TORQUAY may just have given their season the kick-start it needed when they won by five wickets at Exeter.
Torquay had gone four games without a win prior to Saturday’s trip to the County Ground and were rock-bottom having lost to North Devon seven days earlier.
Torquay remain in the relegation places, but have moved ahead of Plymouth, who are now bottom of the table.
Plymouth visit the Recreation Ground this Saturday, which is a chance for Torquay to put some distance between themselves and ground zero.
And if fellowstrugglers North Devon slip up at unbeaten Bovey Tracey, Torquay could even clamber out of the bottom two completely.
Exeter’s total of 213 for eight was composed around knocks of 75 from Alex Barrow and 56 by Miles Lenygon.
Barrow, who opened up with Rob Holman, batted on and on until he was fifth out at 179.
There were stands of 99 with Lenygon, who hit eight boundaries, and 37 with Sean Morris.
Only Robin Fern (19) made double figures in the bottom half of the order.
Torquay found wickets hard to come by for the first 30 overs, then turned to the spin of Matt Beasant and Matt Petherbridge.
Petherbridge had two for 46 – Lenygon one of them – and Beasant four for eight.
Exeter were without their Somerset trio of Dom Bess, Ben Green and Tom Lammonby, which probably harmed their bowling effort more than their batting line-up.
In places there was a second-string feel to Exeter’s bowling attack, not that Torquay could take it easy.
At 75 for four and 100 for five with George Allen just gone for 43, Exeter were very much in the game.
An unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 116 between Joe Thompson and Nick Watkin got the job done.
Thompson, who faced 104 balls, made 50 not out and Watkin was unbeaten on 45 when the game was settled with 11 balls to go.
Justin Yau, the Torquay captain, admitted it was ‘a relief’ to win after the recent run of results.
He added: “It was great to get over the line. We have some huge games coming up and hopefully we can really kick off our season now.
“Hopefully we can use this performance as a springboard to string some results together.”
Yau definitely knew where to place the credit for the win.
“Our spinners bowled superbly to restrict Exeter, particularly Matt Beasant who took his wickets in the last 10 overs,” said Yau.
“Joe Thompson, Nick Watkin and George Allen all batted excellently.”
Six games into the season Exeter are fifth in the table, but only five points clear of the drop spots.
A problem for skipper Lenygon is the weekly churn of players. So far Exeter have used 26 players in the first team and Lenygon is the only player for feature in every match.
“This season is all about survival and staying in the Premier Division,” said Lenygon.
“Anything else is unrealistic given the fact we are changing our side by about six players each week.”
