Devon Cricket Board - Bovey on top + Plymouth brought to earth+ Cornwood win

BOVEY Tracey are the new leaders in the Francis Clark Devon League Premier Division after beating Budleigh Salterton by eight runs in a nail-biter.
Defending champions Sidmouth had been top of the table since week two of the season, but were knocked off following a defeat by Exeter.
Bovey were glad of Neil Hancock’s 67 off 56 balls for reviving them after they had dipped to 40 for four.
The bowler who did the damage was Matt Kidd, the Devon seamer who left Bovey for Budleigh during the close season. He took four for 65.
Hancock and Ben Ayres (43) put on 67 to stop the rot, then Lewis Hammett chimed in with a gutsy 57 to give the Bovey bowlers something to defend.
It was Hammett’s maiden Premier Division half-century and could not have come at a better time.
Budleigh, bottom of the table and winless, so far, were in a predicament at 87 for four in reply before Stuart Langbridge (33) and Kidd (17) got them going again.
Joel Murphy (29) and Lloyd Murrin (22) kept going to the bitter end, but Matt Golding (3-21) got among the tail just in time.
Budleigh were all out for 219 with four balls to go.
Coming next for Bovey are Exmouth and Sidmouth – the two teams right behind them in the table.
Skipper Bradley said his team made hard work of beating Budleigh and will need to show an improvement.
“It is a good job we have some depth to our batting as it didn’t look good when we were 145 for six on what I though was a 280-300 wicket,” said Bradley.
“The top four pretty well got themselves out, and the irony was it was mostly to Matt Kidd, who was with us last year.
“Neil Hancock smashed it to get us going, then Ben Ayres, Lewis Hammett and James Fulner and my brother Chris kept it going at the end.
“Budleigh’s innings was a lot like ours – and their lower order kept going right to the end.
“We bowled well but fielded poorly and I was glad we weren’t defending 20-30 less as they almost certainly would have won.”
EXETER showed they could live with the best in the Premier Division when they defeated reigning champions Sidmouth by six wickets in the County Ground.
Sidmouth made 263 for six in their 50 overs – led from the top by in-form opener Liam Lewis with 82.
Josh Bess stroked 74 and shared in a stand of 90 with younger brother Luke, whose 47 came off just 30 balls and included two sixes and three fours.
Cheap wickets were hard to come by for Exeter with Matt Hicks (2-41) and Billy Searle (2-48) having the most success.
Adam Gribble bowled 10 overs for 26 runs and removed Lewis at 169 for three.
Exeter had a pretty clear game plan to win the match: occupation of the crease and keep early wickets intact.
Openers Andrew Curtis (67) and Blake Reed (82) put on 167, then Sidmouth took three wickets in a hurry as the city side slowed briefly to 176 for three.
Cameron Evans went with the score on 199, but acting captain Tom Viljoen (39no) and Matt Hicks (33) concluded the chase without further mishap.
Viljoen, filling in for the injured Jon Tipper as skipper, said: “After the defeat we took against Exmouth last week it was a great way to come back.
“It was a welcome win over a good side, but we must avoid getting carried away by it.
“We tried to mix it up bowling – seam at one end, rotating the spinners at the other – so that Sidmouth couldn’t settle. Importantly, we bowled good lines and length and for 17 years old Billy Searle bowled with great control.
“Our openers did most of the work with the bat winning the match. They put us in a position where we needed about nine an over off the last 10 and myself and Hicksie were able to step it up to win with four overs to spare.
Opposite number Will Murray said his team were partly responsible for their own downfall, while accepting Exeter did bat well on the chase.
“In this new format of win-lose cricket it seems 260 batting first isn’t the winning total it used to be when we had draws,” said Murray.
“You see every week now there are some big scores and 300 is becoming commonplace, which it never was before.
“Had we bowled better and as a unit we would have had a chance of defending 260.
“Their openers knew what they were chasing and went about it in a thoroughly efficient way.
“Our next three games are Plymouth (4th), Bovey (top) and Exmouth (2nd) so we need to sort ourselves out fast.”
JACKSON Thompson nailed his second Premier ton of the season as Bradninch raced to a six-wicket win at North Devon.
North Devon’s total of 262 for five always looked a little under-par on a good batting track in the middle of a fast outfield.
No one really expected Bradninch to win as quickly as they did though with a whopping 10 of their 50 overs to go.
Jackson scoring his ton in just 79 balls had a lot to do with the rapidity of Bradnnich’s win.
