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Barton
v Sandford
BARTON
captain Aaron Williams promised a new approach at Cricketfield
Road this summer with a pre-match prediction there would
be higher-scoring games now that prolific spinner Aqeel
Ahmed has left the club for Brixham.
In the light
of Saturday's high-scoring draw with Sandford, it looks
like a pretty shrewd statement by the Barton captain,
although he wasn't quite able to put his game plan into
action the way he would have wanted.
Sandford blazed away to make 288 for four in 55 overs
with four batsmen making half-century scores or more.
Barton replied with 193 for nine, a final score which
doesn't give a clue to how close they were to winning
the match at one stage.
When Barton were 148 for three in reply, with Pakistani
batsman Imran Abbas looking totally in control of the
bowling, Sandford were the ones who appeared worried.
Matt Theedom trapping Abbas lbw for 47 was a big wicket
for Sandford that changed the direction of the game.
Adam Parker made his way to 44 after Abbas had gone –
then Theedom trapped him lbw on his way to a five for
64 haul and Barton were 170 for seven.
Barton's ninth pair Damon Calland (12no) and Andy McVeigh
(11) blocked it out almost to the end, leaving last man
Tom Porter to see out the final three balls from Trevor
Anning (3-32) to secure the draw.
Earlier, Anning has been dropped twice on his way to a
top score of 75 off 74 balls for Sandford.
Barton had cause to regret their catching as they also
put down Richard Foan twice – once early on, again
after he had reached 50 – and he went on to make
68.
Richard Tucker had nine boundaries in his 52 before become
the first of Haydn Morgan's three scalps.
Sandford's fourth half-centurion was Shane Evenden, who
whit 58 off 77 balls and got out having a bash at Imran's
off-spin and was caught at long-off by McVeigh.
Paignton
v Budleigh Salterton
BUDLEIGH
Salterton set their stall out for the defence of the Premier
Division title won last season with a comfortable six-wicket
win away to Paignton.
Andy Procter
and Ian Bishop claimed three wickets each as Budleigh
held Paignton to 173 for nine in their 55 overs.
Then Bob Dawson hit an unbeaten 65, and there were more
than useful chip-ins from Procter and Neil Murrin, as
the runs were knocked off with almost 13 overs to spare.
Budleigh skipper Procter said before the season started
his team only have to play to their potential and they
will ‘cruise' to a second successive title. It looks like
he might be right.
Paignton captain Justin Mann will be disappointed by his
side's relatively modest total on a decent batting strip
at Queens Park where conditions were more akin to late
July than early May.
Fifty-nine without loss, before Simon Edwards fell caught
behind in the over after the first drinks break, was a
great start and 80 for one with Seb Benton well dug in
looked a promising launchpad.
Then it all went a bit wrong. Neil Edmonds was lbw to
Procter to one that kept a bit low, then Eastern Province
batsman Riaan Jeggles snicked Bishop to slip, where Steve
Spoljaric took good catch at shoelace hight.
When James Hope was given out lbw to Bishop, a decision
that had a couple of Budleigh fielders turning away in
embarrassment, Paignton had slumped from 80 for one to
84 for four in the space of four overs.
Benton went on to make a dogged half-century, which included
seven fours, before he tickled Spoljaric through to the
keeper and didn't even wait for the umpire's finger.
Once Benton went it was left to Tim Ward – well
caught in the gully by a stretching Neil Murrin for 16
– Mark Gilmour (10) and Mann (22no) to make the
best of the time left.
Paignton needed early wickets
to stay in the game and didn't get enough of them soon
enough to worry Budleigh unduly.
Former Devon all-rounder Paul Brown, now confirmed as
an opening batsman, went in the third over caught behind
off Stephen George, but Procter (41) and Spoljaric (14)
took the tally up to 45 without further incident.
Two wickets for Rob Chandler – one of them ex-Dawlish
& Teignmouth captain Jamie Burton on his Budleigh
debut – and a third for Jeggels had the champs looking
a little anxious at 77 for four.
But Devon captain Dawson was still there and saw it throuth
to the end with Murrin, who finished undefeated in 36
in an unbroken partnership worth 99.
Exmouth
v Chudleigh
CHUDLEIGH
flashed a message to their new colleagues in the Premier
Division that they aren't there just to make up the numbers
by giving Exmouth a fright in a high-scoring draw at the
Maer Ground.
Last season's A Division champions
are well aware the odds are stacked against them lasting
more than a season in the top flight as five of the last
six clubs to come up have gone straight back down again.
But Chudleigh passed their first examination at Premier
Division level with flying colours, and that against an
Exmouth side boosted by the inclusion of Somerset batsman
Matt Wood, who is currently out of favour at the County
Ground.
Exmouth posted 283 for five in their 55 overs –
Wood top scoring on 85 – then watched nervously
as Chudleigh opener Derek Perry made a 111-run dent in
their total.
Twenty-four to win off the final three overs proved just
too tall an order for Chudleigh and they finished eight
runs short of victory on 276 for five.
Wood, who hit 13 fours and faced 128 balls, gave Exmouth
a solid start by notching up 117 for the first wicket
with Mike Paine (37).
When Paine fell to Graeme Wilson, Exmouth skipper David
Court joined Wood and the pair of them lashed the Chudleigh
bowing for a quick 58. The partnership ended when Wood
was lbw to Jon Martin.
James Windsor came and went cheaply to Bhanu DeSilva,
which turned out to be a mixed blessing for the Chudleigh
bowlers as Will Gingell was next in and quickly got stuck
into the bowling.
