Devon D division

Lewdown firsts  v 

Ottery St Mary

AFTER last week's crushing defeat at the hands of Hatherleigh and only six points separating the top three, a win at Ottery, who have only been beaten twice this season, was almost a must for Lewdown.

To their disappointment Lewdown lost the toss and were asked to bat on what was a good looking and hard wicket.

The early loss of Lewdown's top run scorer Mevan Porage put Lewdown on the back foot and with former Devon bowler Mark Woodman bowling a great line and length runs were hard to come by and after 26 overs they had laboured to 64-2, the rest of the batsmen were asked to bat in 20/20 mode and they duly obliged.

Harry Geering (55) and Mark Jordan (29) in a partnership of 66 in 8 overs got Lewdown going and with good contributions from the lower and mid order batsmen they managed to score 135 in the last 20 overs and reach the respectable total of 199-9.

The Ottery reply got off to a fair start at 52-1 after 15 overs but the loss of two quick wickets put Lewdown back on top.

In came danger man and another former Devon player in John Tierney, several boundary's later and the score 110-5 the game was in the balance until Tierney went for one big shot to many and holed out at long off, another wicket for Porage.

Lewdown now needed three wickets in the last 16 overs but the game ended with Ottery batting out for the losing draw, finishing on 175-7.

Porage finishing with his seasons best figures of 4-42 and Jordan 2-43.

With Thorverton losing Lewdown are now second by just two points in the league.

In the last game of the season Lewdown have the difficult task of trying to beat local rivals and an in form Whitchurch team at home for 19 points to guarantee promotion.