CLYST Hydon beat Axminster by 77 runs in the basement battle at Merryfield to stay out of the bottom two in the C Division East.

Opener Ian Sutton pointed Hydon in the right direction with a patient 59 in a total of 250 for nine.

Sutton faced 106 balls getting Hydon to 159 for two and put on 31 with Hef Wood (20) and a hefty 128 with Simon Holmes.

Holmes, who made 62, kept going until the score reached 167 for three when he was stumped off the bowling of Alex Wraight (3-40).

After a minor stumble to 194 for six, Clinton Lewis (23no) and James Billington (23) got the board moving again.

Spinner Dave Field (3-30) cashed in during the dash for runs at the end.

Axminster got bogged down by Zain Ul-Abiddin at first - his eight overs only cost 18 runs – and found runs hard to come by all the way through.

Mike Wakley made 35 at the top of the order, but it was slow going to 83 for six when Alan Ostler joined Matt Pile.

Pile was last man out in the final over for 66 having put on 88 with Ostler (23no).

Pick of the wicket takers for Hydon were James Billington and Lewis with two each.

Hydon are now four points clear of the relegation places, Axminster slipped behind them into the bottom two.

FILLEIGH are out of the relegation places in the C Division East thanks to a three-wicket win over Feniton.

Adam Ramcharran (30) was the  early-order lynch pin for Fention, sharing stands of 43 with Graham Tucker (22) and 50 with Mark Kingdon (30).

Charlie Selley (27) and Alex Frankpitt (53) then put on 73 as Feniton progressed towards a final tally of 221 for six.

Filleigh  bowlers Jon Hickman (0-19) and James Campbell (0-27) gave little away in their nine overs. Ryan Bowden and James Marsh had two wickets each at fluctuating rates of exchange!

Filleigh ultimately won at canter with more than five overs to spare, although at 89 for five on the chase it seemed an away win was likely.

Skipper Simon Prideaux made 85 and his stand of 126 with Connor Nash (50 no) took Filleigh within seven runs of victory.

BARNSTAPLE & Pilton came away with a tie at Kilmington, losing their last wicket with one ball to go.

Kilmington were all out for 183 in the 41^st over – no one making more than Matt Rockett (35).

Lots of batters got in – Sean Perry made 30, Brett Garner 26 and Alex Rockett 24 – but only one stand of 50-plus in the innings told its own story.

Steve Moore (2-28) shaded Paul Schiller (2-29) for B&Ps bowling honours.

Barum’s chase was led by opener Tom Popham, who dug in deep after seeing George McEndoo and Brady Saunders both dismissed by Dan Fuzzard in the first over.

There were stands of 43 with Moore (16) and 58 with Robin Lake (17) as the target was whittled down.

Tom Oliver (3-23) kept whittling away at the B&P wickets though, which didn’t help.

Popham and last man James Lake got the scores level with a two balls to go. Tom Gooding bowled Lake and the game was tied.

SEATON cashed in on Cullompton’s defeat by Uplyme to got 19 points clear at the top of the table thanks to a 108-run victory over visiting Countess Wear.

The Wear were on the back foot from gthe start as Kevin Moran (33), Joel Seward (24) and Brian Cann (28) got the running total up to 101 for two.

There was a mid-innings stumble as Kam Singh (3-31) and Steve Holland (2-54) got involved for the Wear, but a 61-run stand between Robbie Prior (37) and Chris Aplin nudged Seaton towards 239 for nine.

The Wear’s recent batting form deserted them as they slumped to 26 for three and it didn’t get much better.

Wickets fell in clumps – 62 for three became 63 for six then 71 for eight – and by then the outcome was obvious.

Craig Aggett made a top score of 37 off 47 balls after going in at 63 for six as Countess Wear were bowled out for 131.

Brian Cann – three for 10 off nine overs – was aided and abetted by Joel Seward (3-40) in the demolition job.

Seaton now have a 19-point lead at the top of the table and can improve on that if they defeat visiting Cullompton this Saturday.

UPLYME ousted Cullompton from second place when they rolled them over by five wickets

Cully’s batters had a collective off day as Uplyme ran through them for 111.

James Blackmore (25), Brendon Parr (24) and Tafara Mupariwa (21) made most of the runs – Parr and Mupariwa sharing a stand of 52 for the fourth wicket.

Of the rest of the batting no one made more than eight and four batters made nothing at all.

Steve Batey (3-14) was Uplyme’s leading bowler.

Cully had a brief whiff of a chance when Blackmore reduced Uplyme from 35 for one to 39 for three. But that was as good as it got.

Alex Richards (25) and Mark Batey (35) put on 60, leaving Tyler Wellman (20no) to finish the job.