Bob Cope and George Southall-Brown bowled Ottery St Mary to an unlikely seven-run win in the derby warm-up game against Whimple, writes Conrad Sutcliffe.

Ottery’s total of 156 all out looked decidedly precarious after Luke Phillips (61) and Matt Porter (51) had steered Whimple to 103 without loss after 15 overs.

Whimple then lost ten wickets for just 47 runs scored with Cope (4-23) and Southall-Brown (3-42) taking the bulk of them.

Earlier, Lawrence Walker hit a top score of 67 for Ottery and Albert Southall-Brown chipped in with 23. There were three wickets each for Joe Buckland (3-31) and Matt Richards (3-6).

Gareth Stoneman, who has taken over as Whimple’s captain from Ben Silk, took a wicket with the first ball he bowled and finished with a tidy one-for-17 haul from seven overs.

Matt Porter at slip snaffled the catch that gave Stoneman his wicket, his first act since arriving from Alphington & Countess Wear.

Alex Clements, Ottery’s newly appointed 1st XI captain, was a spectator at the game as his work commitments overran the start time.

Clements liked what he saw, and not just from the headline acts.

Sam O’Nyons, who played in Cornwall for St Gluvias last season, impressed with the ball on his first Ottery outing.

“Sam bowled decent opening spell which went wicketless but bowled with good pace and looks a good find,” said Clements.

“Bob Cope showed the value of putting the ball on the spot and that you should never rule anything out in cricket!

“Lawrence demonstrated good patience and a willingness to dig in when batting. The rest of us need to work on batting time!

“The Southall-Brown brothers both impressed.”

Clements said the ECB’s Government-agreed rules for getting cricket played appeared to work well.

“The new guidelines were adhered to brilliantly by both teams,” said Clements.

Losing skipper Stoneman had some words of praise for Matt Richards, whose bowling was described as ‘superb’.

He added: “Matt hit line and length to return figures of three for six from eight overs, five of which were maidens.”