THORVERTON defeated Cullompton by eight runs to move further away from the B Division basement.

Victory puts Thors 28 points clear of the drop zone with the second half of the season now under way.

Cullompton are living dangerously though as they only have seven points between them and the drop spots.

Thors got over a wobbly start – openers Andy Pitt and Will Denford both went cheaply – to muster 237 for eight.

Paul Fielder made 99 – Jason Parr (3-43) denied him a ton – and David Baldock made 61 before missing a straight one from Adrian Pullin (2-39).

Cullompton came up fractionally short on 229 for five, Pullin 80 not out when stumps were pulled.

Kenny Vos (69) got early runs, Brendon Parr chipped in with 23 then Pullin and Euan Tinley (22no) took Cully close but not close enough.

Thors’ captain Pitt, who has now won three on the bounce with the team, said: ”Fielder and Baldock batted incredibly well to set a base for us to get a big score.

“We ended up probably 20 short of what I was expecting at 35 overs and that's down to the Cully bowlers bowling really well in the last 10.

“We got a couple of early-ish wickets but even when they had their big partnership we didn't really let them get away from us.”

The view from the Cully camp for a while is the team is not far away from turning narrow defeats into wins, but needs to sort out a couple of areas.

“All season we have conceded in excess of 10 wides per game and that is always going to come back and bite you in the backside when you add on the extras and the runs scored from an additional ball,” said Cully skipper James Blackmore.

“We did well to restrict Thorverton to 230-odd as it looked like we would be chasing 300 at one stage.

“Besides the wides, we do bowl reasonably well and if sides get off to a flying start, we have been able to pull them back.

“We just need our top order (batting) to get us a start and the middle order to contribute more consistently. “

“Besides Brendon Parr's hundred earlier in the season, our top order has yet to find form consistently.”

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