Singh's five-wicket haul is music to skipper Kendall's ears | 'Par has bowled consistently well all season and deserved a five-fer'

CLYST St George did leaders Budleigh Salterton a favour by trouncing former leaders Plymstock by 117 runs on the Bohea Field.

Although Plymstock are still second in the table, the gap between them and Budleigh has widened from 12 to 26 points.

Some consolation for Plymstock skipper Tom Mitch is that third-placed Ivybridge unexpectedly lost at home to relegation worriers Ipplepen, otherwise they would have snatched second spot for themselves.

Clyst’s 45-over total of 222 for nine was based on a stand of 124 for the third wicket between Wiehann Meyer (72) and Chris Ferro (46). 

Meyer faced 77 balls, and hit six fours as well as five sixes. Ferro – Clyst’s limpet-like batter – stuck around for 83 deliveries and dispatched seven boundaries.

“Chris and Wiehann's partnership was superb and allowed us to get a competitive total,” said Clyst captain Dan Kendall.

Best of the rest were Tiaan van der Walt (26) and Thom Bunker (28).

Three wickets each for Rob Cunningham (3-47) and Billy Gibson (3-34) were Plymstock’s bowling highlights.

Losing opener Jacob Hole to the first ball he faced from Andrew Donovan was not the start Plymstock wanted. Other than Josh Hocken, who made 36 batting at first wicket down, a steady procession of batters came and went for single-figure scores as Meyer (2-12), Par Singh (5-19) and Ewan Cragg (2-13) trundled through the batting.

Cunningham (18) made the only other score of note for Plymstock before they were bowled out for 105 in the 20th over.

“Chances came regularly for us in the field, as it became trickier to bat on, and we took most of them,” said Kendall.

“Par has bowled consistently well all season and deserved a five-fer.”

Three defeats in the last four outings – Ipplepen was the odd one out – have cost Plymstock the leadership they had held since week three.

Skipper Mitch said it was not hard to see what has been going wrong?

“Not enough runs are being scored by all of us,” said Mitch. “You won't win many games being bowled out for 100.

“We need to stop throwing wickets away going forward. Still in a good position though, but performances need to improve.”