Devon Cricket Board - A Division round-up

CORNWOOD stay hard on the heels of leaders Exeter in the A Division after romping home by six wickets at South Devon.
The hard work was done by Adam Goodliffe with six for 37 as South Devon were skittled out for 105 in 39 overs.
After Tom Carter (28) was disposed of, South Devon slumped from 55 for two to 71 for eight before Jamie Hart (16no) showed some resolve at the end.
Andy Bees took two for 12 from 15 overs – ten of which didn’t cost a run – and there were two wickets for Elliot Staddon.
Cornwood had the runs knocked off in 30 overs and their only worry was getting there ahead off the rain.
Salman Mohammad (34) and Mark Harwell (22) laid the foundations, leaving it to Jason Hall with 23 not out to wrap things up.
Skipper Craig Harris said it would have been very easy for the game to have got away had the early order batsmen not applied themselves.
“It is hard going out again before tea and having to bat, but thankfully we negotiated that well, making the task a lot easier on ourselves when we got back out,” said Harris.
“After the game finished the weather came in and driving back towards Plymouth we were surprised to see how bad things looked.
“Had the game been at Cornwood it would have been called off around 5pm, so we were pleased to get a positive result and keep things moving in the right direction.”
With leaders Exeter thrashing Paignton by nine wickets , there is no substantial change at the top of the table.
Cornwood face Exeter this Saturday though and with just four points between them the situation could change.
“Exeter is a big game for us, for many reasons,” said Harris.
“More than anything it signals half way and now teams look to count down games. It should lead to an exciting few weeks.”
South Devon skipper Adrian Hewings said unless the batting comes good it is going to be a tall order for the team to avoid going straight back to the B Division in September.
Totals of below 150 won’t win many matches, but South Devon are struggling to get that many.
And without totals on the board, bowlers face an unenviable task.
“We had a useful second-wicket stand until a clutch of quick wickets took away our beginnings of building a total,” said Hewings.
“Bowling wise, had early lbw shouts against Hall and Salman had gone our way things would have been more interesting.
“We can't keep saying ‘if only’ though as our batting needs to improve so the bowlers are really able to get amongst it.”
PLYMSTOCK had Braunton on the ropes but couldn’t finish them off and ended up paying the penalty.
Lee Savage (3-30) and Seb Jordan (4-27) had Braunton reeling at 56 for six, but hadn’t removed dangerman Jas Kalsi.
Kalsi (63) and skipper Jon Baglow with a career best 37 put on 76 for the seventh wicket to halt Plymstock’s charge through the order.
And when Kalsi went to a stinting caught-and-bowled by Plymstock captain Dave Orchard, Mark Mitchelll (23no) helped Baglow get the home side’s score up to 176 for eight.
Plymstock were rained off at 22 for one and left to wonder what might have been had they had the killer instinct.
The only bonus from a long trip away was to come back with 10 points, which keeps them ahead of Shobrooke Park and out of the bottom two in the table.
PLYMPTON won a close encounter at Brixham by just eight runs, which bumped them up to third in the table.
Josh Mailling hit a valuable 51 and Jeremy Williams chipped in with 24 when it was needed to see Plympton reach 157 all out with two overs to go.
The day started badly for Plympton as skipper Andy Walter fell lbw second ball to Craig Eaves, but a stand of 59 second up for Mailling and David Wrench (16) got them going.
Matt Stringfellow (5-33) and Lee Upham bowled Brixham back into the game.
Williams’ 24 was to make a big difference for Plympton after they were 123 for six, although no one realised at the time.
Brixham were in all sorts of trouble on the chase at 71 for seven with man of the match Mailling (3-35) and Amir Hayat (3-37).
Either side of a break for rain the Brixham fightback was led by Craig Eaves with a solid 68 not out and with support from Stringfellow and Joe Hyde the target came down to 10 to win in 10 overs with three wickets in hand.
Mailing nipped out two in an over, which exposed last man Upham to Pakistani pacer Hayat, who didn’t mess around knocking him over.
Plympton are a distant third behind Cornwood, whom they trail by 26 points, but showing signs of improvement.
Skipper Walter has been disappointed at times by the application shown by his side, but said on this occasion they worked hard to right the wrongs.
‘Once again we had a batting collapse, but a good knock by Josh Mailling set us up well and with the battle back in our game we got a good win in the end,” said Walter.
“Amir, Craig Donohue and Josh bowled well, but we let Brixam off the hook and we should not never gone back on after the rain.
“When Brixham only needed 10 off 10 overs with three wickets in hand I thought it was game over.
“Josh took two in a over and it was left to Amir to finish it off.”
Disappointed Brixham captain Mark Orcharad said too many unforced errors had crept into their performance for his side to win.
“Hopefully, the guys will learn from this - myself included,” said Orchard.
“Some of our top -four batting was irresponsible and we fielded poorly.
“Dropped chances that didn't cost us majorly runs wise at the time, but when we lost by nine runs it was very costly.
“It is time to take responsibility and front up, if we want to do well this year.”
EXETER go into their top-of-the-table clash against Cornwood this Saturday on a high after demolishing Paignton by eight wickets on the County Ground.
Shell-shocked Paignton were skittled out for 66 by Jon Tipper, Jack Richardson and Callum Still.
Tipper (2-20) took out the openers, dangermen Seb Benton and Andy Kingdon, them Richardson (3-15) and Still (3-7) scythed through the rest.
On a bad day for Paignton their top scorer was veteran tail-ender Justin Mann (15). Next best with a dozen was Ollie Higgs.
Hope ignited in Paignton breasts after South African quickie Brady Barends reduced Exeter to 10 for two. It didn’t get any better.
Alex Bosomworth (17no) and Baden Norwood (37no) knocked off the rest without incident.
Victory puts Exeter four points clear of Cornwood, who won at South Devon, and 30 clear of Plympton in third place.
Tipper said he had expected a tougher test from Paignton, not that he was complaining.
“Paignton didn’t play the wicket well and came out playing massive shots from the start, rather than showing the bowling some respect,” said Tipper.
“It wasn’t a bad wicket at all – we proved that – and once we saw the South African off it was pretty plain sailing.
“I had expected Paignton to be harder than that, but after not playing last week at Braunton when Cornwood did and made up ground on us, I am more than happy with 20 points.
“We have got momentum for the Cornwood game, which will be our toughest of the season so far.”
Tipper has some selection issues to deal with as Paignton were defeated without any assistance from regulars Rob Holman, Andy Mead and Chris Webb, who all return.
Shobrooke Park remain in the bottom two for another week after suffering a five-wicket defeat at the hands of Abbotskerswell.
Abbots rocked up three men short and fielded with eight for the first 50 minutes until skipper Richard Lake arrived with replacements.
With Dickie Acton in charge of a depleted fielding unit, Abbots kept the runs and down and carried on doing so once they were back to full strength.
Manny Parmakellis made a top score of 34 for Shobrooke, who reached 161 for nine with Jon James (29) and Matt Blakeney (27) both chipping in.
Dave Palmer took three for 41, as did Lake.
Abbots’ reply was held together by Josh Dowling with a solid 65 not out. Alun Lewis weighed in with 28 as the target was whittled away.
Shobrooke have the perfect opportunity to do something about their lowly status this Saturday as they visit Plymstock, the side they have to overtake to get out of the bottom two.