STOKE Gabriel thrashed Plymstock by nine wickets to take another step closer to promotion.
The Villagers are nine points clear of Bideford at the top of the table and have a 23-point advantage over third-placed Seaton in a division with two promotion slots.
Jack Tolley, the Stoke captain, hasn’t banned promotion talk in the dressing room. But he is sticking largely to the one-game-at-a-time rule.
“With four games to go we know promotion is in our hands but we won;t be looking any further ahead than Ashburton this Saturday,” said Tolley.
Plymstock were skittled for a paltry 80 with no single batsman making more than the 24 extras Stoke gave away. Max Castledene’s dozen was as good as it got.
Stoke skipper Tolley reaped a five-for-17 haul. Kyle Lardner and Mike Smith had two wickets each.
Openers Justin Pringle (52no) and Travis Hunter (20) knocked-off 63 of the runs Stoke needed to win it.
“A fantastic win for us,” said Stoke skipper Tolley. “Without Isaac (Withington) and Maxi (Adriaan Maxwell), Mike (Meech) and Jake (Robinson) had to bowl well with the new ball and they did.
“The pitch was clearly going to spin a lot. When our spinners came on they continued to bowl well.”
“At halfway, 80 didn’t look a bad score the way the pitch had played, but Justin and Tyler were very watchful and put away any loose balls,” said Tolley.
Tom Mitch, Tolley’s opposite number, said his team were ‘far from their best’.
Mitch added: “Stoke were just better on the day. The wicket was tricky early, which was unfortunate, but they bowled and batted much better than we did.”
With four games to go the distance between Plymstock and second-bottom Bovey Tracey is just 12 points.
Three of Plymstock’s last four games are against teams fighting relegation – Clyst St George, Ashburton and Bovey Tracey 2nd XI – in what will become double-pointers.
ALEX Carr and Shalok Gangatkar bowled Plympton towards a six-wicket win over B Division relegation worriers Bovey Tracey 2nd XI.
Bovey’s only consolation is the team directly ahead of them – Braunton and Plymstock – both lost as well. They are seven points away from safety.
Bovey Tracey meandered from 12 for three to 119 for seven before finishing on 161 all out. Carr (4-30) got into the top order, Ollie Goulder (2-37) kept the pressure on in the middle and Gangatkar (3-33) finished them off.
Outbreaks of run scoring were confined to Brad Causey (31), Gethin Williams (28) and Jack Ansley (also 28).
Plympton were home and hosed with more than 13 overs to go for the loss of four wickets.
Fin Torley (28), and Kristian King (20) got the chasing rolling, Sam Ford (31) kept it motoring and skipper Harry Kandampully was there on 41 not out at the end.
Kandampully had no difficulty pinpointing what went right for his side.
“I thought we did well to restrict Bovey to 161,” said Kandampully. Alex Carr got big wickets up top. Also Shalok and Oli Goulder picked-up useful wickets.
“Bovey bowled well and made it tough. I felt Sam Ford batted well to get us to within reach.”
