SHOBROOKE Park’s hopes of putting a winning run together were thwarted at Ottery St Mary where they went down by 21 runs.

Shobrooke showed they could live with the best by winning at promotion chasing Bideford seven days earlier.

Ottery proved a tougher nut to crack, but Shobrooke gave it a good go and were only beaten when Ben Trenaman was ninth out with 22 still needed to win. Last man Ben Wonnacott didn’t detain Ottery for long.

Defeat leave Shobrooke halfway up the table going into the game against South Devon this Saturday.

Ottery bat a long way down and were glad of that after a mini-collapse from 139 for three to 148 for six.

Billy Rudolph (45), George Biggs (27) and Billy Reed (35) got Ottery up to 139 for three, then Rob Crabb, Ed Fowler and Ollie Reed made the bits and pieces that produced a final tally of 216 all out.

Shobrooke skipper Chris Simpson with four for 34 was the pick of the bowlers. Phil Anning had a brace.

Shobrooke lost opener Jacques Budricks sooner than they would have liked, but Jon James (20) and Simpson (62) moved the score along to 51 for two.

Jody Clements (3-35) removed James and Richard Pyle with successive balls, but Simpson carried on with Anning (16), Andrew Codling (16) and Trenaman to reach 152 for six,

Rudolph (2-40) accounted for Simpson and from them on Trenaman led the way. He was on 44 from 41 balls when Ottery skipper Rob Crabb (2-12) got the wicket the home side wanted.

Simpson said he could not fault the batting effort, but Shobrooke didn’t bowl at the best.

“Phil Anning and Ben Trenaman were the pick of the bowlers, but we let them get 40 runs too many,” said a modest Simpson.

“When we batted we had some good partnerships.”