Torquay triumph in basement battle

SANDFORD missed a chance to put some distance between themselves and the Premier drop zone when they lost by 61 runs to Torquay.

Beating North Devon seven days earlier had lifted Sandford off the bottom of the table and installed Torquay as cellar dwellers instead.

Sandford stayed out of the bottom two even though they lost, but the safety margin is down to just six points.

And it doesn’t get any easier for Sandford this Saturday as they are away to Exeter, who are in fine spirits after knocking Exmouth off the top last time out.

Torquay were glad of a late contribution of 68 from Joe Thompson for getting them up to 210 all out in the last of their 50 overs.

Thompson came in at 110 for six and put on 100 in the final 20 overs, mostly with Tom Marrow (38), but also with Nick Watkin and Jack Richardson.

The wickets were shared around with two each for Laurence May, Jamie Palmer, Luandre Van Wyk and Ryan Glass.

Sandford got just the start the wanted as openers Glass (30) and Russ Discombe (29) put on 69.

Then Sandford ran into trouble in the shape of Somerset’s Max Waller, who removed the early order all by himself.

Waller caught Glass off his own bowling, had Discombe caught behind, trapped Adrian Small lbw then found Richard Tucker’s edge. His figures were four for 27.

A wicket each for Fahad Iqbal and Matt Hickey reduced Sandford to 99 for six. The result wasn’t in doubt by then, only the margin of victory.

Waller hadn’t finished with Sandford either! The next three wickets all fell to Waller catches. Iqbal benefited from some slogging to finish with three for 18.

Sandford captain Palmer said if anyone thought his side were not involved in a fight for survival before the game, they could have no doubts now.

“It was not a good performance and Torquay fully deserved the win,” said Palmer

“Our fielding and catching was awful and we'll need to improve that if we want to stay in this division.”


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