Helston 176-9 (50) lost to Lanhydrock 177-4 (47.4) by six wickets

HELSTON lost the first match of their County Division One title defence at home to Lanhydrock on Saturday.

The Pink Caps were celebrating the title in their last league match at the end of September, but were the beaten side on Saturday, with their score of 176-9 being met by the visitors with just over two overs to spare.

Helston won the toss and chose to bat first, with Karl Leathley and Jason Weeks Jnr running up 40 runs before the latter was bowled and caught by Ruben Turner.

Stephen Wiseman only lasted five runs before he was bowled by the same man, with Ross Leathley falling soon after for a duck off just two balls.

Things looked bleak when Karl Leathley (28) and captain Steve Jenkin (0) were dismissed with the score at 53-5, but Justin Matthews stepped in to score a match-highest 69 not out off 110 balls to keep the hosts in contention.

Bradley Bury added 30 to the cause as the home side reached 176 at the end of their innings.

The away side got off to a disastrous start when opener and captain Chris Rogers was caught by namesake Benjamin Rogers for just one run, but James Starkie-Old (45) and Jonathan Harris (59) scored a combined 104 off 191 balls to put the visitors in control.

Steve Jenkin claimed both wickets in fairly quick succession but it didn't matter as Ben Attfield (37no) and Conor McNamara (21no) got the visitors over the line with 14 balls to spare.

Fall of wickets (Helston): 33-1 J Weeks Jnr (K Leathley-17*); 41-2 S Wiseman (K Leathley-20*); 48-3 R Leathley (K Leathley-26*); 52-4 K Leathley (J Matthews-2*); 53-5 S Jenkin (J Matthews*); 77-6 J Weeks (J Matthews-21*); 146-7 B Bury (J Matthews*); 166-8 S Eddy (J Matthews-65*); 175-9 P Boyd (J Matthews-68*).

Fall of wickets (Lanhydrock): 3-1 C Rogers (J Starkie-Old-2*); 99-2 J Harris (J Starkie-Old-35*); 110-3 J Starkie-Old (B Attfield-0*); 114-4 F Baker (B Attfield-1*).