Sidmouth 2nds made it ‘played seven and won seven’ in their C Division East campaign. They took their all-conquering status to second-in-the-table Ottery St Mary, who went into the contest looking to continue their unbeaten home start to the season.
It proved to be a low scoring game with all 20 wickets falling on the day for a combined total of 288 runs.
Sidmouth were invited to bat first and lost the in-form Isaac Thomas to a Joe Birch catch off the bowling of home skipper Will Harrison for four with the score on nine. Nick Gingell joined Nick Mansfield and they took the total to 41 when Mansfield fell, trapped leg before by Harrison, out for 27 with the score then 41-2.
The third wicket, that of Nick Gingell, out for 19 to a Joe Birch catch off Rob Johns, left Sidmouth on 63-3 and just a run was added to the score when Robbie Powell was sent back for a second ball duck, caught by Alex Clements off Joe Birch and, when Sidmouth skipper Anthony Griffiths fell for 22, out to an Alex Clements [STEVE - catch?] off brother Jody Clements, half the visiting side were back in the Strawberry Lane pavilion with 100 runs on the board.
It was soon 108-6 with Tom Wainwright trapped leg before by Ollie West and that became 112-7 and then 114-8 with the loss of Daley Holmes, caught by George Southall-Brown off Jody Clements for four and Ed Hurley, caught by Harrison, bowled by West for one. The ninth wicket fell with the score on 126 – Thomas Simmons being caught by Jody Clements off Henry Mutter.
The final wicket pairing of Fionn Wardrop and Charlie Dibble, arguably, provided the late order additional runs that ultimately ‘won’ the game. The pair took the total to 151 before Dibble was caught by Joe Birch to give Mutter a second wicket. The last two added a crucial 25 runs with Dibble scoring eight and Wardrop finishing unbeaten on 15 from 26 deliveries.
Only three other Sidmouth batsmen – Tom Wainwright (64), Anthony Griffiths (60) and Nick Gingell (28) –faced more balls than Wardrop.
In terms of the Ottery bowling effort, all six bowlers had success. The best return was the one of Jody Clements with his 2-16 from nine overs. There were also two wicket returns from Henry Mutter (2-19 from 3.3), Oliver West (2-22 from six) and skipper Will Harrison (2-41 from seven). The other wickets fell to Rob Johns (1-35 from 9) and Joe Birch (1-16 from nine).
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