Devon Cricket League 1st XI C Division

Kingsbridge 130 all out, Ottery St Mary 131-6. Ottery St Mary 1st XI (19 points) beat Kingsbridge 1st XI (five points) by four wickets

Saturday saw Kingsbridge travel to newly promoted Ottery St Mary and endure yet another disappointing defeat.

Kings lost the toss and were put into bat without any hesitation from the opposition skipper on what was a wet wicket.

The innings had started well enough but, from 25-0, four wickets fell for 13 to leave Kings at 38-4 with Fletcher, Westlake, Dorey and Clark all back in the pavilion.

This brought Ben Glover and Ashley Treeby to the crease, and they started to rebuild the innings.

The pair both went about their business in a sensible manner, punishing the bad ball and picking up ones and twos where necessary.

They had taken the score from 38-4 to 95-4 and were looking extremely comfortable until a ridiculous umpiring decision caused the innings to subside.

Glover was given out lbw for 22 to a ball that had hit his bat first, much to the astonishment of his teammates watching on. Treeby soon departed for a bright and breezy 28 thanks to some smart keeping.

A flurry of wickets in a short space of time had seen Kings go from 95-4 to 104-9.

However, a spirited 11th wicket stand of 26 between Neal Peach and James Rosewarne saw Kings eventually bowled out having made 130 in the 44th over.

The score was around 20-30 runs short of what the team had been aiming for, but again wickets lost at regular intervals prevented this from happening. The main wicket takers for the hosts were Biggs (4-27) and Woodman (3-23).

Kings knew this total was going to be difficult to defend, but there was optimism as the pitch was offering some assistance for the bowlers.

Opening bowlers Neal Peach and Bhanu da Silva restricted Ottery and with the score on only 15 during the 10th over, the first chance was presented to the visitors, but unfortunately this was not taken in the field.

The first wicket was eventually taken, with the score on 29, by Da Silva.

However, an important second-wicket partnership of 58 between Tennant (39) and Munford (25) took the game away from Kings, until a flurry of wickets saw Ottery go from 87-1 to 93-4.

The fourth wicket saw the fortuitous Tennant eventually depart after being dropped on five.

The introduction of Josh Dorey (3-8) to the attack had sparked a mini-fightback and at 120-6 Kings were seeking to pull off a miraculous win.

However, it was all in vain as Ottery St Mary stumbled over the line with two overs to spare in amid all the panic in the middle.

This was an excellent game and left Kings ruing what might have been if they had managed to secure 20 or 30 more runs on the board.

Although it was a disappointing defeat, there were positives to take away from it that included the excellent character shown by the bowlers to take the game to a somewhat dramatic ending.

This character must now be instilled into the batting for next week's home match against Bideford.

The club wishes to thank Bartons solicitors for sponsoring the match ball.Devon Cricket League 1st XI C Division

Kingsbridge 130 all out, Ottery St Mary 131-6. Ottery St Mary 1st XI (19 points) beat Kingsbridge 1st XI (five points) by four wickets

Saturday saw Kingsbridge travel to newly promoted Ottery St Mary and endure yet another disappointing defeat.

Kings lost the toss and were put into bat without any hesitation from the opposition skipper on what was a wet wicket.

The innings had started well enough but, from 25-0, four wickets fell for 13 to leave Kings at 38-4 with Fletcher, Westlake, Dorey and Clark all back in the pavilion.

This brought Ben Glover and Ashley Treeby to the crease, and they started to rebuild the innings.

The pair both went about their business in a sensible manner, punishing the bad ball and picking up ones and twos where necessary.

They had taken the score from 38-4 to 95-4 and were looking extremely comfortable until a ridiculous umpiring decision caused the innings to subside.

Glover was given out lbw for 22 to a ball that had hit his bat first, much to the astonishment of his teammates watching on. Treeby soon departed for a bright and breezy 28 thanks to some smart keeping.

A flurry of wickets in a short space of time had seen Kings go from 95-4 to 104-9.

However, a spirited 11th wicket stand of 26 between Neal Peach and James Rosewarne saw Kings eventually bowled out having made 130 in the 44th over.

The score was around 20-30 runs short of what the team had been aiming for, but again wickets lost at regular intervals prevented this from happening. The main wicket takers for the hosts were Biggs (4-27) and Woodman (3-23).

Kings knew this total was going to be difficult to defend, but there was optimism as the pitch was offering some assistance for the bowlers.

Opening bowlers Neal Peach and Bhanu da Silva restricted Ottery and with the score on only 15 during the 10th over, the first chance was presented to the visitors, but unfortunately this was not taken in the field.

The first wicket was eventually taken, with the score on 29, by Da Silva.

However, an important second-wicket partnership of 58 between Tennant (39) and Munford (25) took the game away from Kings, until a flurry of wickets saw Ottery go from 87-1 to 93-4.

The fourth wicket saw the fortuitous Tennant eventually depart after being dropped on five.

The introduction of Josh Dorey (3-8) to the attack had sparked a mini-fightback and at 120-6 Kings were seeking to pull off a miraculous win.

However, it was all in vain as Ottery St Mary stumbled over the line with two overs to spare in amid all the panic in the middle.

This was an excellent game and left Kings ruing what might have been if they had managed to secure 20 or 30 more runs on the board.

Although it was a disappointing defeat, there were positives to take away from it that included the excellent character shown by the bowlers to take the game to a somewhat dramatic ending.

This character must now be instilled into the batting for next week's home match against Bideford.

The club wishes to thank Bartons solicitors for sponsoring the match ball.