Devon Cricket Board - Reed ton steers Exeter to victory

Reed ton steers Exeter to victory

BRADNINCH skipper Tim Piper pinpointed errors in the field as the reason his side lost by six wickets to Exeter.

Piper was looking for a third Premier win on the trot against the city slickers – and when Bradninch made 265 for six he had high hopes of carrying it off.

Exeter had other ideas though and with Blake Reed slamming a century they got over the line with nine balls to spare.

“The par score for me was 200-220, so to make 265 was a great effort on our part,” said Piper.

“Dan Hardy (39) and Jackson Thompson (72) put on more than 100 to open, and apart from James Street who was in and out everyone else chipped in.

“Greg Maher made 50 on his debut after signing in the week from Halberton and Ross Acton whacked a quick 30 at the end.

“I thought we were all set up, but we really didn’t bowl that well and our fielding let us down too.”

Bradninch enjoyed early success when Paul Nott nipped out Exeter opener Mike Wilkinson lbw on 11, but another 199 runs went on the board before another wicket fell.

Reed led the way for Exeter with 132, taking the score up to 210 with Miles Lenygon (64) at the other end.

Nott (3-52) picked up a couple of wickets at the end, but the damage was done by then.

For Piper the damage came under the heading of self-harm.

“We dropped Lenygon in the 40s, which probably didn’t help, but the real problem was our bowling.

“Ross Acton bowled well and Paul Nott did okay, but the rest of our bowling wasn’t that great.

“Either we bowled too many four balls – far too many – or too many wides.

“Exeter were 30 for one after 10 overs, which shows you just how rank our bowling was after that.”

Piper will be hoping Bradninch show a sizeable improvement with the ball when they host Torquay this Saturday.

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