Devon Cricket Board - E Division: Culley belts ton

E Division: Culley belts ton

E DIVISION

BABBACOMBE are stuck fast in the E Division bottom two after going down by 86 runs to leaders Kentisbeare.

At 35 for four - Tim Goodwin (2-56) and Dave Williams (2-37) posing problems - Kentisbeare looked in trouble.

An 80-run partnership for the fifth wicket between James Sprague (49) and Steve Reed (52) put them back on track.

However 117 for five became 150 for nine as Babbacom be skipper Paul Bates (4 -42) got spinning and a gettable total looked assured .

That was until a a stubborn 10th--wicket partnership of 32 between Harry Howe 26 and Mike Cook (8no) resulted in a total of 184.

Andy Chave took seven for 34 as Kentisbeare then shot Babbacombe out for 98 in reply. Tom Woofden (2-24) provided the back up bowling.

Babbacombe are 10 points behind Kilmington and safety, which should make the game between the side in two Saturdays time competitive!

Bates believes Babbacombe can play their way to safety if they sort their batting out.

“A pretty good fielding performance saw us bowl another side out – that’s 48 wickets in five matches which is keeping us in touch with bowling bonus points,” said Bates.

“Again we lost wickets in clutches with only Rob Redding (26) looking like resisting the pace attack.

“We were not good enough with the bat again, no one in the top six is taking responsibility to bat overs which is why we find ourselves at the wrong end of the table.

“We have some big games coming up against teams in the bottom half of the table.”

Kilmington claimed a winning draw from their visit to Kenn.

Batting first the villagers were led to a respectable 258-8 by Adam Culley’s magnificent 102. Izzy Wickramaratne also chipped in with 39.

Stuart Wonnacott and Harry Gaydon had three wickets each for Kenn, who closed their reply on 201-5.

Nigel Dart (78), Dave Murfin (57) and Rob Parsons (44no) got Kenn close but not close enough.

Upottery powered their way to within a point of Kentisbeare at the summit of the E Division table with a six-wicket home win over Uplyme and Lyme Regis.

Only Steve Batey (26) could provide any real resistance as Matt Frost (4-28) and Gary Kennard (3-39) did the damage with the ball as the visitors were bowled out for 152.

Tom Wyatt then hit a sparkling unbeaten 67 as the hosts strode to victory.

Next up for the upwardly mobile villagers is a trip to Culmstock to meet Tiverton and

Bickleigh.

Honiton had a lot to reflect on during the long journey back from North Devon on Saturday night.

Hosts Filleigh handed out a seven-wicket clobbering after bundling Honiton out for a meagre 87 in 33 overs!

Jon Hickman (4-26) and Gary Henry (4-20) did the damage with George Meadows (13) making the best of a bad job for Honiton.

Nick Dartnall (33) and Rob Collier pointed Filleigh towards victory, although both fell to Adam Holmes (2-21) before getting there in the 26th over.

It was the first defeat of the league campaign for Kev Kelly’s side who go into Saturday’s home meeting with bottom of the table, win less Woodbury, looking to move back into the top two berths that they slipped out of on account of the Filleigh failure.

Tiverton & Bickleigh piled more misery on lowly Woodbury by handing out a 155-run hammering.

The T&B scorebook must have made repetitive ‘reeding’ as the bulk of the runs were scored by Jerry Reed, Chris Read and Tim Read.

Jerry made 106, Chris hit 65 and Tim 45 in a mammoth total of 329 for six.

Woodbury were all out for 174 in reply – Tim Owens 47 – with Chris Read (3-6) and Dane Williams (3-33) among the wickets.

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