C Division West round-up – week 10: Birkett (pictured) bashes quick fire century to speed Plymouth to victory over Hatherleigh 2nd XI
ANDY Birkett lashed an unbeaten century to speed Plymouth 2nd XI to a seven-wicket win over their Hatherleigh counterparts that keeps them fourth in the C West table.
Birkett – best known as a former professional rugby player with numerous club, among them Plymouth Albion and Exeter Chiefs – was a good enough cricketer to play for Cornwall earlier in his career. These days Birkett is jogging along opening the batting for Plymouth 2nd XI, and doing a pretty good job of it too.
Hatherleigh’s all-out total of 188 was knocked-off inside 29 of the 50 overs available with Birkett there from start to finish. He finished on 108 not out from 90 balls faced, 19 of which went for four and two more over the ropes for six.
In a stand of 79 for the second wicket with Jon Varcoe, the latter made 19. Tom Hughes was the other not-out batter when Birkett hit Cameron Rowlands for four to win it. Birkett has scored 444 league runs at an average of 88.8 in seven hits this season.
Skipper Danny Forrester (44) made early runs for Hatherleigh, followed by Jack Probert batting through for 52. Best of the rest were Jim Sibcy (29) and Henry D”Alberti-Nicolson (26).
Plymouth’s Melissa Banks (3-23) posed problems in the top half of the Hatherleigh order. Sam Burns and Aziz Rahmanzai took two wickets each.
Defeat means another week at the bottom of the table for Hatherleigh, who travel to second-placed Kingsbridge this Saturday.
JOSH Goodliffe and Aviral Srivastava both racked-up 70-plus scores for Cornwood 2nd XI in a comfortable six-wicket win over struggling South Devon.
South Devon, who have yet to win a game in the C Division West this season, had opener Jalal Ahmad (46) and Jack Allen (98) to thank for getting to 212 all out. Twenty-six extras helped on a day when no one else made more than nine.
Allen, standing in for the injured Jonny Martin as captain, hit 12 fours and four sixes.
Wickets were spread around with two each for Srivastava, Jason Hall, Goodliffe and caretaker captain Alex Robinson.
Other than losing Ewan Grewal and Ayaan Chatterjee cheaply during the chase, Cornwood had no dramas to bypass.
Goodliffe made 77 and Srivastava reached 75 not out when he hit Harry Ayling for four to win it in the 31st over. Noah Carlisle was 25 not out at the other end.
Victory keeps Cornwood third in the table, but 39 points distant from unbeaten leaders Ipplepen.
Robinson did have one or two grumbles, but they barely warranted a mention in his post-match summing up.
“Despite Jack Allen’s excellent 98, we stuck to the task well and bowled them out,” said Robinson.
There were still too many wides (22), but it was a much-improved effort in the field and we kept taking wickets at important times.
“We backed up last week’s fighting display against Kingsbridge with a clinical win, showing the quality we have when we bowl with discipline and build partnerships with the bat. A pleasing, all-round team performance.”
CHUDLEIGH moved on from losing to Plymouth 2nd XI with a 40-run win 
over visiting Brixham.
Skipper Will Heather was the man of the moment for Chudleigh with 104 towards a 45-over total of 275 for six.
Best of numerous chip-ins were Luke Quaintance’s 32, Rajkumar Neeiam (30) and Alex Haywood (24).
Brad McKee (3.44) and Mo Shaihk (3.11) were Brixham’s most economical bowlers. No one took more than one wicket.
Heather still had business with Brixham: a four-wicket return that slowed them to 235 for seven by the time their overs ran out.
A stand of 105 between George Benton and Shaikh got Brixham to 151 for three. Shaikh (96) got all the way to 227 for four before Heather winkled him out with two overs to go. Brixham were so far behind the clock by then the outcome wasn’t in doubt.
Three wickets in four balls in the last over gave Heather match figures of four for 23.
