BOTTOM side Ipplepen were on the receiving end as Lewdown’s South African batting start Johannes Wessels edged closer to a thousand league runs this season.
Opener Wessels caned the Ipplepen attack for 120 off 122 balls in a Lewdown total of 217 all out.
Wessels was fourth man out at 168 having put on 34 with Justin Gliddon (7), 28 with Leon Horn (6), 31 with Harry Geering (4) and 75 with skipper Tallan Burns (25),
The only other score of note was the 21 made by Brandon Horn.
Wessels has now made 912 league runs this season, including five tons and three further scores of 50 plus. He is averaging 114 exactly and has scored 47.7 per cent of his side’s runs.
Steve Bowden dismissed Wessels on his way to figures of four for 437.
Ethan Keller, Keith Wakeham and Paul Thomas all did well to bowl at below four an over – and in Wakeham’s case below three!
Pens have brought back veteran Tom Cooper in recent matches to add some resolve to the early order and he ground out 18 in nearly an hour after openers Lewis and Abbott went cheaply to Dan Fogerty and Burns respectively.
Wessels (3-20) shot out the middle order – among them top scorer Sam DeFriend (28) and Nick Smith (3-11) disposed of the tail-enders without too much fuss.
Pens are now 57 points adrift at the bottom with 100 points left and resigned to going down.
Skipper Wakeham said Pens competed for half a game, but were quickly out of it after tea.
“We bowled and fielded well but Wessels is in a different class,” said Wakeham.
“A good lbw shout was turned down in forth over against Wessels, but he gave no other real chance.
“It is frustrating when we had four lbws against us.
“We were soundly beaten but the luck seems to go against you when you're losing.”