D DIVISION EAST
HONITON began badly, they went down to a miserable defeat against Tiverton , 85 runs the final margin. It was very much a “patched up” Honiton XI given calls to football and unavailability and at one stage, with Tiverton 85-5 a home opening day success looked quite possible. But the visitors recovered to close on 175. It was Kev Kelly who made all the Mountbatten Park headlines with career best figures of 7-59. Sadly the home reply could only accumulate a total of 93 with Tim
Hemery the only bat to offer any serious resistance, he scored 19. After the game Honiton skipper Andrew lapping said, “After the trouble's we had last season
I had hoped that our batsmen would have asked a few questions of themselves to ensure that history didn't repeat itself. We all need to take a good look at ourselves and start performing at the level we know that we can, If we don't then we'll be in the same position as last year!"
There was, however, rich praise for Kevin Kelly: "Kev was the only positive from today's game picking up where he left off last season, But now it's time for his and the other bowlers hard work to be backed by our batsmen, starting next week against Woodbury. Of course this won't be easy but we must rise to the challenge!"
Ottery St. Mary made a winning start to their season with a 5 wicket win over Uplyme & Lyme Regis and Robert Bradshaw-Smith was the chief architect of his sides win. He took 2-11 whilst Jodie Clemence bagged four wickets as Uplyme & Lyme Regis were bowled out for 106 and then Bradshaw-Smith top with an unbeaten 48, a knock that included nine boundaries as he and John Tierney (26) saw their side to a comfortable win.
Whimple are very much hoping that this is “their year” and they started with a bang, a six wicket win over Churchinford . Malcolm Paiva led the way, he scored 44, putting on 55 for the 2nd wickets with Paul Gillard (26) and then skipper Ben Silk hit an unbeaten 37 as Whimple scored a match winning 191-4 in reply to the Churchinford offering of 189, Toby Gillard claimed an opening day “fivefer” - he returned the splendid figures of 5-42 from his 11 overs.
Woodbury's league season off to a disastrous start with a three-wicket defeat away to Yarcombe & Stockland.
A fighting bowling display kept Woodbury in the hunt, but couldn't camouflage a poor batting performance that saw them bowled out for 116.
Put in to bat on a sub-standard pitch, the signs weren't good when Tim Greenslade was dismissed first ball to a Simon Hovall yorker.
New signing Tom Wilson pulled the innings together with a breezy 54, adding 51 for the second wicket with Brian Kemsley (16) and 40 for the third with Liam Cook (11).
At 91 for two the rot set in. Three wickets fell for seven runs, and worse was to follow as the final five wickets went for five runs, as spinners Rex Helston (5-26) and Ben Orr (3-9) exploited the pitch and Woodbury's poor shot selection.
Dominic Hazell and Neil Richards each took an early wicket as Yarcombe slipped to 21 for two in reply.
A partnership of 55 between David Patch (24) and Rob Crabb (41) made headway into the target. With Hovall (19) taking the home side to 112 for four, the game seemed over. But a miserly spell from stand-in skipper Martin Cook (3-17 from 13) and hostile bowling from Hazell (3-24) saw three wickets fall without addition, as the runs dried up.
Orr hit the winning boundary as Yarcombe reached their target in the 37th over.
Chardstock did very well to secure a draw against a strong Halberton side and Gavin Churchill will not forget his opening days innings for the remainder of the campaign - he made the long walk back to the pavilion on 99, an innings that included 16 boundaries, after being bowled one shy of a first day “ton”. Simon Garrett gave good support with 45. Chardstock closed on 242-8, a very decent effort this after seeing Halberton post a demanding 283-5, James Hayden trapping the visitors Kevin Fever lbw with the batsman on 99!