BURBAGE & Easton Royal crashed out of the National Village Cup in spectacular style as they were beaten against Cornish side Roche.

Captain David Cope will rightfully be aggrieved with the 15-run defeat in St Austell defeat after his side were at 186-4, chasing 207, only to see his troops dismissed for 191.

After winning the toss and electing to field, the away side managed to restrict their hosts to 206-5 on Sunday afternoon.

When Burbage picked up the bat, they made a good start as Sourish Mukherjee top scored with a half century, before being caught out for 60.

But with just 20 runs separating them from victory, Cope’s troops imploded as the final six batsmen could only muster three runs between.

“I don’t know what happened, I suppose it might have been the pressure of the big occasion and there being a lot of people watching took its toll on the bottom order,” said Cope.

“It was the difference, I just think a little bit of inexperience and a little bit of pressure got to them, we had a young side, but we were playing a young side too.

“You don’t really know what to say about it. If you play that games 10 times, you’d back yourself to chase it nine times.

“Cricket is one of those sports, you can never guarantee anything, the guys are really disappointed with how it ended, but they did well to get that far in the competition.”

While he concedes it was disappointing to lose, he is adamant that as a group they will learn from the experience.

“It’s important we learn but we are a group of players with an average age of about 22 or 23 so we still have plenty of time,” he added.

“The sooner we get that experience the better because it will only make us a better side.

“The group won’t let it bother them, they’ll train and go back out and at it at the weekend, it’s just one of those things.

“There are players there who have bags of talent, but when you are walking in and you need to score the last few runs to win the game, you probably need someone to step back.

“They bowled really well, it was just the last five per cent of the game, we let ourselves down.”