By GRAHAM REID
In his 19 years playing for Cornwall, Aaron Barnes cannot recall the senior side having suffered the ignominy of being forced to follow on.
Cornwall have won five of the seven premier championships since 1994/95, but Barnes is not despondent that this season, his team suffered the follow-on
blow in their first-round match with Howick Pakuranga.
Howick Pakuranga declared at their first-day score of 265-9 to give their frontline bowlers, Kyle Mills, Brooke Walker and Sam Whiteman, a crack at a Cornwall top order bolstered by the return from Auckland Aces duty of Barnes and Rob Nicol.
Cornwall looked comfortable when meandering through to 58-2 at lunch. But after the break Whiteman (3-22) and Brad Neilsen (3-9) bowled a tight line and seven wickets fell before tea for scant reward. The target of 166 to avoid the follow-on was hardly in sight.
The Cornwall innings was wrapped up for 148, only Nicol showing any resolution with an innings of 43. Howick Pakuranga skipper Walker, with well-mannered glee, ordered Cornwall back to the crease.
Cornwall fared better the second time round with 129-1. Their Essex professional, Simon Peters scored an unbeaten 60 and Avinash Sharma was 34 not out.
Barnes offered no excuses. In hindsight, the wake-up call might have been a good thing, he said.
Grafton and Suburbs New Lynn took maximum points from Birkenhead and East Coast Bays and gained an early points break among the premier sides.
Grafton won by eight wickets after fast-medium bowler Guy Coleman took 6-51 in Birkenhead's second innings. Suburbs New Lynn's innings victory might have been helped by the run-out dismissal of in-form Llorne Howell for 17 just when the Auckland Aces batsman was threatening mayhem with his bat.
Papatoetoe and Eden Roskill gained outright wins in the first grade and Waitakere City led Auckland University but ended two runs short of winning outright. Cornwall beat Howick Pakuranga on the first innings.
