Devon D West

Whitchurch Wayfarers firsts

v Ipplepen seconds

WHITCHURCH bounced back from a sobering ten wicket defeat at Lewdown with an intelligent and measured five wicket victory against Ipplepen.

The visitors were still vying for a promotion slot coming into the game, setting the scene for an intriguing match — and so it proved. Put into bat, Ipplepen made steady progress against tight and accurate bowling and crisp fielding. Their score edged upwards without any batsman being set.

Five partnerships of around 30 each took Ipplepen to 150-5, leaving both sides happy.

Looking to push the score along, wickets started to fall, with Ben Hodge heavily involved taking 3 for 26. Tyler Hunt (2-34) also got involved, helped by a remarkable catch on the boundary by Hodge. The Ipplepen innings tailed off to 200, leaving six overs unused and a total that gave the advantage to the home side.

Not wanting a repeat of the previous week’s capitulation, Whitchurch set about their reply carefully. Potts (17) and Powell (54) put 80 on for the first wicket, settling the nerves in the home changing room. A couple of quick wickets gave some of the advantage back to Ipplepen but Bone (39 not out) played a captain’s innings and anchored the rest of the reply.

He and Gibbs (34) put on 50 for the third wicket and more or less took the game away from the visitors. Barriball (17) and Cotter (13) helped see off the remaining runs without undue difficulty.

The win leaves Whitchurch in sixth place, in relative mid-table safety.