TORQUAY v BARTON
TORQUAY captain Matt Bulbeck described bowling arch-rivals Barton for 64 as “as good as it gets” as the derby at the Recreation Ground ended in a 136-run win for his side.
Torquay reached 200 for seven in their 55 overs with James Hudson hitting a top score of 53 and handy chip ins coming from Ed Yeo (32), Matt Bulbeck (31) and Usman Malvi (39).
Bulbeck wasn't sure Torquay had enough runs on the board, but his worries were soon dispelled as Barton slumped to 23 for six in reply in the face of great new-ball bowling from Malvi and Jon Baglow.
Malvi had four for 30 as the top of the order perished while Baglow was worth more than his one for six off seven.
Any thoughts Barton captain Aaron Williams might have had of saving the game vanished when Pakistani professional Imran Abbas failed to spot Hudson's arm-ball warm-up delivery and was bowled leg stump going down to sweep.
Greg Shelton hit a belligerent 29 not out in a hopeless cause as Hudson (4-18) polished off the stragglers in the bottom half of the order.
Said Bulbeck: “Beating Barton so convincingly is as good as it gets – it's certainly the most satisfying win we have had in my three years at the club.
“It sets us up nicely for a crack at Paignton this Saturday when we will be going for part two of a derby double.”
Bulbeck heaped praise on Malvi for ripping through Barton's early order, but said Baglow's contribution shouldn't be underestimated.
“Usman bowled well – he was far too quick for some of the Barton batsman – and there was no let up at the other end as Baggy didn't give anything away,” said Bulbeck.
“We dropped Arron Williams and Imran early on and you worry those things are going to haunt you. Fortunately, neither drop was costly.
“We got Aaron the second time and Usman gave it away a bit when Huddy came on.
“I was surprised he played the shot he did given the situation they were in (23 for five), particularly as he had never faced Huddy before.”
Barton captain Williams was left to draw crumbs of comfort where he could, which wasn't easy under the circumstances.
“We bowled well to keep them to 200 and our fielding was as good as it has been all season,” said Williams.
“The wicket suited their bowlers more than ours and they put it in the right areas. Too often when the good ball came along we weren't good enough to keep it out.
“It's a bad result for us but we have to put it behind us and fast. Our next two games are against the bottom two – Chudleigh and Exmouth – and it is vitally important we bounce back against both of them to avoid getting dragged down any closer to the bottom.”
PAIGNTON v EXETER
EXETER shunted Paignton out of second place and grabbed it for themselves with an emphatic six-wicket win at Queens Park.
Skipper Jon Tipper rolled back the years with an impressive new-ball spell of bowling that had Paignton on the slide from the start.
Tipper took three for 31, and there were two wickets for Tschepo Legodi, as Paignton stumbled to 24 for five.
James Hope and Seb Benton didn't help themselves by not offering shots against Legodi and being given out lbw, while former Devon all-rounder Tim Ward was left all at sea by the ball he got from Tipper.
Sixth-wicket pair Riaan Jeggels (35) and Mark Gilmour (35) arrested Paignton's slide with a stand of 84 that staved off total embarrassment.
However, there were plenty of red faces when the partnership ended in farce with both batsmen at one end when Exeter keeper Will Hanson whipped the bails off at the other.
Jeggels, who had been at the bowler's end, was the one told to go by the umpires, although it clearly wasn't a decision he was hugely happy with as he trudged off.
Gilmour didn't last much longer, Adam Gribble snared him lbw, and at 107 for seven Paignton were back in trouble again.
Mike Pedley (25no) and Justin Mann (13) offered some resistance at the end, but Paignton's total of 152 all out was unlikely to bother Exeter unduly, especially as they had 66 overs to get the runs.
Exeter didn't get the best of starts though as Will Hanson was bowled by Stephen George playing back instead of forward and Mitchell Hood was deceived trying to drive at Pedley.
Surviving opener Rob Holman (31) and Arnie Searle (19) retrenched then Tom Gower and Simon Yeo kicked on to the winning post.
When Holman was fourth out on 72 Yeo came out to join Gower. Between them they knocked off the 81 needed to win.
Gower slammed his 50 off 64 balls while Yeo ended the game with a flurry of boundaries including a six off Gavin Ewing to take him to 34 not out and win the match at the same time.
SANDFORD v PLYMPTON
MATT Theedom was in impressive form with bat and ball as Sandford defeated Plympton by 37 runs to open up an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier Division.
Theedom followed up a top score of 44 not out in Sandford's total of 190 for eight with bowling figures of five for 45 as Plympton were bowled out for 153.
Victory keeps Sandford ahead of Exeter at the top of the table and sets up and intriguing clash between the two clubs at the County Ground this Saturday.
With third-placed Torquay to play seven days later, Sandford's title bid hs reached an interesting stage.
“That's two big games one after the other and once they are out of the way we will have a better idea of our chances,” said Sandford skipper Richard Foan.
“It's going all right at the moment, but we proably weren't at our best in this game.
“I didn't think we had enough runs at one stage – and you worry about those things when you dropped six catches, whieh we did.
“But we had some luck as well as we got Jeremy Williams out first ball – he's made two centuries already this season – and got their overseas first ball as well.
