BRADNINCH have found life tough in their first season in the Francis Clark Devon Cricket League Premier Division, but are unlikely to roll over on their home ground when table-topping Sidmouth visit.

BRADNINCH have found life tough in their first season in the Francis Clark Devon Cricket League Premier Division, but are unlikely to roll over on their home ground when table-topping Sidmouth visit tomorrow.Despite the harsh baptism, the Mid Devon side hover above established Premier teams Sandford and Torquay, who hold the bottom spots in the table, and will be keen to gather what points they can to stay out of the drop zone.Sidmouth will be looking to add further distance between themselves and a chasing pack who, before the season is half over, appear to be badly lagging behind.The gap, after Saturday's 20-point haul against North Devon, who held second place before the start of the game, is now 31 points.The game provided further evidence to disprove the widely held view that the Fort Field side is a one-man outfit heavily reliant on Neil Hancock. He turned in a decent all-round performance, but there were telling contributions from most members of the side. Key among them was the top score of 42 out and 3-23 from Scott Barlow.He came to the crease with Sidmouth labouring at 149-7 and North Devon, who turned in a superb fielding performance, anticipating a chase of a sub-200 total. He announced his arrival with successive boundaries and, when he lost Will Murray as partner, was joined by Miles Dalton in a 51-run stand for the ninth wicket that saw the home side romp to 232-8, 40 coming off the last five overs.Prior to that, most Sidmouth batsmen made a start, but did not convert it into a big innings with Chris Williams making 37, Sam Richardson 26 and Hancock 20.Fortified by tea, Barlow returned to the action by taking the first North Devon wicket to fall and, in tandem with Hancock, reduced the visitors to 49-5 after 16 overs. They struggled on to 71 and lost three wickets at that score, two of them to Murray who had taken over from Barlow. Hancock ended his spell with 3-45 to allow Barlow back into the action and he signalled his return with a wicket. Murray finished things off with 4-12 in 4.3 overs and Barlow returned figures of 3-23 in 12.North Devon were bowled out for 90, 142 runs adrift of Sidmouth. Right: Anthony Griffiths. ref. 7970-25-09AW.