Devon seconds B West Plymouth Civil Service and Roborough seconds v Yelverton seconds

ON a sunny and warm afternoon, Plymouth Civil Service and Roborough’s captain Adrian Vickery won the toss and had no hesitation in electing to bat first on a pitch that looked full of runs.

Yelverton’s opening bowlers Dom Rushton and Chris Pearson hit their line and length right away and Rushton bowled Vickery for two with the score on six.  At the other end, Pearson bowled a miserly spell of nine overs picking up three wickets for 14 runs to leave the visitors on 32-4.

Declan Schroeder and Nathan Bulley put on 21 for the fifth wicket before Schroeder fell lbw to the second ball of Ben Spear’s spell (9-0-28-1).

A sixth wicket partnership of 51 by Bulley and Stuart Dent threatened, but home skipper Chris Vinson removed Bulley for 23 caught behind by keeper Keen with the score on 104.  Dent followed soon after for a well made 35, caught by Ben Jones at point off Dom Rushton (8-0-31-3). 

Rushton and Ian Dawe (7.5-1-29-2) finished off the tail-enders as the innings closed on 130 off 42.5 overs.  An excellent catch by U14 player Alex Smith at midwicket was the highlight of a good fielding display.

In reply, Yelverton’s opening pair, veteran Brian Spear and U14 colt Alex Smith, set off at a rapid pace with Smith in particular hitting a number of early boundaries.  The visiting side were unable to curb the scoring rate and the pair raced to a 100 partnership in just over 20 overs before Spear was caught for a stylish 30. 

Smith was joined by fellow Colt, Ben Jones, and the pair knocked off the remaining 26 runs to see the side home for a comfortable nine wicket victory off 26.4 overs .  Alex Smith ended up on 69 not out and Ben Jones on 22 not out.

Yelverton seconds (20 points) beat PSC and R seconds (2 points) by nine wickets.