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West v North at Whitchurch CC Sunday May 1st

On an overcast day and with a soft wicket North Devon won the toss and elected to field, definitely the right decision as after ten overs they had reduced West Devon to 23-3, thanks in the main to an excellent spell of bowling from Barnaby Huxtable (4-3-2-2). West Devon then settled down and began to slowly rebuild the innings, with a much needed partnership of 23 between Chris Sanders and Ian White, until a superb turning delivery from A Collier proved too good for Sanders to end what was beginning to look like a promising knock. At drinks West Devon were 56-5 from 21 overs, reduced to this with some fine bowling by Huxtable, Collier, Popplewell and Mitcham.

Drinks always seems to bring a wicket and they claimed another wicket as Ian White’s long vigil came to an end, when he was dismissed West Devon were six down for just 59 runs. Something needed to change and it did as George Stephenson (37) and Will Chapman (29no) shared a partnership of 61, Stephenson taking the attack to the North with some lusty blows, hitting eight boundaries whilst Chapman took singles well to keep rotating the strike. As a half century beckoned, Stephenson was run out with a brilliant piece of cricket as Huxtable through the middle stump down with a direct hit. Chapman marshalled the remainder of the innings well as West Devon totalled 144-8 from their 42 overs. Huxtable (6-3-7-2), Popplewell (7-0-16-1) and Clarke (4-1-10-2) were the pick of the bowling.

North Devon started steadily as they reached 22-1 from 10 overs, with Mitcham and Huxtable looking comfortable. A fine spell of bowling from Rebecca Donohue (4-1-5-1) showed the boys how to bowl a good line and length, with not one ball going down leg side. With the two North batsmen looking comfortable a wicket was needed and with the last ball of his spell Jack Hughes got the wicket of Huxtable, caught at mid wicket. North Devon reached the drinks interval at 55-3, similar to the West but with probably the best batsman of the day, Mitcham, still at the crease. The West knew they needed his wicket and the drinks interval worked again as John Willis bowled him with an unplayable ball for 20. Wickets came at a rush after this as the West closed in on victory with some brilliant run outs and catches from John Willis, Chris Sanders, Ben Jackson and Will Chapman. The last pair did manage to hang around for about five overs and with spots of rain in the air the West skipper Ryan Skinner thought that enough was enough and brought himself back on to bowl, fired in a yorker first ball and bowled the final batsman.

Overall a superb team performance from the West with the final comment coming from the North manager who was glad to get the game in, “make sure you go on and beat the East”.

A final note must be a big thank you to everyone at Whitchurch C C for all the hard work put in to ensure that the game went ahead as planned.