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June 16 2007

TEN-man South Devon suffered a 196-run hiding when they took a scratch side to Premier leaders Plympton.

South Devon skipper Dave Amery was trying to fill gaps in his team on Saturday morning – hardly the ideal scenario when you are playing the unbeaten league leaders.

You couldn't fault the 10-men's effort in the field as keeping Plympton to 222 for four declared in 47 overs was a pretty good effort.

Seamer Mark Comber claimed two for 30 and Jonny Norrish two for 45. You have to feel sorry for spinner Ian Shepherd, whose five overs cost 50 runs.

Most of Plympton's runs came from left-hander Dave Walter, who hit nine fours and a six in an unbeaten 104. Christian Bunny joined Walter when the score was 37 for two and made 51 in a stand worth 148 for the third wicket.

There isn't much to say about South Devon's batting, other than the 10 men were put out of their misery relatively quickly.

Paul Hooper made a top score of 10 as South Devon collapsed from 21 for two to 26 all out. Matt Gregory (5-14) and Craig Donohue (2-12) did the early damage then Danny Hawker (2-0) put South Devon out of their misery.

At least South Devon have won a couple of games this season, which is more than can be said for Paignton, who hit the bottom of the table after suffering their sixth defeat.

North Devon were propping up the table going into the latest round of fixtures, but defeated Paignton by nine wickets at Instow to move above them.

Former Devon and England U19 player Keith Benton – closer to 50 than 40 these days – was coaxed out of retirement to lend Paignton a helping hand but only made nine towards a 50-over total of 102 for nine.

Rob Shergold with 43 was the leading run maker for Paignton. Young off spinner Tim Cook bagged six Paignton wickets for 31 runs while, at the other end of the age range, Devon O50s' regular Tom Stanton bowled 15 overs for 14 runs – and took a wicket.

North Devon needed just 22 overs to knock off the runs and Benton took the only wicket to fall. Runs for the winners came from Bert Heaman (39no) and Dan Pickard (39).

Barton gave it their best shot against visiting Exmouth, but still went down by11 runs chasing 181 to win.

It's not that long ago that lanky batsman Stuart Rintoul was captain of Dorset and led them to the Minor Counties Championship title in 2000.These days he plays cricket purely for fun and had some of that making 41 in Exmouth's total of 180 all out.

Roger Wensley, whose dad Cecil was a Devon player in the 50s, made 27 in an opening stand of 77 with Rintoul. Other runs came from Billy Buckingham (33) before Mike Livesley (4-33), Tom Field (3-64) and Luke Adderley (2-19) bowled Exmouth out with three overs to go.

Barton thought they were in with a chance of knocking off the runs, especially after veteran opener Ian Coulton (29) and Tom Whittle (37) had pushed the score up to 65 for two. The game turned in the time it took Barton to slip to 88 for five as Dan Loman (2-43) and Jack Sergeant (2-20) got among the wickets.

Barton appeared to be fighting back though Lievesley (30), Steve Lewis and Luke Adderley as the score advanced to 145 for seven.

On came Buckingham and his three for two shot Barton's tail out for 169.

Exeter found a way past Sidmouth into second place behind leaders Plympton: they went to the Fortfield and beat them by 85 runs.

Mike Wilkinson responded to being dropped from the first team by hammering the Sidmouth attack for a top score of 75 in a useful total of 219 for eight.

Wilkinson kept going until he was sixth out at 151 and, along the way, put on 63 for the first wicket with Rob Wass (36). Spinners Charlie Dibble (3-29) and Miles Dalton (3-60) finally slowed Exeter up once Wilkinson had gone.

Sidmouth had it all to do after slipping from 29 without loss to 32 for three, but appeared to be doing it as Simon Sobzak dug in for 43.

From 88 for five though it was a steady decline to 130 for nine with Alvin Pollard (2-32) and Justin Dollow (6-22) doing the damage.

Dibble and Nick Gommersall, Sidmouth's last pair, had nine overs to survive but only managed five before the final wicket fell at 134.

Sandford dropped to second from bottom when they were six-wicket losers away to Plymouth.

Plymouth were soon on top through Steve Mattock (4-36) and Phil Barrow (3-16) and had Sandford reeling at 17 for four. Forty for five was an improvement after Stuart Lott (17) stopped the slide. Lott and Peter Steer, promoted up the order after batting at No.11 against Exeter seven days earlier, then started the fightback. Steer went on to make 50 before running out of people to bat with.

Plymouth were left to make 118 to win and other than a brief period when they were 25 for two with Dave Watson and Harry Stephenson both out, were never in any sort of troubled.

Phil Stephenson's Indian summer continued with 45 and Matt Smith made 37 as the target was polished off in the 36 th of the 60 overs available. Stephenson should have scored a 50, but was caught one-handed on the boundary going for the big hit for six that would have brought it up.