HALF-centuries by Sam Elstone and Luke Beaufort guided Sidmouth to a six-wicket Premier Division win over Paignton on the Fortfield.

Opener Elstone made 62 off 90 balls in the anchorman role as Sidmouth chased down 182 to win. Paignton had been held to 178 for nine in 47 overs, but the influence of the Duckworth-Lewis System inflated the target after a break for rain.

Elstone was involved in partnerships that took the score to 147 for four. He and Beaufort added 76 for the fourth wicket.

Beaufort batted on to an unbeaten 69 off 50 balls – five four, five sixes – to win the game in the 30th over.

Abhay Negi’s two for 39 bowling return was as good as it got for Paignton. Mark Cobb had one for 11 on his debut – the one being Sidmouth skipper Luke Bess.

Opener Brenton Pedley (51) stroked his maiden Premier Division half-century for Paignton and put on 99 with skipper Noah Wright (40). It was slow going at times for Paignton as Will Murray, Tom Simmons, George Addy (3-30) and Beaufort (2-34) kept the scoring below four an over.

Harry Ward upped the tempo on the way 32. After he departed it was back to slim pickings for the final half-dozen overs.

Bess felt Sidmouth won emphatically and are getting back to their best after a patchy start to the season.

"Probably didn't make the inroads we should have early doors, but did well when they started to attack and limited them to a below-par score,” said Bess.

“Sam continued his form and Luke put the game to bed by scoring quickly and ending any real chance of Paignton coming back into the game,” said Bess.

“It was a good team performance and nice to get back on track.”

Wright, the Paignton captain, had a clear vision of what needs to improve to pull away from the wrong end of the table.

“Brenton batted very nicely for his 50, but we need to start converting starts into big scores as a team,” said Wright.

“We weren't on it enough with the ball and got punished by Beaumont.”