EXETER’S Tschepo Legodi was the star of the day as his team beat Sidmouth’s 2nd XI on a beautiful, sunny Saturday at The Fortfield, writes Fionn Wardrop.

Legodi took 5-40 from his 15-over allocation as Sidmouth crawled to 134 in response to Exeter’s total of 198.

Earlier in the day it had been Exeter’s turn to bat slowly as they reached 106 for 5 by the end of their 36th over, before Legodi shifted the momentum of the match with some clean striking on his way to 37 from only 24 balls. During his innings he added 46 with Exeter skipper Richard Nelsey who crafted an intelligent 50, albeit considerably aided by a missed stumping and a dropped catch.

From the last ball of Exeter’s innings four runs were required to reach the 200 mark and maximum batting points; Nelsey swung hard and sent the ball high and hard towards The Belmont Hotel where Simon Sobczak took a remarkable one-handed catch, realised he was going to fall over the line and threw the ball infield, giving Nelsey the two runs needed for his 50 but leaving Exeter shy of the 200 mark.

Sobczak wasn’t the only fielder to shine as Joe Griffiths took two excellent catches to help Charlie Dibble towards his five wickets. Brought on as early as the 10th over, with Exeter going well at 40-0, Dibble worked his way through the top order and bowled beautifully as he reeled off his 15-over allocation and conceded only 26 runs. Dibble could have had seven wickets but for a couple of stumping chances missed.

With a very short boundary on the pavilion side, 198 was seen as an achievable total, but a combination of good bowling from Exeter and stodgy batting from Sidmouth saw the run rate climb to the point where nine an over were required from the last 12 overs. This put pressure on the tail to even make enough runs to reach the two thirds total required to record a losing draw.

This was just about achieved and, with the last pair at the crease, Alastair Chilcott played out the first five balls of the final over. A sixth delivery was called a wide and its legitimate successor was a perfect leg cutter which bowled him to give Exeter a deserved win.

Top scorer for Sidmouth was Matt Hewer with 46, an innings which absorbed as many as 126 balls. Next best were Dom Bess with 18 and Dec Lines with 17.