EAST THREE
ALPHINGTON & Countess Wear clash with Feniton at the Chronicles this Saturday with a place in the Tier Five play-offs up for grabs.
Feniton (17.5pts) top the table by little more than a point following their eight-wicket win at Topsham St James.
Alphington (16.4pts) amassed 308 for eight against Budleigh Salterton 2nd XI and went on to win by 135 runs.
Saturday’s winner will face the East East Three top dogs, probably Uplyme & Lyme Regis, in the semi-final round on September 5.
Feniton were always in control against St James after Jack Tucker (3-8) and Sam Vincent (3-15) were largely responsible for dismissing them for 73. Matt Garner made 25.
Opener Mark Salter’s unbeaten 53 – 11 fours, 64 balls – took any strain out of the Feniton chase.
Alphington & Countess Wear batsman Matt Taylor took a ton off Budleigh Salterton in a grand total of 308 for eight. A stand of 151 with captain James Bogue (60) got the ball rolling and another of 65 with Tom Nightingale (27) took the score on to 216 for two.
Budleigh’s reply was an up-and-down affair. The went from 55 for two to 72 for five then recovered to 142 for five before the lower order collapsed to 173 all out. Tom Real (29) and Luke Jefferson (63) put on 70 for the sixth wicket.
Mark Halse (4-42) was the bowler of the day for A&CW, who are enjoying life now the merger between two clubs has settled down.
“It's been a fantastic start to the merger with a run of victories and the team gelling together,” said skipper Bogue.
“Lots of players have been contributing with big scores and Mark Halse is picking up wickets every week to win games.”
A by-product of the merger is a strong second team pushing Clyst St George at the top of East Four for a Tier Six play-off spot.
The second team did not play at Bradninch last Saturday due to bad weather, which Bogue said was ‘very disappointing’.
Bogue added: “It was a real shame as we have a young team of aspiring players raring to go every week.”
HONITON were on the wrong end of an 89-run scoreline when they faced East East Three leaders Uplyme & Lyme Regis at Mountbatten Park.
Mark Batey top scored on 96 for Uplyme, who rattled along to 229 for five,
Batey was the last man out having put on 53 with Joe Elsworth (37), 80 with Alfie Jaques (35) and 59 with Sam Farrow (26no),
Honiton were all out for 140 with more than nine overs to go. Elsworth, Tyler Wellman and Jacob Maltby put the pressure on with miserly spells, which led to Sam Farrow (4-29) and Sam Wooster (2-30) getting among the wickets.
Kieran Conway’s 37 was as good as it got for Honiton, whose final group outing is at Axminster this Saturday.
EAST EAST THREE
CONTROLLED bowling in the final two overs of the day by Ottery 2nd XI bowlers Dan Jeacock and Jon Triner saw their side to an eight run win over Axminster.
The Axe men, with two overs remaining, had three wickets in hand and needed 16 runs to force victory, but Jeacock shipped just four off the penultimate over of the day and, needing 12 to win off the final over, Axminster could only muster four from Jon Triner’s over to leave Ottery the winners of a thrilling game.
Earlier, Ottery had batted first and recovered from 51-4 thanks to a 46-run fifth wicket partnership between Albert Southall-Brown (28) and Tom Jeacock (32). Given the closeness of the final scores, the last wicket pair of Harley Smith and Ashok Prasad, adding 11 for Ottery, also played a key role. Anthony Dean chipped in with 24 at the top of the order and Ottery closed on 142-9 from 40 overs.
All six of the bowlers used by Axminister bagged at least one wicket and three got two each; Robin Ellis (2-14), Owen Enticott (2-19) and Alex Wraight (2-40).
In the Axminster reply, they got to 80 with just two wickets down, but then lost four wickets for the addition of 26 runs before coming up short on 136-7.
Bradley Conway (38) Paul Miller (28) and Mark Enticott (21no) were the principle run getters for Axminster.
Ottery used eight bowlers and it was fourth change Jake Tierney who produced the best figures with his return being 4-20 from eight overs.
WEST FOUR
PLAY-off chasing Plymouth CS&R overpowered Cornwood 3rdXI by 136 runs to open up a six-point lead over Ivybridge 2ndXI at the top of the West Four standings.
Ivybridge 2ndXI cruised to a seven-wicket win at Kingsbridge, whose total of 103 all out never looked enough.
Three wickets each for Sam Kidd (3-28) and James Ferriman (3-3) put the skids under Kingsbridge.
Kidd (30) and Sam Northmore (35no) pointed Ivybridge towards victory, which was sealed in the 23rdof their 40 overs.
