Winning is becoming a bit of a habit for Ottery St Mary Under 11s in the East Devon Youth Cricket League and so they approached their latest fixture against Whimple in confident mood, writes Allen Morgan.

Winning the toss Freddie Eul-Barker elected to bat with the outstanding Matt Jeacock and Ben Thomas unleashing a barrage of boundaries as Ottery got off to a flyer. Well supported by the swift running of Lewis Morgan, some delightful stroke play from Ted Benson and big-hitting Ollie Olliff, Ottery piled on a season best 132 in their 20 overs.

This was a score that could have led to complacency setting in, but Whimple were shown no mercy. An opening barrage from the highly impressive James Tyler and Will Crick immediately put Whimple under pressure with Ottery working hard on every delivery to prevent Whimple getting any sort of rhythm.

When Whimple did go for big shots two superb catches from Benson and Morgan swiftly despatched the unfortunate batsmen back to the pavilion.

In the bowling department Ottery have strength in depth and Eul-Barker continues his excellent season. Ed Allen and Jason Ferguson bowled tightly, but just as Whimple started to gain some momentum Joshua ‘JJ’ Dale struck with three wickets to end with superb figures of three wickets for one run.

Further wickets fell through the excellent glovework of Jeacock who with the aid of some sharp fielding took two excellent stumpings and a run out to leave Whimple 55 runs shy of the Ottery score.

This was a well-deserved victory and reflects the hard work in training and the teamwork that forms part of the ethos of the club throughout the junior groups.

The emergence of Dale shows the great strength in depth that this team have and all eyes will now be keenly set for the final game of the season at Axminster this Sunday.