C Division East round-up: Halse and Fairbairn both score tons as Alphington & CW win city derby

Mark Halse – runs and wickets for Alphington & CW in their derby win over Exeter 2nd XI

MARK Halse and Andy Fairbairn both scored centuries to set Alphington & Countess Wear on course for a 63-run win over Exeter 2nd XI on the County Ground.

Skipper James Bogue was in and out for five in the first few overs, which brought Fairbairn in to join Halse with the score on nine for one.

By the time Matt Williamson trapped Halse lbw the score had risen to 266 for two.

Halse made 133 and hit 18 fours and two sixes during his time in the middle.

Fairbairn went on to make 113 not out in a hefty Alphington & Countess Wear total of 283 for two.

Graham White, the Exeter captain, tried nine bowlers against one his former sides. Only Mike Wilkinson (0-27 off nine) kept the runs down.

Wilkinson (20), Dom Tuohey (29) and Harry Williams had all been and gone in an Exeter running total of 93 for four.

Elliot Barnes (49) and Zach Vukusic (61) put on 105 for the sixth wicket to take Exeter to a respectable 220 all out.

Luan Liebenberg (3-43) led the A&CW bowling effort, aided and abetted by Halse and Dylan Spicer with two wickets each.

Winning captain Bogue said it was a “great win’, then added: “And it was set-up beautifully by a massive partnership between Andy and Mark. 

“It was a good toss to win as the wicket was a belter,

“We were not at our best in field but did the job thanks to big scoreboard pressure.”

Victory keeps A&CW third in the table behind Sandford (64pts) and unbeaten Uplyme.

EXETER drop to one off the bottom of the table where only Exmouth are beneath them following their nine-wicket thumping by Ottery St Mary.

Three wickets each for Max Mayor (3-6) and Jody Clements (3-10), plus two more for Sam O’Nyons (2-12) had Exmouth back in the hutch for 104.

Mark Ashplant and Ed Maynard both made 20s for Exmouth with Jon Martin next best on 14 not out at the end.

Ottery lost opener Matt Jeacock to Martin with 14 on the board, which was Exmouth’s only breakthrough.

Skipper Alex Clements (63) and Jonathan Trinner (24) were the not-out batsmen when the winning runs were scored in the 22ndof the 45 overs available.

A DAN Butler century was not enough to guarantee Heathcoat 2ndXI victory over Sidmouth 2ndXI in the C Division East.

Butler arrived in the middle four overs into the Knightshayes clash and went on to make 118 in Sidmouth’s 45-over tally of 231 for three.

Along the way for Butler were collaborations of 146 with Finn Stoneman – made 55 – and another of 453 with Harry Southgate (41). Butler faced 104 balls and hit 11 fours and four sixes.

Sidmouth’s bowling figures were not terribly pretty, although Tom Hodgson and Matt Crane both kept the scoring below four an over during their spells.

Sidmouth won with nine balls to spare on the strength of a solid effort from the top order, starting with Jash Patidar (60) and Charlie Brock (58) putting on 110 for the second wicket.

Anthony Griffiths (31) and Miles Lewis (43) polished off another 71 runs, which left Louis Adey (28no) to join up the dots in a five-wicket win.

Five Heathcoat bowlers took one wicket each. 

SANDFORD 2ndXI defeated Braunton by 23 runs in a see-saw game that was in the balance for a long time.

Veteran opener Jon James made 72 and skipper Shaun Hawkins 51 not out in Sandford’s total of 209 for four.

After James had been and gone, having seen off the danger posed by Steve Moore (2-35) and others, Hawkins, James Theedom (31) and Archie Osborne got a move on in the later overs.

A stand of 70 between Theedom and Hawkins was a highlight of the Sandford innings.

The smart money was edging towards Braunton when they were 90 without loss in reply, but the chase started to awry after skipper Callum Mitchell (54) was caught behind off Hawkins (2-22).

Three more wickets went in relatively quick succession, which left Braunton on 122 for four.

As long as Sam Reddick hung around the game was there to be won so Sandford were glad to see the back of him at 165 for six – run out by Brian Leach.

The last four wickets went for just 18 runs scored with Leach (3-48) and Shaun Fryett (2-18) picking up two each.

Hawkins said the game became attritional at times due to Braunton’s miserly bowling and the key was remaining patient.

“We were able to keep wickets in hand and push to get up to 200 in the late overs with Archie Osborne getting us there,” said Hawkins.

“I wondered whether we had enough when they were 90 for none, but after they lost Mitchell the game started to move more in our direction.”

Mitchell, the Braunton captain, had a good idea where it all went wrong against Sandford.

“I thought we were too costly in the last 10 overs of Sandford’s innings and that cost us the game,” said Mitchell.

“Credit to Sandford: they bowled well to tighten things up and put the pressure back on us.

“We weren't good enough with the bat at crucial times.”