Devon Cricket Board - Stoke Gabriel hang on in C West by skin of teeth

Stoke Gabriel hang on in C West by skin of teeth

STOKE Gabriel pulled off an escape act Houdini would have been proud of to avoid relegation from the C Division West by running up a 10-wicket win over Whitchurch.
With four games to play Stoke were 34 points adrift of safety at the foot of the table with only four wins all season.
Three wins in the last four games – one over champions Dartington & Totnes – got Stoke off the hook.
It couldn’t have been any closer though as Stoke finished level on points with Yelverton. The Moorlanders went down on fewer games won – six to Stoke’s seven – as a win at Kingsbridge on the last day couldn’t save them.
Whithchurch collapsed from 87 for three when Billy Barriball got out for 57 to 111 all out.
There were three wickets each for Shane Lewis (3-10) and Andy Bull (3-24) and two for skipper Jack Tolley.
Matt Newman (52no) and Lewis (36no) knocked off the required runs without mishap in 22 overs.
KINGSBRIDGE did Stoke Gabriel a huge favour by not being bowled out by Yelverton in a 79-run defeat.
Kingsbridge were 190 for eight when time ran out against Yelverton, who had stashed up 296 for six.
Had Yelverton taken the last two wickets, they would have earned the bonus point that would have kept them up and sent Stoke down.
Richard Goldsby-West fired 131 for Yelverton and Richard Townsend made 55.
Despite a going over from Will Chapman (5-33), Kingsbridge held out with Jack Burton (45) and James Ford (60no) their run scorers.
CHAGFORD denied Babbacombe a last-gasp place in the promotion play-offs when they won a low-scoring game by 23 runs.
With second-placed Plymouth CS&R rained off against Bridestowe, a win at Chagford would have taken Babbacombe into the play-offs.
And when Babbacombe bowled out Chagford for 88, it seemed the play-offs were beckoning.
Babbacombe reached 34 for none, wobbled to 57 for five and were all out for 65.
“It’s probably just as well we didn’t make the play-offs as promotion would have been too much of a step for us,” said player-coach Mike Pugh.
James Fulner (24) was Chagford’s top scorer and the only one apart from Divan Marais (15) to make more than 10.
Paul Bates had four for 22, Cameron Fryer took three for 25 and Sam Powell had two for 18.
Pugh (15) and Fryer (13) got Babbacombe started, but apart from Steve Broad (12) the rest of the batting failed miserably.
While Ben McKenna-Smith was bowling six overs for 12 runs at one end, Will Lammonby (2-26) and Duncan Manners-Chapman (4-20) started making inroads.
Del Lammonby (4-5) wrapped things up.
RELEGATED Ashburton sprang a shock on the last day of the season by beating champions Dartington & Totnes.
Dartington & Totnes were not quite at full strength having opted to bolster the 2^nd XI for their top-of-the-table game against Ashburton in the second eleven competition.
Darts won that game to clinch promotion as champions, but the quid-pro-quo was to lose the 1^st XI encounter by 16 runs.
Will Coon top scored with 26 for Ashburton, who made 141 for eight.
Coon’s stand of 42 with Martin Causey (15) was as good as it got for Ashburton.
Veteran Harold Stevenson was one of the D&T players swapped round for the day – and he took four wickets for 24 runs.
“It would have been five if we hadn’t dropped a dolly,” mused Stevenson.
Dartington & Totnes, who only had 10 players, were bowled out for 125 by Coon (4-16) and Russ Lacey (3-25).
Ben van Niekerk (37) and Chris Sleep (33) got D&T up to 97 for three, then it all started to go wrong.
Tom Pethick was the only batter to make a double-figure score as Darts lost six wickets for 28 runs.

SATURDAY’S play-off between Plymouth CS&R and Uplyme for the third promotion spot has been moved from Roborough to Uplyme by mutual agreement.

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