Devon Cricket Board - Ottery maintain perfect start

Ottery maintain perfect start

C DIVISION 2^nd XI

OTTERY St Mary powered their way to a third successive maximum-points haul and they are now the only side throughout the 2nd XI championship to sport a perfect one hundred percent start to the term.

Win number three was an emphatic nine-wicket affair at home to an Ivybridge side they bundled out for 76 with Tom Bornet, Duncan Bradshaw-Smith and Alex Tubbs, each bagging a race of wickets. Ed Fowler (30) and Sam Loud (7) saw the Otters to victory with the only casualty being Antony Dean (25).

Ottery now head to Clyst St George on Saturday seeking a fourth straight success.

Clyst Hydon registered the biggest score of the day with 314-7 declared in their 137-run home win over Thorverton.

Chris Holmes was unable through work commitments to travel with the 1st XI, and the Thors were forced to chase plenty of leather as he hit 105.

Skipper Si Holmes (62), Matt Fitt (55) and Richard Martin (42) all chipped in whilst the pick of the visiting bowlers was Harry Choules with 4-98.

Maxwell (36) and Choules with 25 were the only Thors batsmen to stick around long, although the visitors’ total was boosted by 41 extras.

Holmes claimed 3-29 and Matt Harris 2-18 to leave the reply completed on 177.

Clyst St George II scored an impressive 265-8 at Cloakham Lawn but then saw hosts Axminster II dig in to close on 179-7.

Allan Welsh top scored with 67, Paul Richardson hit 64 and the third half centurion was Oz Besley with 56 whilst the pick of the home bowlers was Dave Hayball who sent down 13 overs and claimed 3-58.

Mark Enticott then under-pinned the reply with a fine knock of 66, skipper Peter Kai hit 26 and Dan Murnane chipped in with 18 as Paul Richardson (4-36) and Oz Besley (2-30) claimed wickets leaving the Cloakham lawn side closing seven down with 179 on the score board.

Axminster skipper Kai said: “It was certainly a much improved display fro the previous outing and the plusses were certainly the bowling of Dave (Hayball) and the fine knock from Mark (Enticott). What we need now is a run of consistency from batters and bowlers and we will continue to show improvement.”

Ipplepen were maximum points winners at Plymouth Civil Service & Roborough where they won by six wickets.

Simon Tapley hit an unbeaten 45 and Stephen Bowden struck 38 as the visitors got home with wickets and overs to spare.

Earlier Vijaya Kumar (35), Stuart Dent (21) and Nick Reed (21), were the only home batsmen to register decent scores as Jon Sewell sent down ten overs and took 4-45 whilst Jonny Norman claimed 3-18 from a spell of 5.2 overs as the home side were bowled out for 145.

Tapley the led the successful run chase whilst Dan Windsor was the most successful home bowler with 2-53.

The Pens drop back to second as Ottery went past them by beating Ivybridge.

Skipper Tapley was happy with the bowling, but felt there is room for improvement among the batters.

“We bowled much better than the previous week when Clyst Hydon scored 272 against us,” said Tapley.

It's nice that Jon Sewell, our new signing, was amongst the wickets and he was well backed up by Jonny Norman.

“Our runs came more slowly than we would normally have expected, we used 40 overs getting 144 as Civil bowled very tightly, but we got home in the end.”

Cornwood III were five-wicket winners at Barnstaple & Pilton where they restricted the home side to 193-8 and then knocked them off for the loss of five wickets thanks to an unbeaten half century from Phil Bees (51). Andrew Fewings (42) and Robert Wilkins (34) were the main individual contributions whilst Chris Horton claimed 4-48 for the visitors. Bees then hit an unbeaten 51 as he and Richard Cavendish (41no) saw their side to a comfortable win.

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