Devon Cricket League E Division Yelverton Bohemians 1st XI v Exeter Civil Service YELVERTON recorded a victory on their first outing of the season thanks largely to a magnificent 82 from opener Geoff Brain. Exeter CS won the toss and had no hesitation in asking Yelverton to bat on a green early season Langton Park track.  This looked to be a good decision when Farnham miss- timed a pull directly to square leg in the third over.  However, 16 year old Rob Bennett (22) came to the wicket and played a patient innings to see off the new ball.   Veteran Gerry Keen (20) formed another partnership with Brain before a late onslaught took the score up to 219-8. Brain fell 16 short of what would have been a wonderful century, having hit 12 fours.   For Civil, Murphy (3-43), Rowe (2-37) and Skidmore (2-30) were the pick of the bowlers but the 37 extras conceded did not help. In reply, Exeter were in immediate trouble as Brain (2-18) came on to bowl and took two early wickets.  A fine fourth wicket partnership between Calderwood (77) and Murphy (43) brought Civil close to victory.   Calderwood went after hitting 13 fours; the Exeter tail collapsed and they finished just 18 short on 201. Jez Stokes (2-18) and captain Rob Guy (3-58) picked up the wickets. Yelverton (20) beat Exeter Civil Service (9) by 18 runs Man of the match: Geoff Brain. Devon 2nd XI League C Division Yelverton Bohemians 2nd XI v Stoke Gabriel THE Seconds travelled to Stoke Gabriel and an all- round team performance saw them gain a comfortable 5-wicket victory. Stoke won the toss and elected to bat first, but must have thought twice about their decision as Adrian Hood and Tony Carter bowled a tight line and the Stoke batsmen found runs hard to come by on the slow and low wicket.   Hood gained an early reward courtesy of an excellent catch by keeper Dave Scott. The other opener soon followed, also to Hood reducing Stoke to 16 - 2.  Debutant Andy Alford (5-0-17-1) replaced Hood (11-2-32-2) after his opening spell and in his third over trapped the free scoring Nand-lal leg before.   Vice-captain Chris Pearson had by now replaced Carter at the other end and produced a spell of 11- 8-5-1 to tie up one end.   Veteran Jerry Warland replaced Alford, and in his first over induced a run-out following excellent work in the field by Richard Garland.   With excellent cover fielding by Degg, McDowell and Garland singles were few and far between and Warland turned the screw, taking 2 cheap wickets, including Stoke's Aussie import Jackson. Carter replaced the tiring Pearson and nipped out the last three wickets as the Stoke innings closed on 91 with 2 overs remaining.   Indeed between them Carter and Pearson only conceded 18 runs while the more expensive Hood, Alford and Warland conceded 70. Yelverton openers skipper Kevin Beare and Andy Taylor went to the wicket with a positive intent and soon got the scoreboard ticking along in an opening partnership of 29 before Taylor was bowled by the impressive Jackson.  Jason Degg came to the wicket and his audacious running saw the scoreboard continue to tick over until Degg (13) was surprised by a delivery from Stoke bowler Perkins with the score on 53.   Ricky McDowell replaced Degg and before he had got into his stride he played around a straight full toss from Perkins and was adjudged lbw without scoring with the score on 57. Next batsman Dave Scott, after scoring a couple of singles, failed to pick ºup a fast full toss from Jackson which hit him a painful blow on the knee and he was adjudged lbw. Richard Garland replaced Scott and first ball received an unplayable delivery which wrapped him on the pads and the umpire had no hesitation in raising the finger.   With the score on 68-5 following the loss of 4 wickets for 15 runs vice-captain Pearson came to the wicket and together with skipper Beare saw there were no further alarms with a partnership of 26 to see Yelverton home with 21 overs to spare.   Skipper and man of the match Beare carried his bat for an excellent 41 n/o. Yelverton II (18) beat Stoke Gabriel II (2) by 5 wickets. Tamar League ' B' Section Yelverton 3rd XI v Lifton THE Thirds faced off against Lifton on a rather moist and slightly overgrown Crapstone wicket. Stand in skipper Lee Johns won the toss and put the visitors into bat. Despite the conditions Yelverton were unable to capitalise early on as catch after catch was put down in the field allowing Lifton's openers Edmounds (73) and Dawe (38) to gradually build a formidable partnership. Eventually, Adam King showed the rest of the team how it should be done by holding on to one to send Dawe back to the pavilion. From that point on Lifton struggled to build a partnership and the runs began to dry up thanks to good bowling from Terry Stevens (2 for 18) and Ian Dawe (2 for 15). Lifton posted a challenging 154 for the loss of 6 wickets. Yelverton's innings began badly with Johns (0) running out King (0) without facing a ball before giving away his own wicket the following over. But a fantastic partnership between Stevens (72) and 16-year-old Matt Tamsett (48) put Yelverton back into the driving seat and despite losing a few wickets late on Yelverton were able to reach 155 for 8 with five overs to spare. Yelverton's stand-in wicket keeper Matt Tamsett who despite normally being a bowler, had a fantastic debut behind the stumps conceeding only 3 byes in tricky conditions. Yelverton III (17) beat Lifton (8) by 2 wickets.