Devon Cricket League Division A Tavistock v Bovey Tracey THE Tavistock bandwagon rolled on towards the premier division on Saturday with a convincing display against fifth placed Bovey Tracey. Leading the charge Arnie Searle passed 1,000 runs for the season. This is a remarkable feat, last achieved at the Ring by Robert Jarman in the late 70s, although Searle himself passed the same mark in 1987, 1990 and 1996 while he was at Hatherleigh. Bovey Tracey arrived with several regulars missing. They were unfortunate to lose Australian all-rounder Julian Stephenson in the warm up when he ricked his back and was unable to play. They inserted Tavistock on a difficult, wet wicket, but within four overs all catchers had disappeared and they had three men fielding in the deep. Chris Cashell fell, pulling too early at a ball which stuck in the wicket, from Charlie Carter, caught at midwicket by John Shepherd for 2. Searle was content to push the ball to the deepset field and collect ones and twos, punctuated by the odd four in a disciplined innings. Kevin Willcock was quickly into his stride and it was a surprise when opposition skipper Chris Bradley bowled him for 19. Dave Manning came to the crease at 80 for two. His 54 from 64 balls was an excellent effort. When he was caught by Peter Bradley off Rory Bogard?s spin bowling it was a disappointment for Tavistock. Searle, grinding towards another century, was joined by Steve Luffman. The experienced pair set about scoring at 5 or 6 an over. This worked well until Luffman chopped a ball which kept low onto his wicket and had to go for 17. When Colin Mortimore joined Searle there were ten overs to go and the two ex-Bovey players set about taking their old team for as many runs as they could. Searle managed a huge six and Mortimore angled the ball cleverly in an unbroken stand of 70 which brought Tavistock?s total to 265-5. Mortimore registered his fifth century of the season with 104 not out to add a little cream to the 1,000 run cake. He reached his 100 off 129 balls with nine 4s and one 6, a relatively small proportion of boundaries for him. The Bradley brothers opened for Bovey and ran into some excellent seam bowling from Willcock and skipper Steve Nicholson. The pressure told on Pete Bradley and he was lbw to Willcock for 8. Brother Chris nursed a nervous looking Charlie Carter through the early overs. Carter was bowled by the impressive Brett Thomas, up from the second team, for 21. Andy Kaitiff now joined the bowling attack and rapidly removed Shepherd, bowled for 0. Nine runs later he struck again removing Bradley for 63, with a sharp return catch. Bradley?s knock had been patient and confident but at 101 for 4 and 20 overs still to go Bovey stopped going for the runs and started to try and paddle home. Willcock returned to remove Simon Newton for 13. Kaitiff now bowled Bill Cad-Hudson for 5. Ayres drove at a widish ball and was smartly caught by Thomas for 40. With eight balls left Nicholson had James Mason caught at first slip by Searle for one. Searle followed it up by bowling young Dan Newton first ball. Rory Bogard was joined by the injured Stephenson, barely able to walk to the wicket, but ready to stand last. He safely negotiated the final six balls and Bovey achieved a losing draw. Tavistock took 15 points and Bovey eight. This week Tavistock entertain Shobrooke Park at the Ring with only 38 more points required to be certain of promotion.
