Devon Cricket Board - Hardy ton puts Bradninch on top

Hardy ton puts Bradninch on top

DAN Hardy scored a century and there was a five-wicket haul for Ross Acton as Bradninch beat Barton by 97 runs to go top of the A Division.
Paignton were top, but lost to Plympton, and Barton second before running into Tim Piper’s men.
Hardy lashed 137 off 99 ballls with 13 fours and seven sixes as Bradninch made 279 for seven.
Hardy was seventh out with the score on 268 having shared stands of 111 with skipper Tim Piper (33) and 45 with Acton, who only made seven.
Cheapest of the bowlers was young Morgan Harford, whose nine overs cost just 26 runs.
Tom Drake won’t want reminding his eight overs cost 93 runs.
Barton were all out for 182 in reply having never really recovered from an early onslaught from Acton (5-32) followed by Hardy taking three for 19 in the middle – including Denovan Ekstraal (33) who was just getting going.
Tom Porter (23), Andy McVeigh (21) and Andy Hele (37) got Barton into bonus batting point territory before Acton came back to knock over the remnants with three wickets in five balls.
Skipper Piper has never hidden his aim to win promotion back to the Premier Division at the first attempt and felt this win vindicated his view.
“I feel we should win this division and be promoted back to the Premier in the first year of being out of it,” said Piper.
“I think we will win the league by 30-40 points in the end. But that is provided we keep playing at the level we are at now.
“The premier is where we want to play cricket in, playing against the best cricketers in the county and being challenged and pushed every week.”
Piper said Hardy had been threatening a big score for some time and it came as no surprise we he got one.
He added: “It was an excellent innings on a deck that didn't really favour the batsmen.
On Barton he said: “Once we'd shot through the top of the Barton order, we felt it was already over.
“Tom Porter and especially Andy Hele gave us a bit of a scare late on, but Ross came back and he soon did the job.
“Ross is bowling with intelligence as well as skill this year, which makes a nice change and a very dangerous bowler for any batsman.”
Bradninch run into former skipper Joel Murphy at Budleigh this Saturday.
“Although Budleigh have been having a tough time for the last two weeks, we expect them to be the biggest challenge for us this season,” said Piper.

DCB Ltd, University of Exeter Sports Hall, Stocker Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 4QN Company Registration Number: 7024773