Glenn is the top Colegate

Dartington & Totnes II 186 for 9,  Paignton III 138  for 9  Dartington & Totnes (18 points) beat Paignton (7 points) by 48  runs.

Although we won comfortably in the end we were made to work hard by a Paignton unit who reduced us to 114 for 8 before Glenn’s 36 not out helped us to reach a defendable total.

Blessed with a plethora of Colegates, Gavin elected to bat and opened with himself and Neil.  The brothers got off to a good start against Paignton’s youthful opening attack, putting on 51 in ten overs for the first wicket.  The turning point came when Paignton introduced seasoned campaigner, Mike Pedley, into the attack.  Pedley bowled Neil for 17 and Gavin for 25 in his second over.   Pedley (3 for 7 in 4 overs) then made it a hat trick of Colegates by inducing Jono to hit a catch straight to mid-on.   Jono complained he couldn’t plays second team cricket -the irony being that he was dismissed by a former Premier League player!

We were relieved when Pedley came out of the attack, as Paignton tried to bring all their young players into the game.  However, we did not fare much better against the other bowlers.   Tom  looked in good touch and temporarily stopped the rot with Keith, until he was caught off Williams for 14 and then Keith was run out for 8.  Woodcock bowled James Hartridge for 1 and trapped Joe Parker lbw for 10.   We were struggling on 114 for 8 when  Woodcock (3 for 23) trapped Phil Power lbw, with 14 overs still remaining.   It seemed unlikely we would bat out our overs.

Cometh the man cometh the hour- Glenn worked his magic adding 46 with Steve for the 9th wicket.  Mudgey played another useful innings before being caught for 18.   Last man Mick joined Glenn with 7 overs remaining and played with discipline, leaving the run scoring to Glenn. Runs accumulated, boosted by a generous helping of extras-there were 53 in total.  Glenn finished strongly, scoring eleven off the final over.  Mick and Gleen added an unbeaten 26 with Mick scoring just 1 of these!

After a sumptuous tea, Paignton got off to a decent start, putting 34 runs on the board before Joe struck with 2 wickets in successive balls.   Firstly, he had the experienced Gorman caught behind by keeper, Neil, for 10 and then new man George Woodcock caught by Gavin.  Joe (2 for 18) bowled a fine spell and bowling in tandem with Mick the batsman were tied down.  Joe was unlucky not to take further wickets as 2 catches went down off his bowling.    Opening bat Ali Tehrani was showing some classy touches and was looking good until he was bowled by an unplayable delivery from Mick (3 for 15), currently in a rich vein of form.  Mick caught and bowled McKee and then trapped Pedley lbw for 4, as Paignton were reduced to 82 for 5, needing 105 to win from 15 overs- which seemed to be a tall order.   It seemed unlikely Daz would have given Pedley out had he not sportingly walked- a rare sight for an lbw!

However, Paignton’s experienced skipper Trevor Massey was still there and proving difficult to dislodge.  Massey anchored the Paignton innings, punishing any wayward delivery.   Phil  missed a very sharp chance off his own bowling but then had Ollie Woodcock caught behind for 4.  Jono, making a rare appearance, picked up 2 wickets with his pacy spin, bowling Trevor Massey for 44 and then Charlotte Massey, caught and bowled.   Jono then caught Williams for 8 off brother Glenn’s bowling, but Paignton’s last pair, Brandon Pedley and Katie Harman had fun putting on 24 runs and D&T were unable to prise them out, despite bringing back speedster Steve Mudge for the final over.

After a disappointing start to the season the second XI have now won three games out of four, though a tough fixture awaits next Saturday at Plymouth.

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