“That's two potentially destructive players gone for nothing and those are incidents that win you games.”
Saddiq Mohammad and Arwyn Jones led the bowling effort for Plympton as Sandford were held to 190 for eight in 55 overs.
Saddiq bagged three for 40 from 16 overs while Jones stoppered up one end for another 16 overs for figures of one for 34.
Having done the hard bit by restricting Sandford so well, Plympton failed to cash in when they batted and were bowled out for 153.
Dan Rowbotham made a maiden Premier Division half century following his move from Plymouth Civil Service, but lacked worthwhile support other than from David Wrench.
Jones and Craig Donohue made a brave effort to save the game at the death, but to no avail as Plympton were dismissed with more than six over to go.
Theedom gave Sandford a middle-order boost just when they needed it after Adrian Small (36) and Richard Tucker (21) fell to Keith Donohue and Saddiq respectively.
Theedom, who only faced 30 balls, put on 49 with Asa Wright (8) to make up for time lost while Jones was bowling. Trevor Anning (38) had previously started the Sandford counterattack before Wrench caught him at mid-off.
Theedom and Anning had Plympton in trouble immediately after the restart with two wickets each. Rowbotham (54) and Wrench (22) nudged the score up from 44 for four to 97 and at that stage Plympton were back in the game.
The turning point came when Wrench was unluckily run out when Wright deflected a Rowbotham drive on to the stumps at the bowlers' end with Wrench out of his ground.
Saddiq didn't last long – he went caught and bowled to Richard Foan – and it was down to Keith Donohue and Rowbotham to regroup once again.
Foan removed Donohue for 10, ending a stand of 30 for the eighth wicket with Rowbotham, who was bowled by the returning Theedom, who followed up by knocking Danny Hawker over in his next over.
Last pair Jones (10no) and Craig Donohue (10) had 12 overs to bat to save the game, but only got through five of them Theedom removed Donohue with the aid of a great catch in the gulley by Anning.
CHUDLEIGH V BUDLEIGH SALTERTON
CHUDLEIGH remain stuck fast at the bottom of the Premier Division after suffering a five-wicket defeat at the hands of Budleigh Salterton.
Chudleigh scraped up 162 all out in the 47 th of their 55 overs, thank almost entirely to the efforts of opener Derek Perry, who was 95 not out when he ran out of people to bat with.
The rest of the Chudleigh batting was a bit of a disaster area with four players making nothing at all and three more only mustering three between them.
Devon opening bowler Ian Bishop softened Chudleigh up by dismissing Simon Rooke and Mark Solway early on, then Devon captain Bob Dawson ran through the middle order almost on his own.
Bob Dawson finished with six for 2 off 12 overs – five of them maidens – and was only detained by Bhanu DeSilva and last man Graeme Wilson for any length of time.
DeSilva came in at 62 for seven and faced 53 balls making seven while he and Perry pushed the score up to 84 for eight.
Jon Martin came and went quickly – Dawson got him out as well – then Wilson and Perry batted together for 14 overs adding 59 for the last wicket. Wilson was out to Steve Spoljaric for 14.
Perry faced 112 balls and batted for 165 minutes making his 95, which included 15 fours.
Budleigh only had to bat properly to knock off the runs and once Spoljaric got going there was only ever going to be one outcome.
Chudleigh had some successes – Dawson failed to trouble the scorers and his Devon team-mate Sandy Allen only scored three – but James Beeny (39) and Spoljaric had the game wrapped long before the end.
DeSilva picked up a couple of consolation wickets, but Spoljaric went on to make 78 not out with 10 fours and a six and knocked off the last 46 needed in quick time with Paul Brown (17no) for company.
EXMOUTH v NORTH DEVON
EXMOUTH skipper David Court insists he isn't panicking yet despite a five-wicket defeat by North Devon that leaves his side in the Premier Division bottom two.
North Devon were asked to improve on Exmouth's total of 231 for eight and did it with time to spare.
Chudleigh are stuck fast at the bottom two after they went down by five wickets to Budleigh Salterton. Exmouth are 13 points off the bottom with Barton and Plympton just ahead of them.
Said Court, who scored 116 in Exmouth's total: “We have only played five games so far and there's plenty of time to get away from where we are.
“It's not a dog fight yet and I don't think it will become one.
“There were positives to take out of this game. We batted far better than we did against Exeter and as long as we keep improving the results will come.”
Court, who faced 140 balls and hit 14 fours, came in when Exmouth were 15 for two and went having steered the side to 203 for six.
Along the way there were stands of 75 with Hamish Barton (26)) and 70 with Nick Folland (21).
Liam Lewis got on with it in the last few overs by smacking 31 off 25 balls.
Pick of North Devon's bowlers was pacer Tom Allin, whose four for 58 would have somewhat less had Lewis not hit him for 16 in the last over.
Rob Gear had two for 29: Lewis and Mike Paine in the final three balls of the innings.
Opener Rob Gear anchored the North Devon run chase with 76 that took his side within sight of victory. By the time Chris Travers trapped him lbw, North Devon were within nine runs of the target.
Also among the runs was Mike Heddon, who slammed 65 off 53 balls and put on 73 for the third wicket with Gear. Matt Westaway (28) and Allin (19no) helped North Devon wrap up victory with 11 balls to spare.