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Posted:
Monday 16th June 2008
Source: Stephen Birley
It�s sunny weather all the way as Piper calls the tune, Acton
chips in and Ezquerro blows the Alphas away! The weather
really is being kind to the Club�s 1st XI this term and it seems
that everything is running in favour of the side this summer.
With a home game to the basement dwellers Alphington to
negotiate and the two main rivals for a promotion berth, Brixham
and Cornwood locking horns it may well have been what some
pundits call a �pivotal day� in the season�s A Division
campaign. So it doesn�t get much better than a Bradninch win
with a maximum twenty points and the 2nd and 3rd teams being
denied any form of action owing to the rain that was so isolated
on Saturday that it dumped only on teams in certain quarters of
South Devon! The upshot of all this is that going into this
coming weekend�s round eight of an 18 game schedule, Joel
Murphy�s men lead the table by 23 points from second placed
Cornwood whilst the team currently occupying third spot, Bovey
Tracey, are on 89 points, some 27 less than the present
Bradninch tally. So how were Alphington so comprehensively
despatched? With consummate ease is the answer to that one
although in truth, even the most blinkered of Kensham Park
follower would be quick to acknowledge that the visiting side
was well, well below the sort of standard you would expect from
a side playing in the second tier of Devon County League
cricket. Tim Piper and Ross Acton are two home grown Bradninch
players and both played major roles in the side being able to
close on 257-5. Gary Newall (17) and Dan Hardy (5) had got the
side off to a competent start but both fell with the total on 30
and when Ryan Butterworth was dismissed without troubling the
scorers 42-3 after 17 overs looked a �poor start�. But that
was when Piper and Adrian Ezquerro took on the task of innings
repair work. The pair took the score to 131-4 when the Aussie
all rounder played a �tired shot� and walked with 39 to his
name, but the stage was set for a Piper/Acton combination and
the pair did not disappoint as they clubbed a rapid fire 92 in
just eleven overs. Piper eventually went for 75 whilst Acton was
unbeaten on 72 at the close. The Piper half century came up in
64 balls and his entire innings included ten 4�s whilst Acton�s
fifty was done and dusted in just 39 balls, at the close he had
struck thirteen 4�s, eleven of which came in that quick fire
half century. Gary Chappell was unbeaten on 17 at the close of
the innings and the team total stood at 257-5. The visitors
were fielding a side shorn of three regular 1st XI players and
the common consensus was that once the home side had reached the
5th and final batting point a declaration could have been made
and so it proved as the Exeter side were bundled out for just
86, 28 of which � all boundaries, was scored by number nine
batsman Lewis Baxter. Not for the first time Aussie pace man
Ezquerro proved �too hot to handle� and at one stage he had the
remarkable figures of five overs, four maidens, five wickets for
one run, and that single run had been as the result of a miss
field. It is also worth pointing out that another of the
side�s youngsters, teenager Joe Webb, produced a catch to better
the stunner from Ezquerro in the previous home game. Webb
launched himself in true goal keeping style to hang on to a
simply outstanding catch in the deep covers. Ezquerro went on
to bowl ten overs before making way for Murphy and the pace
man�s figures at the end of his spell were 10/7/5-10 with only
one visiting player able to out bat to ball against him. South
African Matt Bamber managed four scoring shots off the Ezquerro
�assault�, they went for 4, 4 1 and 1. Murphy picked up two
wickets, a feat matched by teenager Elliot Acton and Ross Acton
claimed the other wicket to fall. The final wicket fell to
Murphy and the game was over with the pavilion clock on 6.44pm
and a 177 run win in the bank together with a maximum twenty
point haul. Next up another home game with the visit of 7th
placed Barton and another win would see the side move onto the
following week�s game that marks the half way mark of the season
superbly placed to go on and complete the job that was set back
in early May � a place in the top flight of county cricket,
history beckons for Murphy�s men. Meanwhile the Club�s 2nd XI
suffered a desperately disappointing defeat becoming the first
team this season to lose to Axminster II. Paul Nott was the 1st
XI�s 12th man and he was despatched to Cloakham Lawns with the
remainder of the side but it was another long standing club
stalwart who helped keep the innings together. Simon Bailey,
now into his umpteenth year with the club rolled back the years
with a splendid half century, but his 52 and a knock of 30 from
Rob Acton, were the only significant scores in an innings that
was all done and dusted on 147 and then with only Paul Nott
(2-52) able to make any inroads into the home batting it was the
hosts who gained a seven wicket win closing on 148-3. Such was
the surprise of the home win that Axminster II were named by the
Sunday Independent as the �team of the day�. Just three points
then from the trip to East Devon and after eight games the
Bradninch 2nds sit ten points above the drop zone and 26 shy of
2nd placed Cornwood. Next up is Saturday�s trip to another
side who will go into the game sitting in a relegation berth,
Barton, and only one team remains below them currently �
Axminster! | 
