Devon Cricket Board - A Division: Sandford skip tips rivals to go up

A DIVISION

SANDFORD skipper Matt Theedom has finally broken his silence on the subject of promotion after keeping his thoughts to himself for the past 13 weeks.

Alphington are the opposition for third-placed Sandford tomorrow as the promotion race goes into the final month.

There are five matches to go and four realistic contenders for the second promotion slot behind champions-elect Torquay. The runners and riders are Exeter, Braunton, Sandford and outsiders Brixham.

Theedom is tipping Braunton to come from behind as they have the easier fixture list, although it is so tight at the top it wouldn't take much to alter his thinking.

"After 13 games Sandford, Exeter and Braunton are within eight points of each other, which shows how closely matched the three teams are," said Theedom.

"We have beaten and drawn with Braunton, and lost and had a winning draw with Exeter. Braunton have beaten Exeter twice.

"Any of the three clubs could be promoted, but I think Braunton are just edging the race, although the table doesn't necessarily reflect that yet.

"Braunton have to be favourites on paper. They have four of the bottom five sides left to play.

"With Braunton favourites it allows Exeter and ourselves to play with more freedom as we know we now have to just go out and win games.

"I would much rather my side are relaxed and playing with freedom than under pressure."

While Theedom can ruminate on going up, it's staying up which is on the mind of opposite number Mark Porter.

Alphington are 16 points clear of the drop zone and Porter is determined to keep them there.

"We took Sandford apart twice last season and could do with another result like that," said Porter.

"Shobrooke Park next week is our big game – win that and I can't see them catching us – but it wouldn't do any harm to take good points off Sandford.

"We owe ourselves one after letting Exeter get the better of us quite so easily last Saturday."

Shobrooke Park skipper Chris Ford is already looking ahead to the Alphington game, even though his men have to go to Brixham first.

Batter Mark Searle replaces Neil Branton in what is otherwise the same team which drew at Barton last time out.

Ford said: "Alphington is the big one for us – we will know where we are going after that game I suspect.

"If we play as well as we did against Brixham last season, we could pick up a few points before we get to Alphington. We had a big winning draw at their place and them at ours. I wouldn't mind doing that again."

Exeter are out to dent Torquay's proud record and do themselves a favour at the same time. The long-time leaders visit the County Ground tomorrow needing just 37 points from the 100 left to play for to be sure of going up.

Exeter skipper Jon Tipper openly conceded the title to Torquay two weeks ago but wants his side to regain the Premier place they held from 1972 until last summer.

"I have got nothing but admiration for what Torquay have achieved this season – they have done brilliantly – but I don't want to see them go up unbeaten," said Tipper.

"If we can pull it off against them we will have an advantage over Braunton, who have had two cracks at Torquay already, and that will put massive pressure on Sandford to win at Torquay next Saturday.

"Whatever happens we have to scrap for every point down there to stop the gap between us, Braunton and Sandford getting narrower."

Rob Holman, Andy Mead and John Meredith all return to the side. Out go Jack Richardson, Mat Medway and the holidaying Alec Bossomworth.

Tipper will find opposite number Justin Yau pretty determined not to surrender the unbeaten record.

“Exeter have played some very decent cricket which has propelled them to second - and I know they are desperate to go back up,” said Yau.

“We want to remain unbeaten and get the 37 points to guarantee ourselves being champions as quickly as we can. Two more big results and we are home and dry.

Although Williams is missing – he took an unbeaten ton off Abbots last Saturday – the side is balanced by the reappearance of bowling pair Jon Rice and Ian Baker.

“Losing Aaron is is huge, but I am confident we have enough batting to see us through,” said Yau.

CRAIG HARRIS, Cornwood's stand-in skipper until the end of the season, has set his team a target of not losing another league game in 2011.

Harris has taken over the responsibility of guiding the Corns through troubled times following the fall-out from an on-field rumpus with an umpire in June.

As a result of bans slapped on ex-captain Jason Hall, veteran Kevin Willcock and Richard Conn, plus a string of unavailabilities, Harris has on occasion been hard-pressed to put out a competitive side.

However, Harris' achievement has been to steer Cornwood to two draws and a win in their last four matches.

Even last week's defeat against Brixham saw Cornwood take 10 points from the encounter, leaving them poised on the edge of the promotion race.

Hall is back in tomorrow's squad at Braunton, having served his time, along with Willcock, who returned last week.

For once, Harris has a decent-sized squad to choose from.

Harris said: "We have got the full number of players to select from, which makes a big difference.

"We are looking at losing no more games this season, although we've got some of the better teams coming up.

"We've had a couple of draws and a win in the past four weeks and even last week we took 10 points from the loss.

"We've got a few things to improve on and going up this season is a massive ask.

"But we're still in the pack, there's five games left to play and nothing's impossible."

As well as Hall, Andy Bees returns after last week's absence.

Braunton captain Jon Baglow is looking for more of the same sort of cricket which almost beat Sandford last time out.

“It was how cricket should be played, two equal sides looking for a positive result. The possible result changed so many times during the game,” said Baglow.

“Getting a winning draw was a very good result in the end. We wanted to come away above them in the table and managed to do that.

“Jas Kalsi and Tom Mitcham (43) batted well at the top to get us off to such a good start putting on 106. Jas has had a great month and deserved his 101. It gave a good base to post a score over 200.

“Sandford were always up with the rate, but we had two good patches where both times we took three wickets in the space of four overs.

“Even in the last over we had two edges go between the keeper and slip. Credit to both teams, it was a good game to be involved in.”

Looking ahead Baglow added: “The next two weeks are important for us starting with Cornwood at home, then Brixham away.

“The defeat at Cornwood was the last time we lost so we have had a decent run and are looking to improve on the performance at Cornwood earlier in the season.”

Keeper Ian Roberts has availability issues for the remainder of the season.

BARTON, away to Abbotskerswell, are under pressure to get a result as they scrap to get out of the bottom two

Barton have been down in the basement so long there is little skipper Adam Parker can say about their predicament which hasn’t been said before.

“Every game is massive for us now and we will fight for every point and scrap all the way to get out of the bottom two,” said Parker.

Team changes are Dale and Luke Adderley, plus Stuart Bowker, in for Adam Last, Tom Whittle and Adam Buckland.

Abbots’ skipper Josh Dowling is looking for some improvements after poor results against Alphington and Torquay.

“I am pretty disappointed with the way things have worked out over the last few weeks,” said Dowling.

“We have played like a team of individuals and the results speak for themselves.

“A lack of partnerships bowling and batting is what we will be working on this week and more importantly getting back to the basics and enjoying our cricket again. “

Dowling said he was impressed by Torquay openers Matt Thompson and Aaron Williams last Saturday, who knocked off 200-plus to win unaided.

“They certainly showed an enormous amount of talent and desire to perform,” said Dowling.

Steve Short, Al Lewis, Mike Pugh and Andy Lock all come into the side. Among the missing are Marcus Green and the injured Richard Lake, which reduces Dowling’s bowling options.