Devon Cricket Board - Title tips Torquay can't afford to be complacent against Paignton

Title tips Torquay can't afford to be complacent against Paignton

TORQUAY know the Premier title will be as good as in the bag if they win the derby clash with Paignton at Queens Park.
Beating defending champions Sidmouth by 106 runs last Saturday hoisted Torquay 28 points clear at the top with 80 to play for.
Winning tomorrow leaves Exmouth, Bovey Tracey and Plympton to play.
Exmouth may cause an upset, Bovey would like to but doomed Plympton shouldn’t pose too many problems for Justin Yau’s side.
Torquay have to get past Paignton first and Yau knows they are fighting for their Premier lives and dangerous.
“The fact Paignton are scrapping for every point in a relegation battle, we are trying to win the title and also it's a derby really spices things up,” said Yau.
“We have won six games on the bounce, are full of confidence and playing a brilliant brand of cricket.
“They have played well this year and I am quite surprised to see them knocking around the bottom.
“Having said that we will not take them for granted and will not be complacent - we know it's all in our hands now and a win on Saturday moves us another step closer to the unthinkable.
“We never thought at the start of the year we would get ourselves in this position but we have gelled magnificently, have recruited brilliantly and everyone knows and understands their role in the team.
“We keep going one game at a time, one point at a time and one ball at a time - there's still a lot of cricket to be played this year and anything can happen!”
Matt Thompson is away at a wedding so Jack Richardson comes back from Leeds to replace him in the side.
“That shows the team spirit we have at the moment – that a lad who is working his socks off at Ernst & Young in Leeds Monday to Friday is willing to make the 600-mile round trip to come back and play for us,” said Yau.
“He was desperate to come back and we are delighted to slot him back up to the top of the order again.”
Paignton’ s goal is to find the 13 points needed to get ahead of Exeter and out of the bottom two.
Coming next for Paignton are Heathcoat (A), Plympton (A) and North Devon at home to finish.
“These next four games are like cup finals for us - and for this weekend to be against Torquay just adds to the occasion,” said captain Connor Bryan.
“We are a young team playing against a team that have a couple overseas players and a pro. “They proved to be the difference earlier in the year so Saturday will be an interesting game.”

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