Devon Cricket Board - C Division - Stevenson boost for D&T

DARTINGTON & Totnes have been boosted for the second half of the season by the return of match-winning all-rounder Ryan Stevenson.

Stevenson has hardly played weekend cricket this summer, preferring his Saturday afternoon action on the golf course with Stover in the South Devon League instead.

But the chance to play cricket in Australia this winter has lured Stephenson back to his club side – and he made an instant impact in the basement battle with Yelverton last Saturday.

Yelverton were skittled out for 86 with Stevenson taking five for 19 and Bertus Loots two for 18.

Stevenson (42no) and Loots (25) then steered D&T to massive nine-wicket win.

Ipplepen did D&T a favour and themselves some good as well by defeating Plymouth CS& by 110 runs.

Clyst St George’s defeat by Axminster means D&T have moved 17 points clear of the bottom two with fellow strugglers Plymouth CS&R coming up this Saturday.

At the other end of the table it’s a big one for Ipplepen, who entertain unbeaten leaders Bideford.

The North Devon outfit looked nailed on for promotion as they are 40 points clear of second-placed Axminster already.

The real fight is going on between Axminster (158pts), Ipplepen (154) and Kingsbridge (135) for second place.

If Pens can beat the leaders it will help their cause no end.

Jack Lewis top scored with 98 for Pens against Civil, putting on 98 for the third wicket with Dave Harris (52).

Sam Wakeham (40) and Seb Powell (55no) chipped in as Pens added 56 in the last five overs.

Civil were never that interested in going for the runs and closed on 186 for nine – former Stoke Gabriel batter Greg Bridgett making 55.

James Wotton had a four-wicket haul and there were two each for Steve Bowden and Paul Thomas.

Kingsbridge will be disappointed not to edge closer to the top this Saturday as they are up against table-proppers Clyst St George.

Kings seem to be running into form again after a mid-season stumble if their 146-run demolition job on Chagford is anything to go by.

Skipper James Fletcher (109) and Will Matthewman (99no) piled up 202 for the second wicket in a today of 262 for two. Chris Bowles made 30 not out. Both wickets fell to Derek Lammonby.

Chagford were all out for 116 in reply, spun to a turn by Bhanu deSilva (4-44) aided and abetted by James Rosewarne (2-21) and Neil Peach (3-18).

Divan Marais (33) and Lammonby (31) had the only scores of note.

Chagford will be looking to get back on track against Yelverton this Saturday.

OTTERY St Mary became the latest casualties of the Bideford promotion juggernaut, crushed by 76 runs by the unbeaten C Division leaders.

Jordi Gilmour nailed 103 off 89 balls with 13 fours and two sixes as Bideford made 227 all out.

Gilmour went in after James Ford was dismissed for 26 by James Faulkner (2-51) at 72 for two and came out on 194 for eight.

Along the way there were stands of 44 with Josh King (15) and 58 with Fergus Bradbeer (13).

Will Harrison and Matt Reed had three wickets each for Ottery, who were then bowled out for 151.

A number of batters got in, got settled and got out again without making it past Sam Lynch’s top score of 36.

Lewis Townsend had 27 and former Devon all-rounder John Tierney had 25.

Fred King picked up five for 32 and there were three wickets clearing up at the end for brother Josh at a cost of two runs.

It doesn’t get much easier for ottery as they are away to Axminster this Saturday.

Ottery skipper Jody Clements hopes his side can rectify a few wrongs at Cloakham.

“I felt we had a good chance of chasing the Bideford total, but poor execution of shots let us down.

“Gilmour batted exceptionally well for them and looking at the scorecards, was the difference in the sides.

Other results went our way, so we remain in sixth and go to Axminster looking to pick up more points off another strong team.”

AXMINSTER dug deep to bag a one-wicket win over Clyst St George to maintain a healthy gap between themselves in second place and Ipplepen in third as the C Division promotion races heats up.

Clyst batted first and were restricted to 216 for seven thanks to some fine bowling from Nick Taylor (4-30) and Matt Pyle (2-35).

Steve May slammed 76 and Steve Cooper made 26.

The reply saw wickets fall at regular intervals despite fine knocks from Joel Seward (46), Matt Pyle (40) and Gary Larcombe (40).

Mike Johnson (3-45) and Chris Cook (2-30) did the damage.

However, the wickets kept falling with the penultimate one going down with nine runs required for Axminster to seal an eighth win in ten this term.

Last man Peter Kiy joined Nick Taylor at the wicket and the pair saw their side home with club chairman Kiy scoring the winning boundary.

Next up for Axminster is Saturday’s East Devon derby with Ottery St Mary.

Skipper Tristan Wakeley said: “Ottery have found some form and that does not surprise me for they are a very good side, certainly on paper.

“That said we are the home team with home advantage and are playing with lots of confidence.

“The games go by faster than ever now with ten down and eight to go.

“Very much in my mind is keeping a healthy distance between ourselves and Ipplepen to enable us, at the very least this season, to bag a promotion place.

“To do that we need to keep winning.”

Clyst are now 14 points adrift of safety down in the basement and face a stiff test at Kingsbridge (4th) this Saturday.