Devon Cricket Board - C Division: lewdown claim title undefeated

C Division: lewdown claim title undefeated

C DIVISION - WEEK 16

LEWDOWN beat Ashburton by a whopping 167 runs to clinch the C Division title without losing a game.

After racking up 309 for four with Harry Geering lbw to Kris Connabeer (2-104) three runs short of a ton, and Kris Harris making 87, only the margin of victory was really in doubt.

Mark Jordan weighed in with 64 after Harris and Greening had made 198 for the first wicket.

Ashley Berry had a top score of 28 for Ashburton, who hung around until the penultimate over before being bowled out for 142.

The wickets were shared around with Rob Mutch (3-38) outdoing Phil Yeo (2-38) Charlie Hughes (2-12) and Jack Williams (2-16).

Ashburton are hovering 16 points above the drop zone and will feel far more comfortable if they defeat already relegated Cockington this Saturday.

Clyst Hydon stumbled in their pursuit of the second promotion spot behind champions Lewdown when they went down by four wickets at Stoke Gabriel.

Clyst’s batting never really got out of second gear as they misfired to 135 all out with Heflin Wood (25) making the only score of note.

From 71 for seven after a duffing up from Andy Lockyer (4-33) and Matt Smyth (4-35), Hydon did well to get 135.

Matt Taylor’s fluent 57, backed up by Rob Baker’s 26, saw off the threat posed by Dhanuja Haturusingha (4-34) to win it for Stoke.

Clyst stay second, but their lead over third-placed Hatherleigh is down to 19 points.

Hatherleigh closed the gap in the other direction with a three-wicket win over Ivybridge.

Andy Johnson (32) and Gareth Andrews (37) got Ivybridge off to a 65-run start, then Kevin Jacobs added 42 towards a modest total of 151 all out.

Nick Rogers (3-50) and Mark Lake (2-32) were Hatherleigh’ most effective bowlers.

Hatherleigh got there in the last over after a battle royal with Jeewan deSilva (4-29) and Jamie Bullock (2-27).

Gareth Tidball (40) and Simon Gillespie (29) made the early running, then Andy Collier (19no) and Rob Fishleigh (9no) got the last 30 after Hatherleigh slumped to 123 for seven.

Problems are starting to mount up for Seaton who are 17-points away from safety in the C Division after going down by five wickets at Bideford.

Seaton posted a below-par total of 142. Mark Bray (42), Steven Pritchard (24), Reid Maudsley (20) and the skipper (20) all made contributions, but the total was not enough.

From 100 for four it all went pear-shaped for Seaton as left-armer Martin Stewart (5-32) ran through them.

Andy Webbe (49) and Matt Allin (42) negotiated difficult spells from Ben Morgan (3-30) and Pritchard (2-12) to seal victory.

Skipper Morgan was clear where his side had gone wrong.

“We simply did not bat well enough,” he said.

“A number of the batsmen got in and created opportunities to go on and make match-dominating scores. But all too often we gave up wickets far too easily.”

DCB Ltd, University of Exeter Sports Hall, Stocker Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 4QN Company Registration Number: 7024773