regular season and watched by a large contingent of travelling supporters our players approached the final in a confident mood.

 

Everything looked good when skipper Kevin Spencer won the toss and decided to bowl. A good opening partnership of 68 in just 15 overs saw Porthleven off to a good start. However the introduction of Nathan Toms (4-35) into the attack had an immediate affect with a wicket off his very first ball.

 

From that point the Bugle bowlers took the initiative and wickets starting falling on a regular basis. Kevin Spencer ended with figures of 3-57, whilst both Adrian and Andrew Thomas took one apiece. Unluckiest of the bowlers was Neil Spencer, who Porthleven rated as the best bowler they had faced all season, but ended up wicketless.

 

However the extremely high wind made catching a nightmare and, with Porthleven taking the aerial route,  several of the Bugle fielders were left kicking the ground when apparently easy catches suddenly ended up nowhere near them.

 

Porthleven were eventually dismissed in the 46th over for 168, a total we would have happily settled for beforehand, and one that seemed eminently gettable.

 

But it was not to be! Losing opener Paul Tucker early on was followed by the defining moment of the game – a very unhappy Neil Spencer, who has been in such sparkling form this season was adjudged lbw having scored just six runs. This was quickly followed by a mix up between Nathan Toms and Kevin Spencer which saw the latter run out.

 

The middle order of Gary Spencer (40) and Steve Allen (10) steadied the ship and a win looked very much on the cards again. However when a towering hit from Andrew Thomas (37) seemingly bound for Truro suddenly hit that accursed wind, and fell into a waiting Porthleven fielder's hands, it signalled the start of a Bugle collapse. The last four batsmen could only accumulate 18 runs between them, and when a dejected Adrian Thomas was finally bowled we were still 11 runs short.

 

The old phrase “catches win matches” was particularly apt for this game and if we had held onto ours the result would have been totally different. But the wind had decided that this was not going to be Bugle’s day.

 

Porthleven 168 (D.Bray 38, A.Bennett 30, A.Young 28, D.Parish 27, N.Toms 4-35, K.Spencer 3-57).

Bugle 157 (G.Spencer 40, Andrew Thomas 37, N.Toms 29, A.Young 4-33, K.Richards 3-8)

Porthleven won by 11 runs.