HELSTON Cricket Club are enjoying a superb 2018 campaign with the side sitting clear at the top of County Division 1.

That is despite suffering their first defeat of the season at Werrington seconds on Saturday, with Werrington bowling the league leaders out for just 77 runs.

Team captain Steve Jenkin said: “It was a funny one really, we played them a few weeks ago and dominated a bit. We were a couple short but we still had more than 77 runs in us.

“But to think we’d only lost one by this time, we wouldn’t have thought that at the start of the year, especially back in February when we were struggling to get a team together so the ones that have come in have done really well.”

Jenkin refers to the off-season turmoil in which the club lost Dan Jenkin – Steve’s brother – and Gavin Tregenza to Troon, as well as Tommy Sturgess to Penzance, with others also heading for the exit door.

This led to the club eventually asking to be demoted from the Premier Division due to fears about being able to raise a competitive side.

“We lost probably our three best players and we weren’t sure if we were going to get the overseas back,” Jenkin said. “We finished bottom last year and were four players down so we were starting to panic a bit and had a couple who said they didn’t want to play, so we asked if we could swap and drop down to County 1.

“We managed to scrape together a team, I mean we’re struggling each week to try and get 11 out. We’ve got eight or nine that play every week and have to find a couple each week but the eight or nine that play have been outstanding.”

Jenkin believed that the positive atmosphere in the squad was a factor in his side’s turnaround in fortunes.

He said: “We beat Troon quite well in the first game but struggled in the next two really so we were thinking ‘are we as good as we think we are’ but we just kept the run going.

“There’s been a good buzz, a good atmosphere in the group, with a few leaving it’s brought the character out in a few of the younger ones so we’ve got quite a close-knit group at the minute.

Despite Saturday’s defeat, Helston sit 23 points clear at the top of County 1 with only seven games left to play, so they could be set for an immediate return to the Premier Division.

Jenkin said: “We’ve got to play Troon and Beacon soon so two big games there really, but all seven games are big games now, we can’t afford to slip up in any of them really.”