De Putron's flying start sets up Optis for huge total

TIM DE PUTRON hammered a quickfire 76 as Optimists cruised to victory last night at the KGV.

From the off the opener set about the St Pierre bowling with relish and dealt mainly in boundaries.

He smashed 11 fours and three sixes during his 36-ball occupation of the crease, having brought up his half-century in just 25 deliveries. The pick of his maximums was a stand-and-deliver, flat pull shot that flew over wide mid-on.

Such was the destructiveness of his knock that he was dismissed before the halfway mark of the Optis innings with the total already in three figures.

He fell to 15-year-old Glenn Le Tissier, who impressed with a fine spell of off-spin which resulted in figures of three for 43 from his five overs – no mean achievement given the situation and the fact that the rest of the attack all went at 10-an-over or more.

There were also useful contributions with the bat from Chris Whitworth, Mark Clapham, Carl Pugh and Ian Damarell as Optis racked up a mammoth 208 for five from their 20 overs.

In reply, Jarrod Avery got Saints off to a flyer as the first over went for 15, but the run out of Carl Le Tissier at the end of it and Avery's dismissal at the start of the next over – the first of Steve Queripel's fine spell – soon banished any hopes of an unlikely win.

However, captain Paul Wakeford can take positives from the performances of Tom Kimber and the young Le Tissier with the bat as both showed much promise.

On the downside, both Wakeford and Dave Hearse look set to be out of action for a while with injuries.

Meanwhile, Pierre Moody took a hat-trick at Port Soif as Corinthians brushed aside Salemites by nine wickets.

Moody ended with four for nine as Salemites lost their last five wickets for no runs before the opposition reached their target in nine overs.