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Dev Rec. spoil St.David’s perfect start

St David’s head coach Wendell Smith wasn’t too disappointed with his side’s five-wicket defeat to Devonshire Rec, despite it wrecking their 100 percent record in the Twenty20 competition.The Islanders hadn’t lost for three years going into the game at Lords, but the absence of several senior players, coupled with some bad batting, saw that run ended in emphatic fashion.Bowled out for 122, with Dean Stephens ripping through the top order, only Lionel Cann (39) and Landro Minors (30 not out) made any impact with the bat, and Cann was lucky to stay at the crease for as long as he did after being dropped early on by Dean Richards.Herbie Bascome (36 not out) and Derrik Brangman (29 not out) put on 67 to rescue their side from the perilous position of 58 for five, and see Rec home with more than an over to spare.Ultimately, St David’s beat themselves yesterday, and they weren’t helped by Delyone Borden’s latest disappearing act. The spinner, who has been a no-show on several occasions this season already, failed to turn up again, leaving his already weakened side having to play with just 10-men.With Sammy Robinson off the Island, and Loren Marshall also unavailable, St David’s’ lack of strength in depth was exposed and they were well beaten by a competent Rec side who recovered from being 23 for four to eventually win with nine balls remaining.“All praise to Devonshire Rec, we had them in a little bit of trouble,” said Smith. “At least a positive thing about the game is that we didn’t roll over, we made them fight for it, and they were five down, and we had them struggling.“I’m not that disappointed (with the defeat), we had to play with 10 men and that was a very difficult situation for the skipper.”Borden’s no show hit his team doubly hard. Not only did it leave a gap in the field, it also deprived them of another spinner who might have proved the difference between winning and losing. With Del Hollis taking three early wickets, Rec had struggled to cope with the slower bowler.“To be honest with you we don’t know what happened, he (Borden) never showed up,” said Smith.“We don’t know if he’s been in an accident or what. That said one of our spinners, Sammy Robinson is away, and the other is Borden.“Del Hollis took us three quick wickets and we needed another couple of spinners, the minute we went to the pace, they (Rec) just banged the ball and it went for four.”Smith refused to use the fact that his side were a man down as an excuse, and pointed to a poor batting display as a more important factor in the defeat.“Fielding with 10-men is always going to leave a gap where there shouldn’t be one, but that’s not to make excuses, still we had other players who we expected to do a job and they didn’t,” he said. “We had some key batsmen who were getting themselves out, like Fiqre Crockwell for instance, guys like Ajaun Lamb, getting out by playing shots they shouldn’t be playing.“We were on the back foot from the beginning.“It seemed like we didn’t really come to play from the beginning, may it’s just a game where . . . in most sports, most teams have a bad day so hopefully this is ours.“I don’t mind that in Twenty20 because, like I told the guys, you don’t have to finish on top to reach the semi-finals. We can afford to lose a couple of games and still be in the running“I guess the disappointing thing is that we had built up some momentum after beating Rangers, this could be a wake-up call in that, you can’t just show up and win, you have to still perform. That’s what I think the lesson was today, that although we have some very talented players, you can’t just show up and it’s going to happen.”