Devon Cricket Board - Premier - Bradninch banana skin bothers Bradley

Premier - Bradninch banana skin bothers Bradley

BOVEY Tracey captain Peter Bradley is anxious to avoid a potential banana skin when his table-topping side visit Bradninch.
Beating Budleigh Salterton last Saturday put Bovey 10 points clear of Exmouth at the top of the table.
Bradninch hasn’t been the happiest of hunting grounds for Bovey, a trend Bradley would like to reverse.
“We generally beat them at our place, but struggle up at theirs,” said Bradley.
“Bradninch are one of those teams you never know what to expect from – and the samde goes for their pitch.
“It can be very high scoring up there if it is dry so you have to be prepared for everything and anything against them.
“They have a good bowling attack – even without Gary Chappell who is in hospital – and batters like Tim Piper who always seem to get runs against us.
“We have to play at our best, or we could slip up.”
Ross Acton captains the side in the absence of Chappell.
Exmouth skipper Richard Baggs has a straightforward view of the game against Plymouth on the Maer.
A defeat will deal a serious blow to Exmouth’s hopes of catching Bovey at the top of the table.
“How we do against Plymouth will determine where our season goes,” said Baggs.
“Win and we are still up there: loose and the season could easily fade away into a mid-table finish.”
Plymouth, six-wicket losers to Sidmouth last time out, are mentally prepared for a backlash.
“It is another tough game for us against the second in the table side with a great batting line up,” said skipper Chris Barr.
“We expect them to come hard at us and if we can weather the storm we are in with a great chance.
“Pulling off another win would mean we have beaten the top two sides within three weeks – and that says a lot about the potential of the team.”
Torquay skipper Justin Yau has set his team a three-win target for safety – and is backing Devon and Unicorns star Matt Thompson to do his bit.
Victory at Sidmouth will give Torquay a double for then season and go someway towards meeting Yau’s target.
The return of former Gloucestershire and Devon batsman Matt Hunt helped beat Bradninch last Saturday, but winning cricket matches needs more than one person.
Yau said Ben Passenger, the impressive Tom Field, Hunt and Aqeel Ahmed all shone on the win over Bradninch.
He added: “Our best player has still yet to produce and I'm sure that Matt Thompson will find at least 200 runs in the last third of the season.
“He is too good a player not to - to only have scored 120 league runs at 12 all year is unbelievable for someone who is scoring runs at will for Devon and Unicorns.
“Matt knows he is due some runs for us, as am I, and we will both be hoping we can make some contributions as we enter the business stage of the season.”
Yau rates Sidmouth as the best team in the division, adding: “I have no doubt that they will be there or thereabouts come September.
“We probably played as well as we have all season last time out against Sidmouth and we will need to repeat the performance if we are going to get a positive result at Fortfield Terrace.”
Heathcoat are gunning for champions North Devon to cap a great week for the club.
Winning at Sandford fuelled hopes of dodging the drop after all – then Bradninch were defeated to earn a place in Sunday’s Devon T20 finals day at Exmouth.
Skipper Chris Small said confidence is high, but he is realistic about the challenge posed by the defending champions.
“Lots of improvement is still needed in our batting, which will need to be on song against a decent North Devon side that has match winners with both bat and ball,” said Small, who is without ex-Dorset batter Guy Bucknell.
North Devon, on a high since beating Exmouth last time out, are looking to gain more ground on the top four
“I'm looking for the same as last week, which was the best we have played all year,” said skipper Matt Dart.
“It still quite tight at the top so nobody can afford to slip up against the bottom teams.”
Jay Corden comes in from the 2nd XI after runs and wickets last week.
Budleigh Salterton, where Bob Dawson is in charge until further notice as skipper Joel Murphy is injured, have a basement battle at Sandford.
Spin-bowling all-rounder James Hudson is not available so Budleigh have gone for an extra batter in Ben Carter.

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