A HALF century from Neil Pearce helped set up a 27 run victory for St Gluvias’ second team away at Porthleven on Saturday.

His knock of 59 came at a crucial time for his side as there batting spluttered throughout the innings, which at one stage had the score precariously reading 50-6.

Coupled with scores of 27 and 17 from lower order batsmen Sam Duckham and Kevin Hawke, Pearce was able to get the total to 174 before the hosts were bowled out for 147 in the Division Four West clash.

Visiting skipper Hawke won the toss and elected to bat at The Bottoms.

The Saints made a solid start with Richard Bannister and Joe Nesbitt putting on 39 for the first wicket partnership.

But after Bannister was caught by Paul Combellback off Mark Pollard’s bowling for nine, it sparked a flurry of wickets with six falling for 11 runs.

Nesbitt was next to go for 26, caught by Nick Rowe off Darren Parish, before Jack Willey was caught out for a duck off Pollard.

Parish grabbed another couple of wickets during the spell, Matt Ambrose for six and Andrew Bowden for one, while Mark Snowdon was bowled for three by Neil Bartlett.

But just as the Saints’ innings looked to be going biblically wrong, Pearce and Hawke steadied the ship with a 36 partnership before the latter was caught by Chris Higgs during Adam Young’s bowling spell.

Pearce’s inning featured a blistering six maximums before being bowled by Parish, who would end with figures of three for 39. Pollard ended with three for 27.

With momentum going back in their favour, the away side’s bowlers came out firing as they stifled the hosts.

Porthleven were unable to put a partnership of 32 together until the eight wicket pairing of Higgs and Parish added 55.

By this point it was far too late for Porthleven to prevent a loss with a weak platform to build on. Duckham’s spell of two for 28 helped remove openers Bartlett and Andrew Bonnett while Sam Kruse took three wickets for 23 in five overs.

The host’s top scorer was Higgs with 45.