Dartington and Totnes First Eleven made it five wins out of five with a 9-wicket hammering of lowly Yelverton at a sun-drenched Foxhole.
Keen to keep the excellent start to the season going, D&T skipper Harry Baxendale won the toss and elected to bowl first on a surface that had something in it for both the batsmen and the bowlers. His decision looked a good one when, with the score on 5, opener Ben Grove edged last week’s hero Alex Hartridge through to keeper Alex Winch to fall for a duck.
Fellow new ball bowler Phil Snyman then took three wickets in an over, bowling Chris Mercer, Richard Townsend and Robert Grove to leave the visitors struggling on 18-4. The score had been taken to 37 when the fifth wicket fell, Arvind Singh bowled by the dangerous Snyman without scoring.
Chris Cook then got in on the action dismissing surviving opening batsman Geoff Brian LBW for 21 and having James Casey caught by Tom Chevallier for 2. Snyman then completed his five-wicket haul when he bowled James Fern for 3. It had been a superb spell of fast-bowling from Snyman who had troubled the batsmen all afternoon with his unerring accuracy and searing pace.
From 46-8, the away side made a mini-recovery thanks to a 38-run partnership between Tom Richards and Ryan Dibble. Numerous chances were put down by the D&T fielders as frustration began to grow. However, captain Baxendale brought himself back on to bowl and he wrapped up the innings quickly by having Tom Richards caught by Joe Parker for 2 and Sam Crompton LBW for the fourth duck of the innings.
The visitors had been bowled out for 86, mainly thanks to Phil Snyman who finished with the impressive figures of 5/16. While the fielding standards were not up to the usual high standards it had still been an impressive bowling effort to restrict a side to under 100 for the fourth time this season.
D&T opening batsmen Snyman and Cook began the chase aggressively and had taken the score to 46 when the first wicket fell, Snyman gloving a rising Crompton delivery to keeper Ben Grove for 29. However, this would turn out to be the only wicket to fall as Cook and Baxendale knocked off the 41 runs to leave D&T the victors by 9 wickets. Cook was 29 not out at the end and Baxendale unbeaten on 14.
It had been a comprehensive victory for the D&T to consolidate their 14-point lead at the top of the C Division West. Another strong bowling performance had allowed the batsmen the relatively simple task of knocking off the 87 runs required with more than 29 overs to spare. Having only dropped one point all season, they travel to Shaldon next Saturday for what promises to be the stiffest test of the season so far for the inform D&T team.