Dartington and Totnes First Eleven tasted double success last week with victory over Stoke Gabriel on Thursday in the semi-final of the Aaron Printers Narracott Cup before routing Cornwood Seconds in the league on Saturday.
In Thursday’s semi-final Phil Snyman was the star of the show as he led D&T to a 6-wicket victory. Stoke made 143-7 from their 20 overs, mainly thanks to a quickfire 40 from Andy Kingdon and 32 from Mike Meech. Joe Parker led the bowling with 3/12 but was ably assisted by Harry Baxendale who took 2/13. Parker also scored 23 in the chase but was overshadowed by Snyman who hit a match winning 86 not out from 58 deliveries including 5 sixes. He led D&T to victory with 11 balls to spare. They play Paignton in the final at South Devon CC on Friday the 5thJuly.
Saturday’s league game marked the half-way point in the season. So far, D&T had won eight from eight and only dropped two points. They travelled to Cornwood Seconds knowing a tough game lay ahead if they wanted to finish the first half of the season unbeaten.
On what looked a good batting surface and with a small boundary on one side, Cornwood skipper Ben Griffiths won the toss and elected to bat. However, his side got off to a bad side when the returning Nick Dennis’s first ball had opener James Richardson caught behind by keeper Alex Winch in the second over. Fellow opening bowler Phil Snyman then had two wickets in an over, when his extra pace meant Mark Roca could only mistime a pull to James Howrihane at mid-off for 3 and Luke Richardson edged through to Jono Colegate at second slip to fall for a duck and leave the hosts struggling on 14-3.
Colegate was then introduced into the attack and picked up his first wicket when he bowled George Thompson without scoring. The score had been taken to 56 when the fifth wicket fell, Craig Harris LBW to Chris Cook for a patient and well-made 34. A further 16 runs were added before Colegate picked up two wickets in successive balls when he bowled Ben Griffiths for 16 and Nick Tracey for a golden duck. Ben Collins then survived a strong LBW shout for the hat-trick ball.
Skipper Harry Baxendale introduced himself into the attack and had Collins caught behind by Winch for 4. Snyman was reintroduced into the attack and picked up his third wicket when he had Sam Griffiths LBW for one and Baxendale finished the innings off by having Dan Skeemer caught by Cook for the fourth duck of the innings, leaving Jamie Bailey unbeaten on 18.
Cornwood had been bowled out for 93, with Craig Harris, Ben Griffiths and Bailey being the main contributors with the bat. Colegate finished with 4 wickets, Snyman and Baxendale 2 each in what had been another superb effort in the field. It was the sixth time this season that D&T had bowled out a side for under 100 runs.
Cook and Snyman began the chase for the visitors, and as they have done so many times this season began strongly. The score had been taken to 35 when Cook was given out LBW to Sam Griffiths for 4. Baxendale joined Snyman in the middle and the pair added 30 before the former could only pull a Harris delivery to Luke Richardson for 10.
Snyman and new man Colegate saw D&T to victory, Snyman hitting a massive six to get the winning runs, finishing up on 49 not out and his partner 12 not out.
It had been a comprehensive 8-wicket win for the visitors with notable contributions coming from Snyman and Colegate with both bat and ball. The end of the game marked the halfway point of the season with D&T remaining unbeaten and having dropped only two points all season to leave them 44 points clear at the top of the C Division West.
Next Friday the 5th, they play in the Aaron Printers Narracott Cup Final at South Devon CC against Paignton, with the game starting at 6pm before returning to league action on Saturday with a game away at local rivals Kingsbridge.