BUDLEIGH Salterton sent Chudleigh spinning to a 92-run defeat as they maintained their 100 percent winning start in the B Division.
Opener Nick Bolt (31) laid the foundations for Budleigh’s total of 230 for six, then Luke Domaschenz (61) and Ed Doble (57) kicked on during a stand of 102 for the third wicket.
Andy Robinson and Kam Singh (2-29) accounted for Domaschenz and Doble in that order, but bits and pieces that included Harvey Shipton’s 26 kept the runs coming.
Chudleigh were spun out for 138 in reply by Doble and Joe Marley, who booked identical figures of two for 28.
Three Chudleigh batters crept into the 20s – Paul Windsor-Horne (21), Manroz Bhullar (20) and Rob Clarke – and that was as good as it got.
Matt Heather, the Chudleigh captain, said that he didn’t “Believe the scoreline tells the whole story”, pointing out that “Some debatable decisions really didn’t help our chase.”
Moving on to the Bovey Tracey 2nd XI who bounced back from their round-one disaster in this fixture with Teignmouth & Shaldon.
Bovey got to 174 all out in the 41st of their 45 overs – and owed a lot to the bottom half of the order for getting that many.
Sam Robbins (29) and Tom Andrew (44) survived in the top half and an eight-wicket stand of 61 between Andrew and George Pitman (35) revived Bovey and with Chris Yabsley (17) chipping in they posted a defendable total.
The man of the moment for T&S against his former club was Ryan Bougourd, whose four-for-33 haul gutted the middle order. Jawad Shirzad (3-44) did his bit too.
It was Arren de Young who led the way for Bovey, posting a very impressive 6-17, with Charlie Hill also playing his part, including a second-back duck for dangerman Ruben Minnaar.
Lastly, Barton are tucked in right behind leaders Budleigh Salterton at the top of the B Division table thanks to a 31-run win over Ipplepen in a high-quality match at Cricketfield Road.
Skipper Steve Lewis opened up with 89 and was involved in stands adding 187 before he was fourth out in an eventual total of 228 for six.
Sharp wicket-keeping from Toby Holroyd caught out Barton’s overseas player Tari Masakanda, and then after a wobble, Lewis was able to regroup alongside Adrian Lipton during a partnership worth 91 for the fourth wicket. Lipton was still there at the end on 50 not out.
No Ipplepen bowler took more than one wicket. Stand-out stats belonged to Harry Lewis (1-25 off 9) and Noah Rider (1-22 off 6).
Defeated skipper Matt Beasant had no problem pointing out where the game was won and lost: “Bowling 47 extras, excluding the runs from free hits and extra deliveries, makes any chase far more difficult than it needs to be.”