Devon D West

Whitchurch seconds v

Plymouth fourths

PLYMOUTH fourth team probably woke up the next morning wondering how they let Whitchurch off the hook. Twice they had the home team well and truly on the back foot and both times let them off.

Stand in Whitchurch captain Andy Alford chose to bat and quickly saw his team in deep trouble as they slumped to 17-4. Kyruppo (3-25) steamed in and was just too quick for the opening batsmen.

Tom Sherrell hooked him for a six in the first over but then was caught behind in the next over. Adrian Towl (37) proved to be the saviour as he and Alford (13) brought some calm to the proceedings putting on a patient if not uneventful 61 runs.

Young Poole added a quick fire 13 to give Whitchurch a modest total of 119 by the time their overs ran out.

This shouldn't have been anywhere near enough and at 42-0 Plymouth were cruising. Hughes (26) and Rothwell (27) were easing the visitors to a comfortable win. Tom Sherrell was rewarded for his patience by first snaring Hughes and then taking out the rest of the top order. The player of the day was Doug Vernon (5-4) who bowled a 'straight and accurate spell'. The Plymouth middle order simply couldn't deal with him and collapsed from 80-3 to 88 all out; his son Josh mopped up the tail.

With Cockington only picking up one point this leaves Whitchurch with a remote possibility of avoiding relegation.