Dartington & Totnes Cricket Club

Chagford II 166 for 8 Dartington & Totnes II 166 for 9

Dartington & Totnes (17 points) beat Chagford (7 points) by one wicket

Dartington & Totnes won a thrilling contest off the last ball of the match to pull off what had, for a large part of their innings, seemed to be an unlikely victory.  Tom Petherick with 56 and Gareth Havard with 41 not out were D&T’s run heroes, both playing terrific innings, but last man Pete Glen also took the plaudits.  D&T needed two runs to win with one ball remaining and Glen on strike.   All four results were possible as the canny Steve Sizmur ran in to bowl. Glen kept his nerve and flicked the ball away beautifully bisecting the square and fine leg fielders for the match winning runs, to the rapturous delight of his team mates.

At the beginning of the innings D&Ts openers had dug in against the Chagford’s father and son combination of opening bowlers, Steve and Gary Sizmur.  Gary normally plays first team cricket and his class was apparent from the onset as he bowled with pace and fluidity, obtaining plenty of movement.  Paul Taylor and Darren Colegate made a solid but understandably quiet start whilst looking to score off any opportunity.  Taylor was bowled for 10 by the younger Sizmur trying to drive.  Nikheel Jina came in and reined in his normal aggressive instincts before perishing, in similar fashion to Taylor, for 1.  Jina may only have managed a single but it ultimately proved to be an invaluable run.  Colegate looked like he might build a sizeable score but lofted the elder Sizmur to long on after making 11.

Tom Petherick soon accelerated the run rate, playing in his beautiful characteristic style, but when Mike Jarvis (6) feathered a delivery from Steve Sizmur to the wicketkeeper it looked ominous for D&T on 39 for 4.   After 23 overs D&T had reached 53 but more importantly Petherick, ably assisted by Gareth Havard, had seen off the opening bowlers without any further loss of wicket.  Petherick scored freely all around the wicket with some delightful cuts, drives and pulls.  He reached his 50 in nonchalant fashion but shortly afterwards played a widish delivery from young Penberthy onto his stumps with the score on 98.  D&T still had a lot to do and the batting was running out. Havard, oozing confidence, now took over the lead role, batting with freedom and aggression.  Andrew Bligh (6) assisted him well for a while as Havard took the Lion’s share of the strike.  With ten overs remaining fity runs were required.  Paul Raven, playing with a broken toe, chipped in with 8.  Ben Hartridge looked composed and played sensibly until he was run out for 6. Mick Rusling came in with 12 runs needed and 2.3 overs left.  With an over to go only 4 runs were needed with Rusling on strike and the wiley Steve Sizmur back into the attack.

There were further twists as Sizmur proved too good for Rusling (6), bowling him with his first delivery.  Glen, who had arrived at the crease with the body language of a man awaiting execution, missed the second delivery but managed a single off the third ball to bring Havard on strike.  Havard blocked the next ball but then drove the fifth ball firmly and it seemed to be heading to the boundary only for a fielder to get a desperate hand on it bringing only one run and Glen back on strike.  Everything rested on the final delivery.  If Glen was dismissed, Chagford  would win, a single would result in a tie and a dot ball a draw. Unruffled Glen despatched the final ball for a two and raised his bat in triumph, his beaming face a joy to behold.

Chagford had been put in to bat and, for the third week in succession, Rusling struck with his first delivery,  when Jarvis caught Gary Sizmur at silly mid-on.  Rusling (2 for 25) had no more joy until his thirteenth over when he trapped the other opener, Filor lbw for 40 with a long hop.   Glen then dismissed Oats for 5 when Jarvis took a remarkable diving catch, appearing to have a bionic arm as he slid his hand under the ball.  After some consolidation Chagford  reached 55 before Glen (2 for 39) struck again when Mount was smartly caught behind for 18.  Hartridge joined the attack and found prodigious turn.  Hartridge (2 for 31) had skipper Simon Snell and Ridgers both caught at long on by Bligh and Jarvis respectively.  Remarkably it was Jarvis’ ninth catch in two matches.  111 for 6,  Hartridge and Havard were tying the batsmen down and it seemed D&T might restrict Chagford to around 130.  However, Baker was a thorn in D&T’s side biffing any leg-sided delivery until being run out for 43, following a smart throw from Bligh.  Raven picked up a wicket but Steve Sizmur, 23 not out, took advantage of some indifferent deliveries and the last over went for 16 to enable Chagford to set a decent total.

