Devon Cricket Board - C Division 2nd XI: Clyst all out for 34

C DIVISION 2nd XI

CORNWOOD 3rd XI had an embarrassingly easy 10-wicket win over Clyst St George after Dave Staddon (5-15) and Chris Horton (4-11) hustled them out for 34.

Phil Bees (20no) and Luke Petherbridge (9no) knocked off the runs without mishap in a game which was finished before 4pm.

Yelverton 2nd XI got their season off to a belated start against visitors Plymouth Civil Service & Roborough's 2nd string.

PCS & R's skipper Dan Piddock won the toss and asked Yelverton to bat first on the damp track.

Yelverton quickly found themselves in trouble at 14-3 with Andy Taylor (0), Lee Johns (5) and Dane Bunney (6) all back in the pavilion.

Veteran Gerry Keen (43) and Gavin Jones (29) got the heads down in a partnership of 56 for the fourth wicket before Keen was caught behind off the bowling of Dan Piddock for 43.

Skipper Chris Pearson joined Jones in the middle and the pair added 26 more before Jones was run-out following some sharp fielding in the covers.

Tom Noble (2) came and went whilst 14 more runs were added. Chris Cottrell joined Pearson in the middle and the pair added a quick 35 for the seventh wicket with some belligerent hitting off the tiring bowlers before Pearson was bowled for 40 by Raj Vijayakumar (3-40) in the last over as the innings closed on 146-7.

The PCS & R reply got off to a flier with first wicket pair Piddock and Mark Hamlyn putting on 48 in quick time.

The introduction of Andy Taylor into the attack brought the wicket of Hamlyn, adjudged LBW for 19.

Piddock (26) followed shortly after also to the bowling of Taylor, well caught by a diving Pearson at mid-off. The 3rd wicket pair of Paul Maloney (36) and Ben Pitman (21) put on 40 for the 3rd wicket, but when Pitman was caught by Lee Johns at backward point off Taylor with the score on 93, PCS & R still looked in the ascendancy.

Maloney and R Hamlyn added another 40 runs for the 4th wicket to nudge them closer to the target, but when skipper Pearson (3-23) removed Hamlyn, Maloney & B Piddock in quick succession and Taylor (4-28) chipped in with his 4th wicket to leave PCS & R on 139-7 an unlikely victory seemed possible.

Carter then took the eighth wicket with the score on 141, and it was left to the 9th wicket pair of Sanders & Yates to scramble the winning runs with seven balls of the innings left.

Paul Harding had Shobrooke Park in a spin with four wickets a 60-run win.

Losing the toss and being put in to bat on a wet wicket was not the ideal start and at 34 for 3 with openers Kevin Jones and Steve Waters both back in the hutch for 10 and with Mark Bryant being dismissed without scoring, things were looking decidedly dodgy especially as they had used up 18 of their allotted overs.

Chris Hurrell and James Pethick pulled things around a little but when they were both dismissed in quick succession Kerswell’s innings was again in real trouble at 63 for 5 off 30 overs.

Probably the crucial partnership of the Kerswell innings then followed between Mat Stephens (25) and Pieter Douglas (19), as the 46 runs these two added gave Kerswell’s eventual total of 126 for 9 an air of respectability. Certainly if Kerswell’s bowlers performed, it was a total that could be defended.

with Mark Goodman tying them down to take four for 12.

The start of the Shobrooke Park innings would be crucial and what a dramatic start it was. Pieter Douglas bowling John Sugden for 0 with the first ball! Shobrooke quickly found themselves 2 for 2 with Harding picking up a wicket from the other end although a steady partnership between Roger Jones (6) and David Jolliffe (22) saw Shobrooke up to a total of 32.

They had to bat 18 overs to get there. However there then followed an extraordinary passage of play when Shobrooke lost 5 wickets for the adding of no additional runs to leave from 32 for 7 and the game effectively all over as a contest.

A Short while later Shobrooke were dismissed for 66. The main contributors with the ball were Harding with 4 for 24 off his 13 overs, Hurrell with 3 for 20 off 10, and Pieter Douglas 2 for 6 off 7.

The win moves Kerswell up to mid-table and has renewed their optimism about another successful campaign.

After the game akipper Nigel Butt said: “So far we have not found there to be any real difference between the C and D Division.

“We have a few players out at the moment and when everybody is back and hopefully firing then I believe we will make our way up this league and come August, all being well, we may very well find ourselves in contention for a second successive promotion”.

Elsewhere, Thorverton 2nd XI won a low scoring game against Honiton by five wickets.

Barnstaple & Pilton 2nd XI were 23-run losers at Clyst Hydon in another low-scoring affair.

B&P probably though the hard work was done after holding Clyst to 125 for eight – Louis Bowen (30no) top scoring.

Rodney Bowden stuck around to make 25 for B&P, who were helped by 30 extras.