Devon Cricket Board - C Division - Flower power steers Ottery to first win

CHAGFORD dropped back from the leading batch of clubs when they went down by 75 runs to Plymouth Civil Service.
Robbie Walker (82) and Jason Williams (71) top scored for Civil in a total of 293 for nine. Jon Wright and Matt Bowes shared six wickets between them for Chagford.

Chagford were bowled out for 118 by Simon Light (6-28) and Jack Dent (4-31).

Only Peter Holland (29) stayed around long.

Ipplepen comfortably took the derby spoils in the meeting with Dartington & Totnes as Foxhle.

Jamie Lewis led the way for the Pens with 86 as they cruised to 240 for nine. Sam Wakeham (38) and Seb P{owell (37) weighed in.

Dave Carter claimed four for 57.

Darts slumped to 19 for four in reply – Bowden (3-26) and Thomas (2-16) doing the damage – and there was no way back.

Angus Wilson made 20 in a total of 93 all out as Darts were helped on their way by Keith Wakeham (2-20) and Joe Abbot (2-23).

Ottery St Mary are off the mark and off the bottom of the C Division thanks to a three-wicket win in the basement battle with Clyst St George.

Clyst were indebted to Chris Ferro (90) and Matt Cook (64) for a stand of 144 which underpinned their total of 278 for seven.

In-form Ferro and Chris Cook (77) added another 53 for the third wicket.

Ottery had to go for it and with Dan Flower (105) and jack Pritchard (87) in full flow during a stand of 166 they reached 221 for two in repy.

Ferro (2-34) and Dan Takle (2-34) prompted a collapse to 254 for seven, but Ottery had enough left in the tank to get over the line with 10 balls to spare.

Clyst are the new cellar dwellers, but Ottery are only four points above them and have to make up eight on D&T, whom they play this Saturday, to get out of the bottom two.

Ottery skipper Jody Clements said the win had done his team the power of good.

“It was a really good game of cricket, with some cracking batting on show,” said Clements.

“We had a little wobble but got over the line.

“Dan Flower and Jack Pritchard were superb in a huge third-wicket partnership.

“Relieved to have got that first win and we can take more confidence in to another big game.”
AXMINSTER tasted defeat for the first time in this season’s Francis Clark Devon League C Division campaign when beaten by 69 runs at Bideford.

Skipper Tristan Wakeley had his hands tied at the toss which he went into knowing that two of his team had to get away early.

He pulled no punches post match saying: “We were outclassed, simple as that. No excuses, the better team won on the day. They (Bideford) did use home advantage to great effect, exploiting the conditions very efficiently. Some of their bowling was excellent and three of our lads fell caught behind to some superb away swing”.

Both teams went into the game with perfect five wins from five matches this term, but at stumps it was the North Devon side sitting pretty at the top of the table.

The hosts batted first and posted a commanding total of 245-7 with Nick Taylor the most successful visiting bowler with a return of 3-70. Axminster did not help their cause by putting down no fewer than five catches!

Paul Miller led the run chase with a superb knock from the number three slot. Miller was one of those needing to get away early, but as he didn’t get out he was still there at stumps unbeaten on 89!

The only other batsmen to make progress was Bret Garner with 22 as the Axminster reply closed on 176-8.

On Saturday Axminster host Ipplepen side that sit sixth, three places and 26 points below the Cloakham lawn side.

Wakeley summed the day up saying: “We’ll need to bounce back quickly and the players will, have an intense midweek net to shake away any lingering cobwebs for a below-par performance.”

YELVERTON travelled to 4th placed Kingsbridge hoping to build on their win last week.

Kingsbridge skipper James Fletcher won the toss and had no hesitation in taking first use of the wicket on a sunny and windy afternoon at the Butts.

The KIngsbridge opening pair of James Westlake and James Fletcher made cautious progress against the accurate bowling of James Harrison (9-2-29-0) and Chris Pearson (9-1-35-1) but with the score on 33, Pearson trapped Fletcher lbw.

J Shephard joined Westake and the pair forged a 137 run partnership for the second wicket. Both batmen passed 50, with Westlake being the main aggressor.

The main interruption to their progress was the clearing of the ground for 20 minutes to allow the landing of the Devon Air Ambulance to pick up a casualty.

This disruption must have broken the concentration of the batsmen, and with the score on 170, Ian Loze (9-041-3) trapped James Shephard lbw for 56. Ashley Treeby fell for a second-ball duck bowled by Loze and Chris Bowles went the same way for 5 to leave Kingsbridge on 178-4 after 38 overs.

The Yelverton bowling had proved to be accurate all afternoon with Matt Tamsett (7-0-31-1) and Geoff Brain (4-0-19-2) all helping to tie down the batsmen.

The Kingsbridge middle order got the final innings total up to 215-7 when the overs ran out, Westlake completing his century before being stumped by Steve Luffman off the bowling of Geoff Brain for 105.

Yelverton started well chasing down the 216 to win with openers Rich Townsend and Mark Symes putting on 42 for the first wicket before Townsend was bowled by James Rosewarne.

Symes was joined by Steve Luffman and the pair added 27 for the secod wicket.

Symes fell for 21 to a spectacular overhead one-handed catch at 1st slip by Fletcher.

Loze fell LBW after an inside edge on to his pad went un-noticed. Dave Scott and Luffman added 30 for the fourth wicket before Luffman departed for 35.

A short cameo innings of 15 from skipper Richard Goldsby-West helped keep up with the scoring rate and when he departed with the score on 137-5 after 31 overs, a win still looked on the cards.

The sixth wicket pair of Brain (32) and Scott (23) took the total up to 180 after Brain swept leg-spinner Bhanu DeSilva for 4, but when he tried to repeat the stroke next ball, he lost his off-stump.

This proved to be a significant moment in the innings and in the next over, Shephard took a hatrick, bowling Scott and then dismissing Matt Tamsett caught and bowled first ball, and then James Harrison adjudged caught behind, unluckily off his pads.

This four-wicket burst in seven balls rocked the Bohemians and off the first ball of DeSilva's next over (the 41st) Pat Hobbs was bowled for 0 to see the team dismissed for 189 and hand victory to Kingsbridge by 27 runs.

Kingsbridge's Shephard took 6-43 off 8 overs and was well supported by Rosewarne with 2-25 off 9. Extras top scored with 56.