19.5.12 DandT v Chelston- Click link to see how Josh’s boys did it!

Click here for first team score card     thorverton 19.5.12

The Chairman’s dream of winning the Brockman Cup again, turned to ashes once more on a windswept evening at Stokeinteignhead. The evening had begun in an  inauspicious manner when Josh Thomas did not remember he had agreed to play and we were a man short.  Sam Jerome  stepped up to the breach at short notice.   At 5.45 pm the Chairman was phoned by Paul Taylor who was at Foxhole and asking where every body was.  The answer, of course, was that we were en route to Stokeinteignhead.

Paul Raven turned up to support us and revealed he had shattered his little toe at nets last week after being hit by a ball from Jono ‘Toecrusher’  Colegate.  Jarvs won the toss and elected to bat rather than start without his wicketkeeper.  Nikheel was soon dismissed but jarvs and Levin put a good partnership together.  Levin was a bit rusty and his usually fine timing took a bit of time to warm up before he unleashed some of his trademark lusty blows.  We were in a strong position when Jarvs went for 24.  Levin went for 36 and we had about 90 on the board with 5 overs remaining and 7 wickets in hand.  Gareth Havard, a whippet between the wickets did a good job, as wickets began to tumble, and we closed on a reasonably competitive 118.

We started well in the field.  The Chaiman kept it tight at one end whilst Jono picked up a couple of wickets at the other end.  After they came off the scoring rate increased but when Ben Hartridge struck they were 38 for 3 and we looked the favourites.  Some loose bowling was punished and Stoke eased home with a couple of overs to spare.   The absence of DC and the the injured Dave Griffiths proved costly in the end as the bowlers were found wanting on a surprisingly hard surface.

Another weekend when we struggled to get teams out.  Josh took a very inexperienced 3rd XI side to Paignton which went down by 8 wickets.

The first XI took four players from the previous week’s 2s- Me,  Jarvs, Ben and Andy Bligh.   Replacing Bertus with me was not quite like for like!  Firsts conceded 191 and reached 124 for 9 missing out on points for a losing draw by 3 runs.  The seconds conceded 201 and made 123 for 9 in reply- 10 runs short of points for the losing draw. Under Devon League rules to gain points for a losing draw the team batting second need to get 2/3 of the other side’s total and, of course, still have wickets in hand.  The only change this season is that if a side fails to get the 2/3 their 2 points are added on to the other teams points hence Barnstaple got 8 points for the draw rather than 6.  Simple isn’t it?

At Barnstaple half the team thought we had lost the match despite my attempts to explain that if the opposition hadn’t won we could not possibly have lost.  If you don’t believe me look at the results on the Devon website!

The second XI were hugely indebted to Jack Buckner who was helping us out as a favour. Opening the batting Jack scored 78 not out.  Extras made 31 and in a sorry batting display nobody else made double figures.  I’m hoping you will all be at nets practicing.   Mick

plymouth CS1 2 12.5.12   2s scorecard – click on link

I was hoping the match would be rained off.  My back has been very bad and is several weeks away from being ok.  If I’d had any sense I wouldn’t have made myself available to play.  We met up at Meadowbrook and were a bit slow getting off.  I drove down with Tom, chatting away merrily-as is my wont.  I can’t multi-task and tend to drive slowly when talking.  As we approached Plymouth Tom pointed out there wasn’t much time due to my “tootling along at 60mph”.

We just missed a ferry and as one of the Torpoint ferries was out of action had to wait a while.  Where was Daz, we wondered.  He was supposed to meet us at the ferry terminal.  As we were wondering I received a text from Daz saying “where are you?”  It transpired he was over in Torpoint having caught the ferry.

Tom had a merry chat with Darren who decided go on ahead to the Plymouth IV ground.  Tom kept saying “Go on past Anthony” (meaning it’s just past Anthony House- A Royal Naval establishment.),  like he and Daz were both  locals.

When we reached the ground Daz was nowhere in sight.  I phoned him  ”where are you Daz”. ” I’m just past Anthony” (Village).  He was several miles down the road.

I agreed to stand by the road to guide him in.  Everyone was getting changed and I’m standing by the road doing a bit of stretching.  PT arrived around 1.50pm-still no sign of Daz.  Eventually he showed up not best pleased and the rest, as they say, is history.

Plymouth IV 55 all out Dartington & Totnes II 56 for 2

Dartington & Totnes (20 points) beat Plymouth (1 point) by 8 wickets.

