Dartington and Totnes First Eleven continued their unbeaten start to the season with an 8-wicket thumping of previously unbeaten Plymouth Seconds at Mount Wise.
Plymouth skipper Phil Taylor won the toss and elected to bat on a good batting wicket which had seen 569 runs scored on it the weekend before. However, this decision did not appear to be the correct one when a devastating new ball spelling of bowling by Alex Hartridge reduced the hosts to 9-4. Each of Hartridge’s first four overs yielded a wicket as he ripped out the Plymouth top order.
The first wicket fell in the second over when Hartridge caught Sam White off his own bowling for a duck. In his next over he had fellow opener Geoff Martin bowled, also for a duck before having Ollie Parsons caught behind by ‘keeper Alex Winch for 3. His fourth over brought his fourth wicket when he bowled Sam Knapman without troubling the scorers to leave the hosts reeling.
There was no let up for the home side however as new bowler Jono Colegate then had Jon Cummings LBW for 12. The next partnership between Ethan Carlisle and David Burke was the biggest of the innings. Together the pair added 22 valuable runs before Carlisle was superbly caught one-handed by a diving Winch for 8 to give Colegate his second wicket and leave the hosts 45-6.
D&T skipper Harry Baxendale then brought himself on to bowl and bowled a tight spell only conceding 11 runs from his 8 overs while also picking up two wickets. He picked up his first wicket when Tom Hughes could only help a wide delivery to Colegate in the gully for 9 and had a second soon after when he trapped Taylor LBW for the fourth duck of the innings.
Opening bowlers Phil Snyman and Hartridge returned to the attack and Snyman picked up a well-deserved wicket when he had Jack Hughes caught behind by Winch for his third catch of the innings. It was left to Hartridge to take the final wicket and complete his five-wicket haul when Chris Cook caught Burke for a patient 17, the hosts dismissed for only 66.
It had been a superb all-round bowling and fielding display from D&T with all of the bowlers picking up at least one wicket and going for less than 3 runs an over. The pick of the bowlers was Hartridge who finished with the superb figures of 5/16.
A D&T victory seemed inevitable and the shell-shocked Plymouth side took to the field knowing they needed several early wickets to get back in the game. However, this did not happen as openers Snyman and Cook batted confidently, punishing any loose bowling and running well between the wickets.
The pair took D&T to within six runs of victory when Tom Hughes had Cook caught by Cummings for 11. Fellow opener Snyman was then dismissed in the next over for 37 when he was caught by Hughes off Taylor. This left it to Joe Parker and Jono Colegate to see D&T home to a comfortable 8-wicket win.
It had been a superb team display away to the previously unbeaten Plymouth and cemented D&T’s place at the top of the C-Division West with 79 points out of a maximum of 80. They hope to continue their winning run at home to Yelverton next Saturday.