NORTH ONE

By CONRAD SUTCLIFFE

BRAUNTON’S Jack Whittaker snatched his chance to open the batting against Barnstaple & Pilton with both hands in the 97-run win over Barnstaple & Pilton in North One.

By the time the teenaged Whittaker was second out with the score on 172 he had been involved in stands of 71 with Sam Bithell (41) and 101 with Alfie Huxtable (65).

Whittaker made 63 off 107 balls and earned a pat on the back from Braunton’s senior player and Devon spinner Steve Moore.

“Young Jack was promoted to open the batting and it was a good innings from him,” said Moore.

“Jack’s composed innings gave us the platform with wickets in hand. He was part of a really good partnership with Alfie Huxtable, who played beautifully.”

Joe Barnes made 23 in a rush towards the end of their 40 overs as Braunton reached 231 for four.

Barnstaple & Pilton’s frontline bowlers all stayed in and around four-an-over territory, although some of the occasional bowlers suffered at the end.

Shashank Iyer, a 26-year-old leg-spinner new to Braunton, had figures of one for 32 from seven overs on his 1st XI debut.

Braunton’s bowlers put the lid on the B&P batters from the earliest overs and once behind the clock there was no way back.

Andrew Norman (0-18 of 8) gave little away with the new ball and also earned praise from Moore.

“Andrew is only 15 and it was a very good opening spell from him,” said Moore.

Huxtable (2-18) was the only bowler with more than one wicket.

James Roe top scored for B&P with 53 and there were chip-ins from Rob Holm (24) and skipper Lee Cole (28) in a total of 145 for six.

Although it was a third defeat on the trot for B&P, skipper Cole was not too disheartened.

“We managed to bat the 40 overs, which is a plus, and James Roe batted well at the start,” said Cole.

“We need to improve our catching as dropping five catches never helps.”

Braunton go to North Devon this Saturday.

THREE wickets each for Jamie Lathwell and Jack Ford sped Bideford to a 79-run win over North Devon 2nd XI at Instow.

Ollie Hannam (62) and Tom Brend (56) had been Bideford’s primary run scorers in their total of 180 for eight.

No one else reached 20 for Bideford in a tally that looked a little on the low side.

James Starkey (2-11) was the pick of the North Devon bowlers. Josh Atkinson (2-43) bagged a couple of scalps against his former club.

North Devon lost Starkey two balls into their reply, but seemed to recover while Jay Rothery (27) and Joe Kelly (16) put on 46 for the second wicket.

Once Rothery the Kelly fell to Lathwell (3-38), and Ford picked off two in the same over on the way to three for 13, it was downhill all the way to 101 all out.

Alex Hannam, the Bideford captain, was pleased to record a second win of the campaign and highlighted what went right.

“Tom Brend and Oliver (Hannam) dug us out of a difficult situation," said Hannam.

“Our bowling and fielding was what separated the two sides.”

Bideford entertain Barnstaple & Pilton on Saturday.

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