Ottery St Mary Under-11 bowler Freddie Eul-Barker took a hat-trick as the Otters defeated visiting Exeter in a Bradleys East Devon Youth League game.

The visitors won the toss and elected to bat. Will Crick and Alex Glanville put early pressure on the Exeter batsmen whilst Owen Foster and Joshua ‘JJ’ Dale all chipped in with excellent periods of bowling to keep the run rate down.

Ottery were sharp in the field with Thomas Major having an outstanding game in his debut for the side behind the stumps. A good catch from Ollie Olliff and a run out increased the pressure on Exeter to start scoring runs.

The next Ottery player to bowl was Freddie Eul-Barker and, with each of his first three bowls of the new season he took a wicket! His bowling continued to be straight and accurate and he finished with the outstanding figures of there wickets for four runs.

The Eul-Barker hat-trick wicket came from a superb catch at slip from skipper Matt Jeacock who showed great awareness and swift reflexes.

Further overs from Ben Thomas, who took his first wicket of the season, a superb wicket for Will Crick and a very frugal couple of overs from Ted Benson restricted Exeter to 85 for seven from their 20 overs.

Set a total of 86 to win Ottery lost early wickets to a pacey Exeter bowling attack. The arrival of Lewis Morgan and Ollie Olliff settled the nerves and the pair put on an excellent 50 partnership to put Ottery firmly in command, Olliff hitting three fours in three balls.

Thomas Major was unlucky to be stumped but with the light failing and rain falling Matt Jeacock and Ted Benson showed great composure with some excellent batting to see Ottery home to a well deserved victory.

An Ottery coach said: “This was an excellent team performance, all of the team worked incredibly hard in the field to restrict a strong Exeter side. The game might be remembered for the hat trick of Eul-Barker or the innings of Olliff but this was a victory founded on a team ethos of working hard for each other and Strawberry Lane is likely to prove to be a difficult place to visit this season against an emerging Ottery side.”