Devon C West

BRIDESTOWE continued their winning run with a 184 run victory at Stoke Gabriel.

The visitors lost the toss, and with rain forecast, unsurprisingly found themselves batting first on a hard pitch.

The Bridestowe openers scored well from the start, both from the bat and in the extras column with 39 runs on the board before Gary Sizmur was out lbw to one which kept low.

Next came a mammoth 167 run partnership between Tom Fogerty and James Ewen. Both batsmen left well outside off-stump, ran quickly between the wickets, and sent anything under or over-pitched to the boundary.

After a disappointing start to the season with the bat, Fogerty was looking solid and quickly passed his 50. When Ewen was caught for 56 trying to up the run rate, a few wickets fell at the other end with the new men also looking to find the boundary. Butler was promoted up the order, but was bowled by Tolley (3-80).

Dan Fogerty and Pat Ewen flayed a few fours and sixes before they were both bowled. Tom Fogerty eventually holed out for a superb 136, his innings a patient one, with runs scored all around the wicket. 

Phil Hatton (25) and Nazir Khan (36 not) caused some late order fireworks. Khan, in particular, looked completely at ease on a hard pitch, with four fours and a six in his 14-ball innings. Lavis fittingly despatched the last ball of the innings to the cover fence, to leave the score at an imposing 332-7 from 45 overs.

Stoke Gabriel struggled to deal with the Bridestowe opening pair of Sizmur and Dan Fogerty, who both got plenty of bounce and carry from the pitch. They bowled excellently as a pair, but it was Sizmur (4-42) who reaped all the rewards in terms of wickets. First he got one opener bowled, followed by a sharp caught behind by Mark Fogerty to get rid of the dangerous looking overseas Lewis. He then got a couple of lbw decisions to cap another fine spell, and leave Stoke in trouble at 75-4.

Stoke's captain, Tolley, played some impressive strokes and, along with Ansley, looked to get the scoreboard moving. Such was the power of their striking that, at one stage, it looked like Stoke might be on track to make it a tense finish. 

However, after a few tight overs, Lavis (3-51) removed Ansley (29) and Khan (2-24) bowled Tolley (44), meaning that the game was all but over.

The last few wickets were taken for not many more runs, and Stoke finished 148 all out, leaving them some 184 runs short of victory.

The win extended Bridestowe's lead at the top of C (West).