Devon Cricket Board - D Division - Filleigh give leaders a fright

FILLEIGH gave leaders Clyst Hydon their closest shave of the season so far before dipping to a 13-run defeat.

The runaway table toppers were limited to 187 for nine in their 45 overs with Kevin Sercombe top scoring on 54 and Dhanuja Haturusingha making 24.

The wickets were shared around with Ryan Bowden taking three for 27 and two each for James Marsh and John Hickman.

Filleigh struggled at first – they were 32 for four – then recovered to 104 for six.

James Popplewell with 47 kept Filleigh in the game, but Hydon kept chipping away to bowl the visitors out for 174.

There were three wickets apiece for Haturusingha and Will Thornton.

Halfway through the season Filleigh are halfway up the table with Halberton & Sampford Peverell coming to them this Saturday.

SEATON are very much in the D Division promotion frame at the halfway point of the season.

Ben Morgan’s side sealed a 10-run victory over Countess Wear to stay 11 points clear of the two third placed sides, Shaldon Optimists and Uplyme & Lyme Regis.

Morgan provided his team’s top score of 63 and there were knocks of 41 from both Mark Bray and Ryan Walker as Seaton closed on 212-9. From 20-2 Morgan and Bray added 93 for the third wicket.

Morgan said: “I felt we should have gone on to total around 250, but to be fair to Countess Wear they ended their bowling as they had started it, very well, and we did not help our own cause with a batting collapse.”

Countess Wear were well on their way with 100 on the board and just two wickets down, but then a superb spell of economical bowling from spinner Joe Berry and tight spells from Phil Collins and Ben Libby slowed the run chase up.

A key wicket was that of Dave Harkness, caught at mid-off by Morgan off the bowling of Libby.

Libby (3-28) and Alex Hunt (3-43) shared the major wicket taking duties as the Exeter-based side were restricted to 202-8 in their reply.

Morgan said: “We bowled very well, especially from mid-innings onwards, and I was always confident we’d see the job through.”

On Saturday Morgan and his men make the short trip to Uplyme and Lyme Regis for a contest that means so much to both teams promotion hopes.

Morgan said: “We beat them on match day one, but they did not have their footballing cricket players for that game and they are a very good side. That said so are we and we will have one of our strongest elevens of the season out on Saturday so I think this has the makings of a classic encounter.”

ASHBURTON are back in the mix at the top of the table after a comfortable six-wicket victory over lowly Feniton.

Having opted to bat first, Feniton made slow but steady progress as the initial bowling from Marcus West (1-17 from 9) and Gordon Colwill (0-22 from 9) was exceptionally tidy.

Brian Cann (55) and Mark Kingdom put on 57 for the 2nd wicket, but that was broken by youngster Matt Churchill (2-30) as he snared his maiden first team wicket.

Churchill’s second came the following ball as Andy Pullen was denied a maximum by a stunning one handed catch on the boundary by Ashley Harvey.

Harvey (2-16) himself tormented the Feniton batsmen, in tandem with Matt Coon (4-12) who executed some excellent death bowling. Only skipper Graham Tucker (39) put up any resistance as the innings closed on 151 all out.

After the break, Feniton made an early break through but never seemed interested after that.

Run machine Kevin Nicholls (39) steadily got to work and in form skipper Chris Pascoe splatted 50 off 39 deliveries to take the game away from the visitors.

The pair put on 83 for the second wicket and then youngster Dom Durman (23no) with Harvey (17) all but finished things off inside 29 overs.

After the game, Ashburton skipper Chris Pascoe was looking forward to the second half of the season: "With half the season now gone, we have not come across a side that can't be beaten.

The league has been a little tighter than I had expected and a half hour phase of cricket can win or lose you the game!"

He continued: "We are now back to winning ways, players are in form and availability has been good, so I am looking for us to put a run together now which will return us to a promotion slot."

While Ashburton ponder their promotion prospects, there are clearly problems at Feniton, not just in terms of results.

Skipper Tucker gave a very frank account of how things are when he said: “I don’t think we could get much lower.

“It’s as much a battle right now to keep the club going let alone win matches and get off the bottom of the table.

“Availability has been a real pain this season. We lost players prior to the campaign and others have clearly decided a fight is not for them.

“That said there’s enough of us old guard to stand up and be counted and that’s what we are going to do.

“It would be very easy for us all to give it a collective ‘that’s it I am off’, but most of it have got more about us than to do that.

“There’s nowhere for us to go now other than upwards and we have to keep believing that we will turn things round. If we don’t then it will not be for the want of trying.”

SHALDON captain Craig Greenwood says his men will be pushing hard for promotion in the second half of the season.

Clyst Hydon look unstoppable at the top of the table as they are 38 points clear of second-placed Seaton already with just four dropped point so far.

Greenwood says it is wide open behind Clyst with just 16 points between Seaton (138), Shaldon (127), Uplyme (127) and Ashburton 122.

Shaldon made their case with a three-wicket win over Honiton last time out, which sets them up for Countess Wear away this Saturday.

“That’s five on the trot now and if we can keep that run going we are in with a great chance,” said Greenwood.

“Clyst Hydon are going to win it – no question – but second place is wide open.”

Honiton opener Joe Dixon was out first ball to Carl Dixon, then Chris Whitehead took two in a row as the home side dipped to 18 for three.

Tom Strawbridge came out, hit Whitehead for four successive boundaries and went on to make a top score of 65 in a Honiton total of 130 all out.

Mark Couch (4-25) got among the middle order, reducing Honiton to 113 for seven.

David Swift – three for seven in ten balls – mopped up the tail.

Honiton made Shaldon work for their victory with Adrian Holmes (4-38) and R Ingham (2-38) most effective.

Mark Couch made 24, but when he got out at 76 for five there was some way to go.

Jamie Day took Shaldon within sight of the line with a brisk 36 off 26 deliveries.