CULLOMPTON will be as good as promoted as C Division East champions if they beat Feniton this Saturday.

Cully’s 217-run demolition job on bottom side Countess Wear shunted them 26 ponits clear of Aphington and Whimple in joint second.

Alphington have already conceded the title despite beating Kilimington last time out.

Whimple need three wins and for Cully to start losing, an unlikely scenario looking at their respective fixture lists.

As for Countess Wear they will almost certainly be relegated if they lose to Alphington on Saturday.

Trevor Gwandu top scored with 59 for Cully in their273 for eight against Countess Wear.

Brendon Parr (43) and Adrian Pullin (32) made significant contributions.

Kav Dias (2-22) stood out in the Wear bowling figures.

Wear tumbled to 24 for six – Jason Parr (2-21) soon at it – and slewed to 56 all out as Lee Nessling (5-20) turned the screw.

Inder Singh (24) and Dias (14) had the only double-figure scores.

CLYST Hydon went down by 76 runs when they entertained relegation worriers Clyst St George.

Youngster Sam Read top scored for St George with 42 in their total of 197 for nine.

Read and Chris Ferro (25) put on 71 for the second wicket. Dan Takle (37) and Steve Bourke (21) chipped in.

Pick of the Hydon bowlers with four for 28 was James Billington. Rumesh Batagodage and Will Thornton were both hard to get away.

Hydon were up against it after dipping to 21 for three and Graham Trude’s 37 only stalled the inevitable.

Ollie Manning (3-19) got into the early order after Ferro (2-11) and Bourke (2-12) struck early.

St George stay joint third from bottom with Braunton. They play Whimple this Saturday.

Hydon can do St George a favour by beating their relegation rivals Braunton.

WHIMPLE beat Feniton by one wicket in a nail-biting encounter.

Feniton recovered from seven for three to make 119 all out.

Alex Frankpitt (41) and Jack Tucker (31) got Feniton off the hook.

Five Whimple bowlers took two wickets each. Pick of them were Steve Hathaway (2-14) and Leigh Lorenzen (2-18).

Whimple appeared to be cruising at 99 for four with Nathan Kidd unbeaten on his way to 40.

Mark Kingdon (3-26), Matt Davies (2-22) and Jon Pyle (2-22) bowled Feniton back into the game as Whimple lost five wickets for six runs – Kidd among them.

Last pair Simon Harris and Matt Richards got Whimple over the line.

BRAUNTON are creeping closer to safety all the time after beating Uplyme by 83 runs.

Three wins in the last four starts have hoisted Braunton to 150 points and almost out of the bottom three.

Braunton are level on points with Clyst St George in the third drop spot after their win at Uplyme.

 A win over Clyst Hydon on Saturday could get Braunton out of the red zone, depending on how Clyst do at Whimple.

Brendon Harris made 51 for Braunton, who made 193 all out. He went on at 66 for three with Jon Baglow (30) already back in the hutch.

Uplyme had it all to do after slumping to 34 for five – Jon Barnes (3-16) doing much of the damage – and it proved beyond them.

Mark Brimacombe’s 25 was the best of a sad set of scores in a total of 110 all out.

ALPHINGTON skipper Stuart Shaw has surrendered the promotion race to Cullompton with three games to go.

Although second-placed Alphington defeated Kilmington by eight wickets last Saturday they remain 26 points behind Cullompton.

Shaw has looked at the fixture lists and can’t see Cullompton losing enough of the last three games to let his side back in.

Said Shaw: “Losing to Braunton last week killed us – after that we were always relying on Cullompton to slip up.

“We have been either second or third for the past couple of season and that’s where we are heading again.

“After nine seasons in charge I won’t be carrying on next year and really wanted to sign off by taking us back to the B Division, where we belong.

“It is time for someone else to have a go.”

Josh Short (47) and Tom Gooding (49) negotiated tricky spells from Ben Newcombe (3-62) and Josiah Grzyb (4-33) to take Kilmington to 201 all out.

An unbeaten 101 by player-coach Mark Halse, supported by Mark Porter (42no) took care of the chase.