Newton Abbot rugby player Gingell made 44 not out off
34 balls with four fours and a six while he and Court
put on 65 for the fourth wicket.
The partnership ended when DeSilva had Court caught for
70 off 63 balls that had included seven fours and three
sixes.
Opener Simon Rooke was an early casualty for Chudleigh,
but Perry and Mark Halse more than made amends by posting
127 for the second wicket.
Alarm bells were starting
to ring in the Exmouth camp as Chudleigh raced through
100 in the first 20 overs – Mark Woodman and Court
both taking some punishment – and it wasn't until
Nick Folland and Adam Gingell came on that the run rate
slowed and wickets fell.
Halse's demise for 41 prompted a mini-tremble from 134
for one to 148 for four and Exmouth were back in the game,
at least for a while.
Perry was still there though, and had just been joined
by Neil White, and after a period of consolidation
they had a dart for the target.
Eighty off the last 10 overs was gettable so Chudleigh
went for it. Had Perry not gone at 259 with three overs
to go, who knows what the outcome might have been? Perry
batted for 13 minutes over three hours and faced 151 balls,
14 of which he hit for four.
White was unbeaten on 67 when the overs ran out.
Plympton
v North Devon
PLYMPTON'S
Jeremy Williams showed why Devon's selectors have been
sounding out his availability again by hitting an unbeaten
century in the drawn game with newly promoted North Devon
at Harewood House.
Williams, first and foremost a batsman these days but
also a tidy wicketkeeper, was in the frame for selection
to play against Berkshire at Exmouth.
Devon went for Exeter's Will Hanson instead as a replacement
for the unavailable Chris Mole, but a few more performances
like this will put Williams in line for a call-up in his
own right.
With Williams hitting an unbeaten 117 – he went
from 50 to 100 in a nifty 32 balls – Plympton made
259 for six before their 55 overs ran out.
Along the way there was a stand of 114 with new boy Dan
Rowbotham, who didn't look out of place in the Premier
Division since moving two rungs up the league ladder from
Plymouth Civil Service.
Rowbotham made 49 as the Plympton score advanced from
71 for three to 185 for four.
Earlier, openers Andy Walter (20) and Lewis Gregory (29)
had given Plympton a useful 64-run start.
Gregory, the batting star of the Devon U15s' tour to South
Africa in February, got out in a bizarre manner when he
snicked a ball from Martin Gear through to the North Devon
keeper, who couldn't hang on to it but palmed it to Robert
Gear in the gully.
North Devon replied with 198 for four in 55 overs and,
arguably, should have got closer to Plympton's target
than they did.
Openers Stuart Rhodes and Rob Gear (27) spent a bit too
long compiling their partnership of 61.
Dave Tribe tried to up the tempo as he made 26, but when
he was the first of three men out between 116 and 126
North Devon's enthusiasm for the chase waned a little
more.
Richard Screech was run out first ball – he chanced
his arm against Alex Trevarthan's at mid-wicket and came
a poor second – then Rhodes went to a direct
hit by David Wrench for 52.
With the asking rate creeping
up, North Devon skipper Rob Ayre (34no) and Martin Gear
(40no) dropped anchor and batted through to a closing
total of 198 for four.
Torquay
v Exeter
MIKE
Pugh hit a half-century on his 200 th league appearance
for Torquay to pave the way for a two-wicket win over
Exeter in the away day ‘home' game at Topsham.
With the Recreation
Ground still out of action while a £350,000 drainage repair
programme is completed, Torquay borrowed the University
of Exeter sports ground at Topsham for their opening league
game.
Left-hander Marshall Hodd hit a top score of 93 for Exeter,
who started a man short and were down to nine men by the
end as Paul Short had to leave early to attend a ball
at Powderham Castle.
While there were one or two scares along the way –
Torquay's position didn't look too rosy at 136 for six
– victory was secured with more than two overs to
spare.
Exeter made a patchy start with openers Rob Holman and
Shane Langford both run out before the total reached double
figures. The arms of Ed Yeo and James Hudson did the damage.
Hodd, who faced 154 balls and only hit eight fours, started
repairing the damage with Tom Gower (34) in a stand worth
63 for the third wicket.
Usman Malvi, Torquay's new Indian pace bowler, nipped
out Gower caught behind and Christian Bostock lbw as Exeter
faltered a second time.
A second revival was sparked by Exeter skipper Jon Tipper,
who stroked 48 off 69 balls with three fours and two sixes
in a key partnership of 103 with Hodd.
Malvi got Tipper out then followed with a bizarre method
dismissal to send back Hodd. Hudson moved round to take
a catch out in the deep but realised he was in danger
of carrying the ball over so palmed it on to Pugh to take
on the rebound!
Torquay's early order batsmen – Hudson accepted
– all got in and got out without settling in for
a big innings, and with Bostock (3-39) wheeling away they
were 74 for four with Tim Western (18), Jon Rice (20)
and Matt Bulbeck (18) all back in the hutch.
Pugh, who faced 91 balls and dispatched eight of them
to the boundary, set up camp with Malvi (21) and their
stand of 37 turned the game in Torquay's favour.
Malvi got out to Gower, but Pugh carried on batting with
Yeo and Mickey Wilkinson as the target was whittled
away.
Occasional bowler Rob Holman finally snared Pugh leg-before,
with 25 needed, which ninth pair Kris Davis and Justin
Yau knocked off
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