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STEVE Bowen followed his six-wicket haul against Axminster with eight more as Alphington hammered lowly Bideford by a whopping 155 runs.

   Ian McDonald came in at 65 for two for the Alphas and walloped an uneaten 112 towards a total of 255 for eight in 46 overs.

   Graham White made 32 and Bowen chipped in with 20. The best stand in the Alphington innings was one worth 78 between McDonald and Nick Beasant, whose contribution was 18.

   Bideford shared the wicket taking around with Matt Bettis and Alex Hodges taking two each.

   Bideford are having a torrid time of it at the moment and the only reason they aren't bottom of the table is that a 20-point deduction for fielding unregistered players put Seaton below them.

   Only skipper James Ford (21) made anything remotely respectable as Bowen took eight for 40 to help shoot Bideford out for exactly 100.

   Gary Larcombe cracked an unbeaten 85 to set Axminster on course for a seven-wicket win in the derby clash with Seaton .

   Seaton's total of 190 for eight always looked on the light side – and posed few problems for Axminster to knock off.

   Axminster couldn't have wished for a better start as Larcombe and Robbie Prior (71) knocked off the first 151 needed before Seaton made a breakthrough.

   A two-wicket burst from Aaron Quatermaine (2-44) only delayed the inevitable as Mark Richards and Steve Allsopp wrapped up a comfortable win for Axminster.

   Earlier, Seaton started slowly and were 25 for two before Matt Hewer (33) started moving the score along. Skipper Marc Jenkins (28) and Steve Pritchard (43) shared in a later stand of 78 and Ben Copp was 26 not out at the end.

   Nick Taylor and Larcombe had a couple of wickets each, but were outbowled by Richards with three for 38.

   Plymstock's tail-enders had to keep their nerve to earn a two-wicket win away to Clyst St George.

   The hard work appeared to have been take care off after South African Denzil Addicott (3-42) and David Orchard (4-38) had restricted Clyst to 178 for nine in 46 overs. The best of the bits-and-pieces scores by Clyst were from Chris Cook (38), Tim Read (370 and Nick Dubuisson (22).

   A Plymstock victory looked assured as Addicott (62) and veteran Nick Langridge (48) pushed the reply along to 118 for one. Dominic Wood (23) kept the board ticking over before Plymstock hit a sticky patch.

   Jim Myton (3-54) and Cook (3-46) had Plymstock sliding from 154 for three to 159 for six and it was game back on again.

   Plymstock reached the last over needing seven to win with two wickets in hand and tail-enders Andy Richards and Paul Williams scrambled there with three balls to spare.

   “We made harder work of it than it should have been, but I can't be too unhappy as we picked up 19 out of 20 points,” said Plymstock skipper Ian Whalley.

   Plymouth Civil Service are still looking for that elusive first league win of the season after going down by two wickets away to Barnstaple & Pilton .

   Neil Martin top scored for the second week running – this time he made 72 not out – and with contributions from Mark Lockyer (30) and South African new boy Sean Hendricks (23) Civil mad 211 for six.

   Tight bowling from Phil Bayliss (3-39) and Chris Newton (2-49) meant Barum were never ahead of the asking rate despite the efforts of Andy Barton (48) and Brady Saunders (36) to keep up with the clock.

   Five overs out the target was 40 to win with three wickets in hand and the game was in the balance. It got away from Civil when the penultimate over cost them 12 runs, leaving Barum to make four to win in the final over. Steve Wheatley (10no) and Nick Dartnoll (15no) did it with two balls to spare.