PAIGNTON and Bovey Tracey will contest the first final of the VX3 Twenty20 Cup on Sunday (August 16) in play-offs day at Queen’s Park.
Player pressure during the last close season encouraged Paignton to circulate clubs in the South Devon area to gauge interest in a first-teams only T20 competition. The Brockman and Aaron Printers cups have served lower-level clubs since the 30s and 50s respectively, but there was no mid-week action for higher-tier teams.
Undeterred by two previous attempts to get an area T20 competition running, Paignton’s Tony Medlock set about having another go. Paignton, Bovey Tracey, Barton and Torquay & Kingskerswell all accepted invitations to play.
With support from Paignton-headquartered kit suppliers VX3, the competition got off the ground in July. Each team played the other three in a league format to determine the finals-day make-up.
Unbeaten Paignton will face Bovey Tracey (2.30pm) in the final. Barton and Torquay & Kingskerswell will already have contested the third-fourth place, which gets under way at 11am.
Highlights of the tournament so far include an unbeaten 106 off 47 balls by Paignton’s Aya Gqamana in a 17-run win over Torquay & Kingskerswell.
Hem Chetri, now back home in India, was a 53-ball centurion for Bovey Tracey in their 62-run win in the tie with Torquay & Kingskerswell.
Bovey also supplied the bowling highlights so far: three-wicket hauls for Max Topping and skipper Seb Ansley against Paignton.
Harry Ward, the Paignton skipper, said the VX3 Twenty20 definitely filled a gap in the cricket calendar.
“The tournament has been great so far,” said Ward. “The lads have really bought into it, and it’s been fantastic to see us field a full first team for pretty much every game.
“A big credit to Tony Medlock, who has done a great job organising the tournament.
“We’ve got Bovey in the final, who we had a great game against in the preliminary round. We’re really looking forward to what should be a great game.”
Seb Ansley, the Bovey Tracey captain, also gave the VX3 Twenty20 the thumbs-up.
“It has been good to get a chance to play a bit more T20 cricket during the season, especially following our last two unsuccessful seasons in the Devon competition,” said Ansley.
“Expecting Paignton to be strong as usual, with a young side getting more and more Premier experience of big games, but we definitely saw a chance when we played them in the first fixture.”
Nick Watkin, the Barton captain, said it been ‘enjoyable’ and ‘worthwhile’ taking part.
Watkin added: “It has allowed us to play against the current top team in the county in Paignton and enabled us to have a derby against Torquay, which we wouldn’t have had but for this comp.”
