SIDMOUTH keeper Matt Hewer may have taken seven catches behind the stumps in the eight-wicket win over Bovey Tracey, but insisted he was only doing his job.

Will Gater and Kyle Brockley took nine of the 10 wickets that tumbled as Bovey were all out for 65.

There are no records of the greatest number of catches by a keeper in a Premier Division game, but if Hewer’s haul isn’t a record is should be!

Hewer was modest about his achievement though, saying: “If the bowlers hadn’t put it in the right place, it would not have happened.

“Brockley (4-11) bowled fantastically well. He was hooping down big away swingers and Bovey had decided they were going to go hard after him," said Hewer (pictured)

“It seemed as if none of them knew where their off-stump was.

“Will Gater’s five for 17 is the best I can recall seeing him bowl for years.

“He is taking his cricket really seriously this year and it showed on Saturday.

“Cricket is a confidence game and when Will got Bovey’s Aussie (Rob Honeybul) out you could see him grow in confidence a bit more.

“It was a great day for me – you don’t leave the house going off to cricket expecting something exceptional to happen – but the bowlers deserve the credit for making it possible.”

If 13 for four looked dire when Gater had Matt Golding caught behind, the situation was a lot worse at 25 for nine.

A last-wicket stand of 40 between Ryan Bougourd (21) and Sam Thomas (15) saved Bovey from total humiliation.

Sidmouth cruised to 49 for one in reply – Matt Cooke (39no) and Luke Bess (18) getting on with it – then lost two wickets for six runs.

It was irrelevant by then anyway and Cooke get the rest of the runs without mishap.

Bovey skipper Sam Hickenbottom deflected criticism of his side’s batting, saying: “I can't say that we batted that poorly, just that Kyle and Will bowled extremely well.

“I think eight dismissals were caught behind the bat which shows how consistent they were with their areas.

“We need to work on getting through the first 10-20 overs a bit better to allow us to build an innings, which we'll concentrate on for this Saturday.”