SUNDAY, JULY 7
THE Division one game that saw top versus bottom meet at Ilfracombe went, as expected, the way of table topping North Devon who piled up a huge 324-5 with Stuart Rhodes hitting 130, Ross Burbridge hit 62 and Matt Westaway helped himself to 57.
Burbridge and Rhodes put on 170 for the opening wicket and the Rhodes onslaught was done and dusted inside twenty overs at the crease! Faced with such a formidable total the Ilfracombe batsmen chose to see if they could simply deny North Devon all their wickets and this they succeeded in doing, closing on 113-8.
Walid Iqbal struck a defiant 33 to add to the two wickets he took during the games first innings whilst for the victors Matt Westaway claimed 2-6 whilst five other bowlers each took a single wicket.
Beaten skipper Dave Hart said: “Stuart (Rhodes) was on fire, I doubt he was there for even twenty overs and he was seeing it like a baseball.
That said they couldn't bowl us out and I think we managed to frustrate them.
Let's face it with our line up we aren't likely to chase down that sort of target and so the next best thing is to deny them taking all our wickets, a moral victory for us that one, even if we did end up well beaten”.
Bideford began the day in second position but they fell to defeat to the side who started the day immediately below them in the table, Newton Tracey.
Australian Sam Hughes followed his previous days half century with a top score of 61 in Bideford's offering of 191-9, three wickets to John Walmsley and Newton Tracey completed a very successful run chase for the loss of seven wickets with Richard Screech (48) and Julian Moore (33) leading the way.
Matt Clarke took three wickets for Bideford who will probably regard this defeat as terminal in their bid to win the Title.
The days other top-flight game was at Filleigh where the home side claimed a seven wicket win.
Visiting Beaford were shot out for just 89 with Gary Henry taking three wickets and Jamie Palmer sending down nine very accurate overs to return the figures of 1-5.
New signing Josh Singh led the ruin chase with 44 as Filleigh got home on 90-3.
In Division Two 100% leaders Bradninch were washed out at Heathcoat when the two side's had had tea and gone out for the home innings when the heavens above Knightshayes dumped yet more rain onto the already damp ground and the game was abandoned.
Earlier Dan Hardy had top scored with 42 and Simon Bailey had struck 33 in their side's 180-8, two wickets for Sam Smith and three for home skipper Martin Williams and Heathcoat were nine without loss after 3.4 overs when the rains arrived.
Victoria Park strengthened their grip on one of the two promotion spots available from Division Two this term with a 105 run win at Barnstaple & Pilton II.
Kevin Rowlands hit a top score of 88 in the Barum offering of 150 in which Paul Tuson claimed 5-13 and Colin Bettis 3-16, this in reply to the earlier Victoria Park innings that closed on 255-7 in which Bettis hit 69 and John Glass 44.
Bratton Fleming undertook, and succeeded, in a thrilling run chase at Braunton where they hunted down, and passed, the home side's 228 all out, winning by five wickets.
Ian Roberts hit 72, John Baglow 46 and Chris Morris 42 for the hosts whilst Nick Dartnoll took 3-34 and Stevie Kingdon took 3-34 for Bratton who replied with 232-5.
Ted Cumming struck an imperious unbeaten 105, Paddy Dartnoll chipped in with 46 and Steve Brasier scored 42.
Bratton are well paced to make a bid for one of the two top spots and with Bradninch and Victoria Park due to meet twice still this term they may yet get the chance to play in the top division next season.
The first of those two meetings of the top pair takes place at Victoria Park this coming Sunday.
The day's biggest surprise came at Hatherleigh where the 100% record in Division Three of Filleigh II came to an abrupt end after a 106 run defeat at the hands of the hosts.
Darryl Barnes, who had hit an unbeaten 75 the previous day for the Clubs Saturday 1st XI went one better and hit an unbeaten century.
Barnes finished not out 102, Sean Forrester hit 83 and Graham Bryant chipped in with 37 in an imposing total of 290-5.
Mike Prideaux picked up three wickets for Filleigh who then replied with 184-7.
Andrew Collier top scored with an unbeaten 65, wickets for the home side came from Richard Tidball (3-28) and that man Barnes who completed a fine afternoon's work with 2-20.
There was also a shock in the game at Holsworthy where the home side went into to game as the second placed side in the Division and ended well beaten by the side who began the day 2nd from bottom.
Sandford II batted first and made 162 with Pete Steer top scoring with 76.
The wicket takers for the hosts were Steve Drew (2-11), Ian Mill (3-12), Andy Mortimer (2-15), Keith Drew (1-25) and schoolboy Andre Butler who took 1-15.
Young Butler was one of six teenagers in a youthful Holsworthy XI and their inexperience told when they were bowled out for 102.
