SOUTH FOUR
By CONRAD SUTCLIFFE
SOUTH Devon are out in front at the top of South Four after making it two win in a row with a 128-run victory over Chelston & Kingskerswell.
Matt Beasant racked-up his first ton as a South Devon player in only his second league game for the club with 103 not out in a total of 252 for four.
The former Torquay and Abbotskerswell all-rounder went in after Harry Senior was bowled having a go at Chris Harrison and shared in stands of 114 with Jonty Tupman (58), 41 with skipper James Allen (23) and 54 unbroken with Kalen Warne (31no).
Harrison and spinner Aron Owen had two wickets each for C&K, but cheapest by far to operate was Pat Duke, who bowled eight overs for 18 runs against the side he used to captain without winkling anyone out.
Ben Pritchard, another South Devon old boy, was C&K’s first casualty and Jacob Keany went soon after to Lahiru Samaradivakara (3-24).
Nick Guest (34) and Danny Walsh (27) stopped the slide for a while but the introduction of seamer Warne into the attack brought almost instant results.
Guest went first, Walsh fell to Allen without a run added then Warne took five of the next six wickets to fall as C&K crumbled to 124 all out.
Warne finished with match figures of six for 30, which put him in the frame with Beasant for man of the match.
Beasant got the nod for MoM by a whisker, but skipper Allen had heaps of praise for Warne and others.
“Matt’s hundred was well constructed and he is clearly a good guy to have around,” said Allen.
“Lahiru bowled well early on and applied good pressure on their batters.
“And it is the best I've ever seen Kalen Warne bowl. He trains hard so it was nice to see him get rewarded.”
South Devon are seven and a half points clear of Babbacombe at the top of the table with Ipplepen II to play this Saturday at Marsh Road.
IPPLEPEN 2ndXI are still looking for their first league win of the season after Babbacombe beat them at Moor Lane.
But it was a close-run thing for both sides as 12 more runs would have done it for the Pens.
Tim Goodwin top scored on 55 for Babbacombe and there were contributions from Steve Broad (27), Dave Stubbs (25) and Sree Sreejith (28) to a total of 185 for nine.
George Tapley (1-16) was miserly with the new ball for the Pens, but it was 15-year-old Olly Holroyd (5-33) who grabbed the bowling honours.
Pens were 11 for two with both openers out then recovered to 70 for three thanks to Andy Maynard (29) and Will Castleton.
Castleton batted through for an unbeaten 69 off 106 balls but only Ben Holroyd (25) made a worthwhile contribution after that as Pens got to 174 for eight before the overs ran out.
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