It was Bradninch’s third win in the last four starts and puts them 23 points clear of the drop zone with Exeter to play this Saturday.
North Devon remain rock bottom with just one win in six outings.
Opener Jason Smith top scored for North Devon with 73 and took the score up to 162 for three with help from Barney Huxtable (29) and Dan Bowser (35).
Glenn Querl, playing as a batter only in the wake of his ECB bowling suspension, uppled the tempo with a brisk 47.
Jaz Kalsi (22no) and Rob Gear (45no) got on with it at the end.
On a day when most of the Bradninch bowlers went for more than five an over, Ross Acton’s one for 27 from 10 stood out.
Thompson (103) took Bradninch up to 191 for thee with assistance from Dan Hardy (23) and Tim Piper (55).
Thompson and Joe Webb went close together, but North Devon soon realised they were not in the game.
James Street (25no) kept it tidy at one end while Acton crashed a brisk 50 not out to win it. Acton finished with a flourish, hitting four fours and a six!
North Devon struggled to keep the batters quiet, although Matt Westaway (10-1-44-1) and Matt Dart (10-0-44-2) did their best.

PLYMOUTH were brought down to earth with a crash at Exmouth, where they nosedived to a nine-wicket defeat.
The City side were fresh from setting a new league batting record at Budleigh Salterton seven days earlier to win a thriller by two wickets.
It was a different story at Exmouth where Plymouth were dismissed for 168 – a good effort after they had slumped to 90 for seven – and saw Exmouth knock off the target inside 28 overs.
Plymouth were without in-form James Toms, whose ton at Budleigh helped set up victory.
Jake Luffman, who also got a ton, was the only batter in the top half of the order to reach 30.
Andy Birkett had a disappointing first outing of the season – dismissed lbw first ball by Gary Chappell.
Pavi Mawalage (27) and Rob Bennett (34), put on 50 for the eighth wicket to make the Plymouth score a little more respectable.
Pick of the bowlers for Exmouth with five for 28 was left-arm spinner Gary Chappell.
Exmouth lost opener Lawrence Greenway to a Sam Stein run-out in the seventh over. It didn’t get any better for Plymouth.
Surviving opener Sandy Allen batted through for 74 and David Lye hit 68 off 49 balls with eight fours and three sixes in the brisk chase for runs.
OPENER Chris Parker hit a century and Jason Hall took four wickets as Cornwood won by 24 runs in the basement battle at Torquay.
Defeat would have sucked Cornwood deep into the relegation scrap and allowed Torquay to start pulling away from it.
Parker’s century underpinned a Cornwood total of 248 for two. He shared in stands of 105 for the first wicket with Ryan Rickard (37) and 104 with Mark Horwell (56no).
Hall (4-16) got breakthrough wickets when Torquay were running away from the game, removing openers Tim Western (43) and Des Kruger (63) as the home side slipped from 110 for none to 129 for five. Elliot Staddon (2-47) played a part too,
Joe Thompson (18), Nick Watkin (33) and Mark Gilmour (19) threatened a comeback before Hall and Asif Raza (2-45) cleared out the stragglers.
Cornwood now have a 16-point cushion between themselves and Budleigh Salterton in the second drop spot.
More importantly, the Corns have proved a point to themselves.
“It was a great win, well timed and a fantastic step forward,” said sidelined skipper Craig Harris, who had to watch from the pavilion balcony.
“Our openers applied themselves brilliantly in the good conditions as we knew a platform was needed in order to set a competitive target and Chris Parker and Ryan Rickard did just that.
“It was a decent batting track and Torquay came out firing, putting any bad length or width bowling away.
“They seemed to know the angles really well and ran well to keep their score ticking.
“The track made batting to seam bowling easy but the slower bowlers got some purchase and spit off a length.
Fortunately for us we had Jason and Elliot Staddon in the team and their spells were key.
“Ryan Rickard filled in some slow overs and by the time we reached the last five and they needed over a run a ball .Asif was able to come back and shoot out a couple.
Harris said Cornwood had struggled chasing totals this season so when acting captain Hall won the toss he decided to have a bat.
“I have massive praise for the application of the batters and the discipline they showed to set our score,” said Harris.
“Lessons can be learned in the way we played and that even when bowling how one wicket can changed the complexion of the game.
“Torquay should have won in their position at drinks, but it is credit to our attitude and desire to win to pull it back and register the win.”