Devon Cricket Board - C Division - Axminster slip up again

C DIVISION

AXMINSTER slipped to a second successive defeat when they went down by six wickets to Ipplepen at Cloakham Lawns.

Batting first the home side laboured in difficult batting conditions to a close of 166-7 led there by Gary Larcombe’s battling 50 and an unbeaten 26 from Brad Cross.

Ipplepen eased over the finishing line with just four wickets down, two of them falling to Larcombe (2-13). Rachit Lakhman made 92 and Jack Lewis 37;

Seaton skipper Tristan Wakeley said: “We certainly got the rough end of the deal in terms of the wicket.

"In the conditions it was a crucial toss to lose.

"In the post tea session you could see the wicket become far more placid and nothing like what had been happening pre-tea was there to trouble the batsmen.

"That said we definetly did not get any breaks when they were batting.

"Matt Pyle bowled a superb opening spell and beat the bat so many times.

"He was very unfortunate not to have got the early wickets which may have enabled us to defend the total we posted.”

Next up for Tristan Wakeley and his side is a trip to Chagford on Saturday.

The home side sit third in the C Division table just seven points behind Axminster and both teams sport identical won five from seven records so far this season.

Wakeley says: “There’s plenty of the season left, but no escaping that the Chagford game is a real opportunity for us to put daylight between us and them.

"It’s one of my favourite grounds in the county there and I am personally looking forward to playing there again.”

Axminster II also went down, beaten by Feniton II after being bowled out for 130 despite another half century from Sean Perry.

The Acland Park side claimed a 75 run win having earlier posted a score of 205-8.

YELVERTON slipped to a heavy defeat against unbeaten leaders Bideford at Langton Park.

After winning the toss, Yelverton skipper Richard Goldsby-West had no hesitation in asking the visitors to bat first following rain over the previous 24 hours.

Regular Yelverton opening bowlers James Harrison and veteran Chris Pearson found conditions to their liking and made life difficult for the Bideford openers.

Harrison was unlucky to only pick up a single wicket in his nine-over spell (9-1-47-1) as numerous edges flew either over or wide of the slip cordon and on another day he could have picked up 3 or 4 wickets.

Pearson kept things tight at the other end only conceding four runs off his first eight overs to end up with figures of 9-5-12-0.

The only wicket to fall in the first half of the innings was Matt Allin caught at fly-slip by Rich Townsend for eight with the score on 44.

Jordi Gilmore joined James Ford and Gilmore looked to be positive from the outset and looked comfortable at the crease, punishing any loose deliveries.

The pair put on 44 for the second wicket before Ford picked out Pat Hobbs in the deep at Long-on and departed for 40.

Josh king came and went for five, well caught by Steve Luffman behind off the bowling of Ian Loze.

Chris Luxton joined Gilmore and the pair forged a 108 run partnership for the fourth wicket not without some alarms, but this firmly put Bideford in the driving seat.

Geoff Brain (7-2-21-3) bowled Gilmore for 82 with the score on 209 and a further four wickets fell in the last few overs as Bideford closed on 216-8.

Loze (2-33 off 6) and Tamsett (1-27 off 5) both chipped in with good spells.

Yelverton were relatively pleased at tea to keep the strong Bideford batting line-up to 216, but knew that it would be a tough chase on a wicket that was still damp.

The Yelverton reply started badly when Tom Watkins was perhaps unlucky to be adjudged run out, when to many people watching he appeared to be well past the fielder when the bails were removed at the non-strikers end.

Watkins hadn't faced a ball when he was dismissed.

The Bideford bowlers generally bowled with pace and short or back of a length making scoring difficult on the lively surface and topping a sorry list of scores were Matt Tamsett (15), Steve Luffman (14) and Ian Loze (13) as the the Bohemians slithered to 74 all-out off 27.2 overs.

Alex Crisp took 6-22 off 6 overs for the visitors.

Skipper West was philosophical about the defeat, "Once again our bowling and fielding was impressive and we were pleased to keep the league leaders to a gettable total.

“However their bowlers were able to exploit the wicket after tea and the lengths they were bowling didn't give us many scoring areas or options off the front foot.

“The batsmen had to be positive to chase down the total, but the slowness of the wicket led to some false stokes and this was shown by the number of people caught in the slip and gully area.

“Good luck to Bideford, they're by far the best side we've played this season, and deserve to be where they are.”

Kingsbridge got back on course after a couple of defeats with a seven-wicket win over Civil.

James Rosewarne (4-28), Ricky Carr (2-15) and Neil Peach (2-18) did the damage as Civil were skittled for 96.

James Fletcher (50no) and Angus Watson (20) took care of the run chase.

CLYST St George slipped into more trouble in the C Division basement when they lost by 30 runs to Chagford.

Getting wickets has been an issue for St George this season, so they were delighted to dismissed Chagford for just 121 – Jon Wright (32) top scoring.

Chris Cook (3-18) led the way with the ball for Clyst, aided by Steve Bourke (2-29), Chris Ferro (2-25) and Mark Johnson (2-33).

As targets go it wasn’t great, but at 80 for five in reply there were signs it would not be a formality.

No one expected the collapse to come though as the next five wickets went for six runs.

There were three wickets each for Del Lammonby and Nigel Letheren and two for Steve Sizmur. Skipper John Meredith (18) and Chris Cook (17) were outscored by extras (21) in Clyst’s 91 all-out.

Ottery St Mary stay in the bottom two after seeing a potentially wining position snatched from their grasp by Dartington & Totnes.

Ottery posted 244 for seven in 45 overs – skipper Jody Clements top scoring on 45.

James Faulkener (33) and Dan Flower (28) opened up with 72 then Clements and in-form James Pritchard (42) kept the score ticking along.

Ottery dropped D&T’s Mark Andrews in the 40s and paid a high price as he batted through for an unbeaten 107. Bertus Loots made 70 as Darts cruised to victory.

Skipper Clements said Ottery have two big games coming up and have to sharpen their act.

“We’ve got Plymouth CS and Yelverton on the next two Saturdays, games we have to target for wins,” said Clements.

“Losing to Dartington was a setback we could have done without. We didn’t bowl well and the 30-odd wides didn’t help.”