F DIVISION EAST
EXWICK made it two wins in a row with 42-run victory at home over Whimple 2nds in F Division East.
With skipper Jamie Withers somewhere in traffic, Steve Forbes stepped in at the toss, and after calling correctly, elected to have first go. But tight lines from the bowlers and a bit of nip off a length, made for tough going for the openers, and the home side were reduced to 17-2 after eight overs.
Michael Nunns was joined at the crease by his captain, and after a duck last week was relieved to be put down on 0 by the keeper scrambling back when a delivery from Stve Hathaway popped off a length and took the glove. The pair took their time to navigate the opening bowlers though, and after three consecutive maidens, Jamie Withers began to make hay when the spinner came on. The partnership passed 50 as both player tucked into the change bowlers, and Exwick were starting to gain a foothold in the game.
Withers was eventually dismissed as he tried to push the run rate, falling just shy of a deserved half-century, departing for 47 including six fours – no mean feat with the big boundaries. Nunns followed soon after for 29, unfortunately kicking the ball onto his stumps with his back foot. After an excellent partnership of 85, 160 was a possibility now, but Whimple started to take back control of the innings. But another wag of the tail in the form of Richard Forbes (11no) and Sean Bridgewater (9n) secured the extra batting point and Exwick finished 161-7. For the second week running, Extras was second highest scorer, contributing another two batting points.
Whimple bowlers Ben Silk and David Culshaw took two wickets each.
The reply got off to a belting start – from an Exwick point of view. Bridgewater steamed in from the Hub End with a truly unplayable spell of pace and swing bowling, extracting bounce from that tricky length and making light work of the top order. His five overs went for just 1 run, taking two wickets and forcing another to retire hurt after a snorter took the batsman on the forearm. A perfect combination of deliveries first forced the opener onto the back foot, then clattered his stumps, before Bridgewater deceived Silk into shouldering arms, only to bring the ball back on to his off stump.
The opening spell seemed to have ripped the guts from the Whimple order, but to their credit they kept fighting. Useful knocks from Andrew Murray-Watson (24) and in particular Culshaw (32) saw them right back in the game, sitting on 75-4 at 20 overs. Things were right in the balance before a flurry of wickets saw the momentum back with Exwick. Withers dismissed the dangerous Murray-Watson for 24 and Nunns bowled Duncan McConachie for a duck.
Exwick had their tails up now but once again the visitors fought back. Culshaw was still playing well and ably supported by Sam Weir before Rishi Mishra had the latter caught in the covers. Then Nunns came on at the Hub End and used his last three overs to leave the chase dead in the water. First, that tricky bounce saw danger man Culshaw glove behind for 32, Meg Thompson-Summers taking an excellent high catch to round off another strong performance behind the stumps.
Nunns then had Wright caught and bowled before nipping one back through the gate of left-hander Charlie Gordon-Lennox, finishing with 4-29. All that was left was for Ed Mannhardt to take the final wicket, bowling Benson after he had survived a run out appeal.
F DIVISION WEST
SOUTH Devon 2ndXI lacked a score to build a chase round and that led to a 68-run defeat by Paignton 3rdXI.
Opener Brenton Pedley batted from start to finish for Paignton and was last man out in a 40-over total of 210 for six. 
Otty Yip was the most economical of the South Devon bowlers. He only conceded 16 runs in six overs – and seven of them were wides!.
South Devon were always on the back foot after dipping to 111 for five with Jonty Tupman (20) and Ian Shepherd (25) both back in the pavilion.
Josh Hammett kept going to make 20 in a losing cause as South Devon were bowled out for 142 with eight overs to go.
Tim Ward, the former Devon all-rounder, mopped up the South Devon tail on his way to a four-for-12 haul.
It was a second successive defeat for South Devon, although not as punishing as the 119-run drubbing administered by Torquay.
Matt Kitto, the 2ndXI captain, said there is still plenty to work on with bat and ball.
“We bowled well enough to keep the score under control, but gave away some unnecessary runs with poor fielding at times,” said Kitto.
“Our batting was an improvement on last week, but we lost wickets at regular intervals and nobody was able to build the sort of partnership we needed to win the game.”
ASHBURTON second team travelled to play Kingsbridge seconds and after an early wicket for Jerry Crouch (1-23) the Kingsbridge pair of Ed Church (101) and Clive Clark (63) were chiefly responsible for seeing the hosts to an imposing 227 for four in their 40 overs.
Luke Pascoe (2-47) was the other bowler to pick up wickets.
Skipper Phil Pascoe led the Ashburton reply with an excellent 60 and was well backed up by son Toby (29), Chris Yeo (17), Jack Warren (14no), Marcus West (12) and Sam Higgs (11) as Ashburton replied with 165 for eight.
