Clyst St George surprise Alphington + Cullompton race to victory + Maximum for Feniton

Chris Ferro  - Clyst

CLYST St George shocked promotion hopefuls Alphington by beating them by seven wickets in the derby date at the Chronicles.

Tom Bath top scored for Alphington with 59 in a total of 156 all out in the second-last of the 45 overs available.

The Alphington batting was hit-and-miss to say the least with only three scores of 20 or more, posted by Bath, Luke Phillips and Mark Porter,

Pete Weatherhead was the star man with the ball for Clyst taking five for 35. James Edworthy (1-12 off eight) and Mike Johnson (2-32) did their bit keeping the batters quiet.

Skipper Chris Ferro anchored the Clyst chase from the start, carrying his bat for 48.

The match-winning stand was one of 95 between Ferro and Dan Takle, who finished on 41 not out.

Alphington captain Stuart Shaw is looking for a positive reaction from the team when they play Cullompton on Saturday.

“It was a disappointing result as even with a few players missing – Matt Taylor and Nick Halse – we expected to beat Clyst,” said Shaw.

“We didn’t bat well and 156 was not enough,

“I thought we showed the right fight to take them down to the last two overs getting the runs.

“It was a wake-up call and we must respond to it.”

THREE wickets each for Mike Cliff and Rumesh Batagodage helped Clyst Hydon to a 45-run win over Whimple in the first league game of the season.

Hydon recovered from losing opening batsmen Ian Sutton and Cliff with three runs on the board to make 185 for eight.

Sinthruan Thjevaraj (28) and Batagodage (26) started the recover then a solid middle order effort from Grahan Trude (29), Kevin Sercombe (26) and Chris Holmes (25) grew the scoer.

Whimple had a better start – they were 70 for two after good work from Nathan Kidd (31) and Leigh Lorenzan (24) – then it all started to go wrong.

Cliff and Batagodage reduced Whimple to 101 for seven and the slide was on.

Matt Brown made 25 and Hathaway 19, but Clinton Lewis (2-12) and Batagodage (3-22) ensured a Hydon win with more than six overs to spare.

Winning captain Sutton said it was a good result for his side on a tricky track.

“In hindsight it was a good toss to lose as the pitch, which offered plenty for the bowlers, got slower during the day,” said Sutton.

“Plenty of people chipped in with the bat and the scores show it was a tough pitch to get in on.

“With the ball we managed to control the run rate and picked up wickets at important times.”

Losing captain Ben Silk felt his team only had themselves to blame.

“We threw too many wickets away and can’t afford to do that.”

ALL-rounder Phil Steward will be missing from Braunton’s side when they take on Whimple at Kelsey on Saturday.

Skipper Dan Brierely would have liked to keep an unchanged side after winning by 27 runs at Countess Wear first time out, but is forced to make one change.

Opening bowler Alex Hodges, a more than handy batsman too, comes in to replace Steward.

Brierley has a new-look side this season, and that’s not just faces.

Old stager Jon Baglow, who has carried the new-ball attack for nearly a decade, opened the batting in the win at Countess Wear to good effect.

Said Brierly: “I feel we have a really good bunch of lads who are responding well to the opportunity of playing for the first team.

“We need to continue to put the effort in to get the results we really want.”

Baglow (24) and Rob Paterson (27) gave Braunton a 55-run start, then Callum Mitchell (37) and Phil Steward (25) kept the board ticking over,

Lower-order runs from Dan Brierley (15) and Ed Holmes (13) proved decisive in the context of the game.

Pick of the bowlers for Wear was John Bendall with two for 28. Skipper Mark Davey had three for 61 from nine overs.

The Wear reached 61 for three thanks to runs from Kaveenga Dias (28) and James Bogue (23), both of whom fell to Mitchell (2-36).

Gavin Darke anchored the middle order with 68, but lacked worthwhile support as a succession of batters came and went for single-figure scores.

When Darke was ninth out at 163 to Steward (3-16) the end wasn’t far away.

Brierley (2-25) dispatched last man Jacob Reid as the Wear we bowled out for 164 in the 42nd over.

Wear skipper Mark Davey a potential win had got away.

 “What we needed were a couple of big partnerships and we didn’t have one after Kav Dias (28) and James Bogue (23) put on 50-something for the second wicket,” said Davey.

“We took our time and but Gavin eventually ran out of people to bat with.”

FENITON make the short trip to Clyst Hydon on Saturday flying high after taking a 20-point maximum off Kilmington.

Chris May hit a top score of 58 for Feniton in a total of 266 for six.

Mark Salter (46) and Graham Tucker (39) put on 87 for the first wicket before May got going.

Stand of the innings was one worth 73 between May and Alex Frankpitt (38).

Kilmington were all out or 177 with more than eight overs to go – Brett Garner (45 and Matt Rockett (44) the leading run scorers.

May capped a man of the match performance with five wickets for 37 runs.

CULLOMPTON made light work of visiting Uplyme, bowling them out for 129 and knocking off the runs inside 11 overs.

Lee and Kalann Nessling were the men of the moment with the ball, taking for for 32 and three for 26 respectively to put the skids under Uplyme.

Take out 70 by Rhys Davies and there wasn’t much from the rest.

Jason Parr (24) and Prince Xavier (27) gave Cully a start, then Brendon Parr finished it in a hurry with 59 not out, 56 of which came in boundaries from six sixes and five fours.