Lyndon Piper hit 34 but the only other bat to make an impression was that held by Keith Drew (19), of the youngsters Butler was the top scorer, he hit an unbeaten 6 after a five over stay at the crease.
Incorrigibles had a centurion amongst their number in the shape of James Hope who blasted a magnificent unbeaten 116.
Such was the Hope dominance that the next highest contribution was that from Ed Pinkham (27no) in a total of 212-4.
Bude had no answer and were bowled out for 153 with Sam Hockin hitting 57 and Will Rumble scoring 45, whilst Incorrigibles wheeled out another of their promising youngsters.
Off spinner Ryan Bowden claimed 2-31, Paul Randall took 3-22.
The win, combined with results elsewhere took the Witheridge based side to the top of the division.
North Devon beat visiting Tiverton & Bickleigh by twenty runs at Instow.
Batting first the hosts made 197-8 with James Starkey (40), Tom Stanton (41) and Bob Heaman (41no) all making contributions to the cause.
Tony Kingdon took 4-36 and Nick Roud 3-27 for the Mid Devon side who replied with 177-7.
Ben Schofield led the way with the bat scoring 41, Stuart McDonald hit 35 and Roud completed a fine all round effort with 34 whilst James Starkey was the most successful of the home bowlers with 3-23.
Just two of the three scheduled games in Division Four took place this because of the problems with the weather for Black Torrington.
Their Ground needs a tractor and gang mowers to get onto the outfield and with all the rain recently they had simply not been able to get any form of machinery onto their ground and so both Saturdays game with Lynton & Lynmouth II and the following days meeting with Cheriton Fitzpaine had to be cancelled.
This was particularly frustrating for Cheriton Fitzpaine who now have just two games remaining in their season having to date completed just three! Mike Foan explained saying: “With Cullompton pulling out that reduced the seven team section to six side's meaning a season of ten games and we have to date only been able to complete three matches and, weather permitting, the very best we can hope for is a five game season long programme!”
The only game in this division to see play was at Victoria Park where Shebbear prevailed by seven wickets but the defeat for Victoria Park was not sufficient to dislodge them from top spot and the two side's remain 1st and 2nd in the division.
The home side were bowled out for 115 and the College side passed that for the loss of just three wickets.
There was just one game played in Division Five and it served up a major surprise with defeat for Newton Tracey II at Bishops Nympton in a low scoring game.
Batting first the home side were bundled out for a meagre 94 with Brian Border top scoring with 37 and John Verney the ‘best of the rest' with 22.
Andy Chatham picked up 3-8 in 5.4 excellent overs and then top scored with 14 in the reply that saw the morning leaders humbled for 66 and victory go to the home side by a margin of 28 runs! Brian Borders left arm seam won the game for Kelvyn Warren's side, he took 4-10 in seven overs whilst Mike Gregory took 3-19 and Warren helped himself to a brace.
A delighted skipper said: “I don't think they were too pleased.
Our total was nothing special, even with a slow and low wicket but faced with such a small total to defend we decided that the best form of defence is to attack and we chased everything and that approach paid dividends with the win “.
In Division Six it was a bitter/sweet weekend for League new boys Weare Giffard who picked up 40 points from their two Matches although they only took the field in one of them! On Saturday Weare Giffard had too much for Ilfracombe II in a low scoring game that saw the seasiders bowled out for 87, a total that was passed for the loss of six wickets.
The ball was always the dominant force in the game; Nigel Perryman led took 4-17, three of his wickets coming in four balls, one of which was a ‘no ball'.
Andy Havill took 2-19 and Lee Huxtable 3-18.
Huxtable then scored 23 but that was bettered by 16 year old opener Harvey Williams who struck 25.
Ilfracombe spinner John Newman claimed a ‘fivefer' but Mark Heddon hit the winning runs with a boundary.
That was the “sweet” element of Weare Giffard's weekend, the bitter part was the fact that Bradninch II couldn't raise a side for their Division Six meeting on Sunday leaving skipper Barney Wittram to say: “After all the rain we have a lovely sunny day and no game.
" I am very surprised as I was under the impression they were a ‘big' team “.
However the weekend did see Wittram's side take maximum points and they now look odds on to claim promotion at the very first time of asking.
Looking set to go up with Weare Giffard are the other ‘new boys' Halberton who beat Nomansland by 6 wickets and once again it was a Father versus Son contest that ‘sibling' triumphed in! Halberton skipper Dan Coles claimed his Father Chris's wicket when the two side's met at Witheridge and he repeated it in this game, all be it with a little help at square leg via the safe hands of Will Austin.
Nomansland closed on 174, Andy Crossman (60) and Ed Strong (27) the key contributors whilst Ben Franks, Jeremy Turner, Matt Smalley and captain Coles each took two wickets.
Adrian Hills hit an unbeaten 63 and Pete Grabham chipped in with 48 in the successful run chase.