The seconds made a cracking start to the League season  against a largely youthful Plymouth side.   Mick Rusling, ripped the heart out of the Plymouth batting line up in a devastating spell, taking 7 wickets for 6 runs in 13 overs.  Skipper Mike Jarvis fielded brilliantly and remarkably took 6 catches.  The batsmen then saw D&T home safely, if sedately, to clinch a comprehensive victory.

Jarvs won the toss and put Plymouth in to bat a on a damp, slow track.  David Griffiths and Mick  opened the bowling.   Mick asked Jarvs for a  fielder close in on the leg side.  Jarvs put himself at silly mid on and  Colmer hit Mick’s first ball straight to Jarvs, much to Mick’s delight.  Mick then struck again in his second over when the experienced Sewell lofted the ball between mid on and mid off.  Ted Waller, on debut, took ownership taking a fine catch, winding himself in the process.  From 4 for 2 Plymouth consolidated and with opener Joe Cunningham batting solidly there was no suggestion of the collapse which was to follow. Dave bowled very tightly conceding only 16 runs in 9 overs and Mick did not even concede a run until his sixth over.  the conditions were ideally suited to Mick’s slow inswingers.  Cunningham showed rare aggressive intent with a straight driven six but runs were at a premium on a difficult track.  By the 16^th over Plymouth had reached 24 when Mick produced a peach of a delivery to bowl Cunningham for 18.  Jarvs took a fine low catch to dismiss Hagen-Burt (3) and 2 balls later keeper Paul Taylor smartly stumped Wood to give Mick his fifth wicket.  By now Mick was pinching himself to check if he was dreaming.   When Jarvs caught Halford close in Mick had bagged all the first 6 wickets and he was wondering when one of the other bowlers would come to the party.

Another debutant, Gareth Havard, came into the attack and, after a nervous start, settled well taking the seventh wicket when Jarvs took an exceptional catch, diving forwards at mid off, to dismiss Haffenden for 14.  Rusling bowled Ali round his legs and his spell ended with Plymouth on 45 for 8.  Gareth (2 for 23) had Callicott caught by Jarvs for 5 before Ben Hartridge (1 for 1), finished things off when Jarvs  took his sixth catch of the innings.

D & T had 61 overs to score 56 runs and opted for a patient approach.  Darren Colegate and Paul Taylor opened the batting and like their Plymouth counterparts found run scoring difficult.   Both played patiently and sensibly and at tea D&T had reached 19 without loss off 15 overs.  Refreshed, the pair continued, and took the score to 34 before the iconic Colegate, after running a 2 and 3 in quick succession, semed to run out of steam and was caught in the covers for 12.  Tom Petherick came to the crease and after playing a beautiful fine late cut was run out after a smart throw.  New man, Paul Raven (9 not out) and Taylor 23 not out, saw D&T home in 36 overs.

After the match Mick was full of praise for Jarvos captaincy and fielding.  The ‘ love in’ continued as Skipper Jarvis said “Mick’s bowling is like a fine wine- it gets better with his age”.  Rusling replied modestly “I had two good lbw shouts turned down and if I’d been fully fit might have managed all ten wickets”.  Mick gave his team mates a vote of confidence saying “I wasn’t sure about our batting and thought I’d better get them out as quick as I could”.

Mick said he wished he’d bought a Lottery ticket!  He said he’d been around long enough to know that next week he might have figures of 0 for 50 so wouldn’t be getting too carried away.

D&T v Tavistock  click on this link for scorecard

The  first team had a fantastic win over Tavistock despite being bowled out for 87 on a damp track.  (Cliff had not wanted the match to go ahead)

Ryan and Bertus opened the batting and we were 41 without loss before Bertus went for 22 and then Ryan soon followed for 18.  H was the only other player to reach double figures with a valuable 13 not out.

Tavvy were doubtless confident of victory needing to score 88 in 61 0vers.  The overs worked in our favour as Raz was able to bowl 18.  Tavvy found run scoring even harder than we did and were on the back foot from the start when Nathan bowled their opener for a duck.  From 24 for 6 they progressed to 70 all out.  Ryan took 5 for 29, Nathan 3 for 23 with Bertus and Jono picking up a wicket apiece.

Newsletter_April_2012

Our agreement with Harberton requires us to provide 2 people to go on their pitch preparation rota.

We hoped Syd would be one of these but he is now unable to do this.  Please contact me if you can offer some help which ever side you play for.

Similarly at Foxhole.  Volunteers needed for pitch preparation.  training given!

Without a pitch we can’t play.  Please rally round and offer some time.  Thanks.  Mick