Rain thwarts the ones

Rain dashed any hopes of a third successive victory for D&T First Eleven when their match against Chudleigh was abandoned halfway through the second innings with them needed only needed 53 more runs for victory.

D&T skipper Nick Dennis was relieved to win the toss and bowl on a wicket that was extremely wet given the recent rain and the visitors got off to the perfect start when Will Gornall, playing his first match for the club in nearly four years, bowled opener Paul Windsor-Horne round his legs for 1.

Chudleigh skipper Matt Heather joined opener Alex Haywood at the crease and the pair took the score to 33 before Heather missed a full toss from spinner Harry Baxendale to be LBW for 22. A further 24 runs were added before Haywood was dismissed, again LBW to Baxendale for a patient 7.

Will Heather and Mark Solway came to the crease and put on 12 before Heather was the third LBW of the innings, this time to Jono Colegate for 19. The next wicket, that of Solway started a collapse that saw the hosts lose their final five wickets for only 17 runs. He was dismissed when he chipped a return catch back to the returning Ben Hartridge for 8.

One run later they lost another two wickets when firstly Jack Beer missed a straight ball from Chris Cook for 1 and two balls later a rush of blood to the head from Saqib Hassan saw him bowled by Cook for a second ball duck. The eighth wicket fell with 93 on the board, Mark Russell bowled by Hartridge for 6.

Hartridge had a third wicket soon after when he bowled Kam Singh for 2 leaving it to Cook to wrap up the innings when he bowled Luke Quaintance, for the second duck of the innings leaving Adam Sercombe stranded on 16 at the other end.

Chudleigh had been bowled out for 100 in a clinical bowling performance from D&T on a wet afternoon. Hartridge and Cook were the pick of the bowlers picking up three wickets each with two for Baxendale and one each for Gornall and Colegate.

D&T openers Josh Orrell and Alex Winch knew that life would be tough opening up and indeed they found themselves both in the pavilion within the first three overs of the innings. Firstly, Orrell was trapped in front by Kam Singh for a duck and in the next over Winch was adjudged LBW off Russell for 1.

Baxendale and Colegate set about rebuilding the D&T innings and the score was taken to 27 when Baxendale feathered a thin edge through to ‘keeper Solway off Will Heather for 5. Colegate, who has yet to be dismissed this season, was joined by Cook and they added 21 unbeaten runs for the fourth wicket.

At this point despite the valiant efforts of the umpires to get a game on having played all afternoon in drizzle, the continued rain led to them having no choice but to take the players off and abandon the game, leaving Colegate unbeaten on 34 not out and Cook 3 not out.

It had been a frustrating game for D&T having bowled themselves into a good position and with a real chance of knocking the runs off when the rain made further play impossible. They face another away game next weekend away at Brixham where victory could seal their place as league leaders.

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