Honiton Cricket Club 1st XI v Topsham St James 1st XI

Honiton CC 1st XI side had won their last four on the bounce to give their faint promotion hopes some life. They faced Topsham St James 1st XI at Mountbatten Park in a battle between 3rd and 4th.

Topsham won the toss and decided to bat first, a slow start was encouraging for the home side as openers Holmes and Kevin Kelly were very unlucky not to get wickets, especially seeing a couple early slip chances go down. Topsham openers Sapwell (27) and Pring (15) gained some momentum until James Matravers and Ian Kelly entered the fray and changed town's fortunes by picking up a few wickets in their spells. James Matravers finished (6-8-3) and Ian Kelly (9-32-1). Further good spells by Willy Graham (7-18-2) and Mike Docherty (1.2-1-2) and Rob Ingram brought proceedings to a close. Topsham left the home side chasing a 116 to win.

Skipper Dave Haysom and Kevin Kelly started off in chase of the total, but with Kelly departing for 1 and Haysom for 8 left the home side which much to do. Currently 18 for 2, then entered bowling hero James Matravers and Mike Docherty who could possibly count himself a little unfortunate to depart for a 12 ball duck. Kieran Conway came and went without troubling the scorers. A smart one-handed slip catch brought in Pete Matavers for the long awaited father/son partnership. They steadily grew into the game bringing the scores closer until James Matravers eventually saw his drive to deep mid off snaffled ending up on an impressive 42 runs including 5 fours and 1 six. This left Honiton chasing 23 more runs to win. Up stepped Adam Holmes (18 no), him and Pete Matravers (35 no) settled the town's nerves to Honiton get them over the line finishing on 119-5. Man Of Match was shared with some tight bowling and batting by James Matravers / Pete Matravers and Adam Holmes who saw the victory through.

Honiton 1st XI go five on the bounce and play Thorverton CC next at home pressing for a sixth consecutive victory.

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