Dartington and Totnes First Eleven completed their remarkable unbeaten season when they hammered Cornwood Seconds by 10 wickets at Foxhole.
D&T skipper Harry Baxendale won the toss and elected to bowl first and his side had their first wicket in the second over when Ciaran Gray edged Nick Dennis through to keeper Alex Winch to fall for a duck. In his next over, Dennis picked up his second wicket when Anthony Chapman could only drag a full ball onto his stumps for 4 and leave the visitors 7-2.
Craig Harris and Nick Goodliffe set about rebuilding the Cornwood innings but the pair could only add 20 runs. Baxendale introduced Andy Bligh into the attack and in his second over he had Harris caught behind by Winch to fall for 5. Two overs later, Bligh had a second when Bradley Nicholls was bowled for 1.
The score had been taken to 46 when the fifth wicket fell, Baxendale bowling Goodliffe for a patient 7. Cornwood now had their two danger men at the crease in Ben Griffths and James Richardson and were in desperate need of a partnership. Both men played some powerful shots with Griffths striking a large straight six off Baxendale.
However, with the partnership on 23, Baxendale had the last laugh when Griffths attempted another big shot but could only pick out Dennis at long on, who took a good catch, to fall for 25 at quicker than a run a ball. Richardson, who had been the more patient partner in the previous partnership was then dismissed by Jono Colegate for 9. Cornwood then slipped to 74-8 when Colegate bowled Josh Goodliffe for a duck.
New batsman Lee Baker hung around for a bit before eventually Baxendale bowled him for 6 and with the score on 91, Colegate took the final wicket to fall when he bowled Jamie Bailey for 11, only the second double figure score of the innings.
It had been another superb bowling display from D&T to bowl Cornwood out for a miserly 91 on what was a good batting track. Baxendale and Colegate both finished with three wickets each, which took them to 43 and 39 wickets for the season respectively, while Dennis and Bligh finished with two wickets apiece.
As usual, D&T openers Phil Snyman and Chris Cook began positively. Cornwood knew that they needed early wickets if they were to have even a glimmer of hope of winning the game, but the D&T batsmen had other ideas.
Snyman, who has been by far the standout batsmen in the league, set about destroying the Cornwood bowlers. No matter where the bowler pitched it, he hammered the ball sending it all around the boundary.
In just the 10thover, the game was done when, with six runs needed, Snyman reverse-swept a towering six to seal the victory and ensure D&T finished the season unbeaten. Cook finished 25 not out and Snyman a remarkable 61 not out off just 30 balls to finish the season with an astonishing 954 league runs.
It was a performance from D&T which summed up their entire season, dominance from start to finish. As expected, skipper Baxendale was ecstatic with his side saying ‘To only drop 4 bonus points in games we played this season shows how dominant we were all season. From what we can see, no side has ever picked up as many points as us in an 18 game season and I think that is testament to the boys and the hard work they have put in this year. We look forward to the challenge of B Division Cricket next year.’
Invincible- The First Eleven celebrate their unbeaten season