Yelverton Bohemians first v Ashburton

THE Bohemians continued their solid start to the season with a winning draw at home against newly promoted Ashburton on Saturday.

Ashburton skipper Marcus West won the toss and invited the Bohemians to bat.

The top three — Berry (28), Khan (21) and Loze (26) — set up an imposing total. West was the pick of the visitors' bowlers (10-1-46-4), backed by some intelligent spinning from Ashley Harvey (13-2-32-2).

Robbie Bennett (27) and Tim Rutherford (21) in the Bohemian's middle order carried on the early momentum to take the hosts to 174-9 on a difficult track.

For the second week running the Yelverton opening bowling attack turned the screw. Although sharing just one wicket between them, Bennett (10-5-21-0) and Cunningham's (11-4-35-1) miserly opening spell put the visitors so far behind the run rate that the target looked out of reach.

Peters (26) and Durman (28) provided some momentum but when young left-armer Matt Tamsett (7-2-16-2) bowled intelligently in the middle of the innings with the canny Rob Guy (13-3-34-3), effectively ended Ashburton's hopes.

With fielders often crowding the bat, Yelverton skipper Stokes tried several options to take the last few wickets. His wicket in the penultimate over gave the Bohemians a glimmer of hope, but the Ashburton tail dug in; number seven Marshall (25) and skipper West (17) batting at 10 contributed to their survival at 126 for 8.

This was another imposing performance from the Bohemians, with the ground fielding and catching once again sharp, who took 13 points from this winning draw.