Devon Cricket Board - E Division - Babbacombe skip may tinker with side

BABBACOMBE skipper Steve Broad may be tempted to tinker with his side following the one-wicket defeat by Topsham.

Topsham were bottom of the table Babbacombe are top of and all the signs were it would be a routine day for the leaders after they made 259 for five, then declared early to go for the two bonus points on offer.

Topsham chased to the end and got down to the last over needing seven to win – and three off the last two balls. They did it with a ball to spare.

Broad said there was nothing wrong with the batting, but the bowling and fielding needed some attention.

“We may need to look at making changes to get the right balance,” said Broad.

“ Our batting has been awesome this year, in fact we haven’t failed to get max batting points once.

“And we have people waiting in the wings too so that is great for the club.

“We need to find more consistency in our bowling and more agility in the field.”

Broad was generous in his praise for Topsham’s bowlers, describing them as ‘probably the best we have faced this season’.

With new boy Jacob Hand scoring 22, Steve Porter 35, Andy Kingdon and Mike Pugh banking a brace of 65s and Broad making 43 off 31 balls, the skipper thought he had enough runs.

Then the cracks started to appear in the fielding game.

“Apart from a top spell from Andy Kingdon (9-3-23-2) we really struggled with the ball, no one managed to either take wickets or tie an end down,” said Broad.

“On top of this they took singles where there should have been none, twos when there should have been singles, misfields and one or two dropped catches.

“They were well on course for a comfortable win when I had to have a go myself, although with a sore ankle I had hoped for a day off.

Although Broad took three for 31 and St James suffered two run-outs, Nick Crew (67no) and last man Rhys Beuchamp got them over the line.

Earlier, Nick Horne (74) and Charlie Penn (60) kept the chase alive.

“For the neutral it was probably a great game of cricket to watch, for me it was painful in more ways than one,” said Broad.

Tops’ skipper Ross Treleaven said: "That was some run chase, and certainly a great game to be part of.

“The batting of Penn, Horne and Crew was brilliant. The key thing was that they were able to kick on after they got starts and make meaningful runs.

“Our fielding was improved, but could still could be better.

“Our bowling was good in parts, but needs more to be consistent with less four balls.

“However, I can’t be too critical after such a result and the day firmly belonged to Crew who finally broke his duck and won a game for Topsham.”

WHIMPLE sit just five points shy of the E Division promotion berths after a thrilling 10-run victory over visiting Bridestowe.

Skipper Ben Silk led by example as he top scored for his side with 42 in the team’s total of 212-9 and then took five wickets as the visitors were bowled out for 202.

As well as the Silk knock there were contributions from Richard Brown (33), Kev Thompson (33) and Matt Brown (27) in the home effort.

However, despite claiming the win at stumps there was, for a long period in the post tea session, a feel of impeding defeat around the Knowle Recreation ground! That was because the visitors were 134 for just two wickets down with 20 overs remaining to stroll to victory.

It all changed when skipper Silk introduced himself to the attack as the sixth change bowler.

Silk went on to claim five wickets – all caught – and finished with figures of 5-33 from a splendid nine over shift.

Mike Searle claimed 3-32 and the other two wickets fell to Phil Hope and Paul Gillard.

Silk said: “It was a tight thing for they really were cruising to victory when things began to fall our way! I felt we were a good fifty runs shy of what we needed, so we had to bowl well to win this one. It was a very good day for us with Topsham St James inflicting a rare defeat on Babbacombe and the fact that bottom beat top underlines just how tough the division is, there really are no easy games. We are sitting in a great spot halfway, but there remains work to be done in the second half of the season.”

Next up is Saturday’s East Devon derby at Yarcombe.

Silk says: “They beat us on the opening day so we owe them one and will be looking for some pay back on Saturday.”

Upottery were beaten by 102 runs in a high scoring home game with Kentisbeare.

The Mid Devon side batted first and scored an imposing 313-9. Dan Broom was the most successful home bowler with three wickets at a cost of 74 runs.

There were runs all round in the reply, but whilst most got a start, no one was able to convert that into what would have been a potential match-winning knock.

Ryan Pullman (39), Matthew Button-Stephens (34), Stuart Drew (32), Mark Joyce (31) and Andy Pullman (30), were the Upottery batters to get into the runs.

On Saturday Upottery, who sit joint second bottom of the E Division on 80 points with Yarcombe & Stockland travel to face a Babbacombe side who were beaten for only the second time this season when basement side Topsham St James beat them by one wicket.

Kilmington were nine wicket winners in their home match with Yarcombe & Stockland.

Tom Gooding (3-18), Craig Seaward (3-16) and Maurice Bevis (2-12), combined to great effect to bowl the visitors out for 121.

Dave Cook then hit an unbeaten 55 and Rob Meakings chipped in with 36 as Kilmington strolled to victory, their fourth of the campaign and they now sit 22 points clear of the drop zone in seventh position.

Skipper Hal Cook said: “It was clinical cricket on our part. The bowlers hit the spot from the opening over and, when complacency could have eased its way in the front door faced with a low target the batsmen delivered.”

On Saturday they begin the second half of their season with a trip to Kentisbeare.

Cook says: “They (Kentisbeare) always give us a cracking game home or away and as they beat us on match day one it’s a chance for us to repay the complement!”.

Kilmington 2nds were 51-run winners over Feniton II. Lee Baker hit 51 in the Kilmington 198, with Feniton bowled out for 147.