Honiton Cricket Club 1st team match report v Woodbury & Newton St Cyres CC

Another Saturday and another game where the players arrived at the ground not sure if the weather would allow any cricket to be played. However as the scheduled start time arrived the sky brightened, the covers were removed and the coin was flipped with Woodbury electing to bowl first in this E Division East contest that was reduced to 40 overs a side.

Honiton lost opener Kev Kelly, run out with the total on 17, George Meadows joined Dave Haysom and set about building a respectable total with both scoring several boundaries. Haysom was next to fall LBW for 35 with 78 on the board. In form James Matravers joined Meadows in the middle and together they reached 122 before top scorer Meadows was caught for 65, quickly followed by Holmes 4 and then Matravers 30 with the total on 165 for 5. Mike Docherty 31 and Ben Kennell 16 both fell with the total on 200 leaving Corey Lapping 7 to get the end of innings total to 213.

Honiton's opening bowlers Adam Holmes and James Matravers bowled brilliantly to ensure there was no chance of Woodbury getting off to a good start. A double breakthrough came in Holmes second over thanks to catches from Docherty and Ingram. Not wanting to be outdone, in Matravers second over he struck with an LBW and an edge through to Haysom leaving the Woodbury reply in trouble at 4 for 4. There was a bit of a revival from the batting side taking the score to 15 before Matravers took matters into his own hands in the 8th over of the innings taking a fantastic hat trick with the first three balls of the over and with a wide thrown in as well he took the fourth wicket of the over with the fifth ball leaving the game over as a contest with Woodbury on 16 for 8. Trying to reward the openers for their initial efforts with taking all 10 wickets, as the bowlers tired Woodbury were able to increase the score to 34 before a change to the bowling allowed Ian Kelly to take the 9 wicket in his first over and then Willy Graham wrapped up the innings with his 3rd ball of the 14th over.

Another win, this time a convincing one, was led by the man of the match performance from James Matravers, with significant contributions from George Meadows and Adam Holmes.

Next week, Honiton take a trip to the seaside for the away game at Budleigh Salterton.