Devon Cricket Board - Paignton and Plympton meet in promotion battle

PAIGNTON captain Connor Bryan doesn’t want to talk about promotion – even though his side are favourites for one of the two places out of the A Division.
Table-topping Paignton go to second-placed Plympton tomorrow in a real nail-biter.
Paignton are 20 points clear of second-placed Plympton, 23 ahead of Bradninch and 28 up on Budleigh Salterton, who lost to them last week.
Bradninch need a win after losing two on the trot dropped them out of the top two.
And Plympton have been hit and miss recently – losing two of the last four.
A Paignton win should secure a promotion place – and may just swing the title race too.
Bryan is coy when asked about Paignton’s prospects, either of going up or staying up.
All he wants to do is win the next two matches.
“There is still a long way too go with two games left to play,” said Bryan.
“The boys are focused and we certainly won't be celebrating until the season is over.
“The boys are full of confidence and are ready for the weekend.”
Paignton are unchanged for the third game in a row.
Plympton were skittled out for 42 at Brixham last time out and lost by seven wickets.
The temptation for skipper James Carr would have been to make wholesale changes, but he has resisted it.
Dave Wrench replaces the holidaying Craig Miles in an otherwise unchanged side.
“Some might have thought a few more changes could have be made, but I am sticking by the lads who have got us this far in the season,” said Carr.
“Last Saturday has been forgotten and the players are fully focused on this Saturday and know exactly what we have to do to put things right from last Saturday and to sustain our promotion push.
“Unfortunately, over the last five weeks we haven't been able to repeat the consistency we had in the middle of the season where we won seven straight, we have gone lost, win, lost, win, lost.
“We know what Paignton have in their team and they know what we have and we beat them off the last ball at their place.
“I think we are very evenly matched teams so hopefully it will be another cracker!”
Barton are at home to Bradninch this Saturday eager for a win after three defeats.
The most recent one was by 42 runs against Hatherleigh, which was an improvement on 38 all out the week before.
“We have to get something out of the game in order to pull away from the bottom,” said captain Adam Parker.
“Out bowling was better, but we let it slip once we had them six down – and letting them score 190 was criminal.
“Our batters got starts but failed to make them count at key stages of the game.”
Abbotskerswell go to Budleigh Salterton almost resigned to relegation as they are 26 points adrift of safety following their defeat by Lewdown last time out.
“It is going to be very tough for us to avoid relegation now,” said skipper Richard Acton.
“Its disappointing to be in this situation, where we have to win both our remaining games and need Chudleigh and Lewdown to lose both of theirs.
“The chances are slim. However we can only blame ourselves for being in this situation.
“We simply haven’t been good enough, especially with the bat.
“This showed against Lewdown when, we should have posted at least 175 on that pitch, but struggled to get to 128.
“We will still fight hard in the last two games. A strong finish could possibly see us stay up but at the very least will give us confidence looking towards the winter and next season in the B Division.”
Chudleigh, who have taken 76 points and won four out of seven games since halfway, face a showdown with Hatherleigh in their fight for survival.
That is a far cry from the first half of the season, which ended with Chudleigh winless in nine games and 43 points adrift at the bottom.
They have to find four more points than Lewdown between now and the end of the season to avoid going straight back down to the B Division.
The formbook suggests it can be done, but skipper Ed Foreman isn’t getting over-excited.
“We had a close game earlier in the season which Hatherleigh chasing 160,” said Foreman.
“I felt that 20-30 more runs would have won it for us then, now I'm not sure that’s the case.
“Hatherleigh have been putting good totals on the board, as have we.
“I want the boys to continue off from last week and play intelligent cricket.
“Our confidence is high but let's not get carried away. There is still a lot of work to do.”
Lewdown skipper Harry Geering – his side are away to Brixham – said Chudleigh did something against Bradninch that had proved beyond most A Division clubs this season.
“Chudleigh saw off Ross Acton, then played for 40 overs to win the game,” said Lewdown.
“That has made it a bit tighter at the bottom than I would have liked at this stage of the season.”
Lewdown have Gary Sizmur back after a month out and hope Phil Yeo will be available.
“James car described the track there as the worst he had ever played on and if it is an on-form Yeo will do a lot of damage,” said Geering.
Lewdown’s seven-wicket win over Abbotskerswell last time out kept them out of the bottom two and encouraged Geering they can stay there.
“I am hoping the determination stays,” said Geering.
“Things didn't start well with ball as we opened with seam up instead of his usual spin and wtth Williams coming off a short run up.
“But as a team we dug in, fielded better and batted with maturity on a harder track than usual at Lewdown against opening bowlers who were very good.”
"We know the damage Pugh can do after the last game we played. The overseas looked handy as well and from reports on the track orchard will be a handful. So we just need to dig in again and perform to try and stay up."