Words: Simon Travers
Match Photos: Ivor Thomas
The Devon Cricket League and Devon Women’s Cricket League seasons are over for another year. Every run and wicket is now safely gathered in the cloud, swirling around and reforming so that good stats rain down in future years. Cornwood’s four DCL teams all finished strongly with a second Saturday clean sweep of wins in the season. That’s the first time that all four men’s league teams have won on the last day of the season.
The Ones faced Exmouth, with pride and fourth position up for grabs. Elliott Staddon set a relaxed tone for the afternoon when put into bat by sending out Lee Baker and Josiah Caunter as openers. Lee had departed in two balls, but Josiah made 28 with a knock that characterised the Cornwood innings. Most players were able to chip in with a contribution as the team posted a total of 239. Chris Parker made 27, Naveen Fernando made 32 from 34 and Matt Butterworth made 26. Top scorer was Ben Privett, who made 39 from 41 batting at number 10. Those runs meant that Ben finished the league campaign with exactly 400 runs at an average of 28.57. Ben becomes the 38th Cornwood First XI player to score more than 300 in a DCL league season. His total edges out Tony Barter’s 1996 season for 48th position on the all-time runs in a season list. Matt Skeemer and Elliott Staddon both went north of 300 for the second time this year. Matt’s 407 runs is both the team’s lead and a new personal best by 2 runs. Lawrence Greenaway (3-49) and Finlay Marks (3-31) took the lion’s share of wickets for Exmouth.
One of the hallmarks of the Ones this season has been the depth of bowling options available. All the team bowled apart from Ben’s Beaumont and Privett, both of whom have taken wickets for Devon CCC this year. Everyone bowled at least tidily against Exmouth but Lee Baker was the wrecking ball with 4-50 from his 10 overs. Lee got the LBW decision that removed James Horler for 44 and then dismantled the Exmouth middle order to leave the visitors 92-6. It fell to Chris Parker to bring the house down with a magic spell of 3.4-0-25-3, a performance that technically puts him top of the team bowling averages. However, Naveen Fernando took most wickets with 24, making him the 33rd Cornwood First team player to take 20 wickets or more in a season. Thanks, Naveen, for your contribution this year. Matt Skeemer’s 22 wickets mean he now has seven 20 wicket seasons. If he can repeat the same next year, he will catch up with Dave Matthew’s total.
Exmouth finished their innings on 158. An 81 run win for the Ones mean that they match last year’s fourth place and total wins with 9. The final Premier Division table doesn’t lie. With a comfortable win against Exeter to round out their CV, Bradninch & Kentisbeare deserve their championship. Fourteen wins from 18 with the highest number of batting and bowling points speaks to their dominance. Sandford secured their runner up spot with a big win over what you would imagine is an emotionally depleted Heathcoat side. Exeter’s strong showing in the second half gives them third, and there is a sizeable gap of 22 points between them and the Ones. The Ones are the best of this year’s peloton, 2 points ahead of Exmouth and a Sidmouth team who took their opportunity to thrash eleventh placed Plympton. Paignton beat Bovey Tracey in the battle for 8th. North Devon won promotion in the A Division, but second place Bridestowe cannot go up due to ECB regulations. It is not clear yet whether third place Plymouth will go up as super-subs or if Bovey Tracey will be reprieved. Also in A Division, Plymst**k put an exclamation mark on their relegation season when they were bowled out for 41 by Bridestowe, which was a shame.
The Twos travelled to South Devon and were put into bat by a side still needing 6 league points to confirm their place in C Division next year. The spinning wheel random batting order generator promoted Matt Puttock and Craig Harris to the top of the order. The star of the innings was Jacob Caunter, batting at 3, who stayed for 2 ½ hours and looked like a Rolls Royce hitting 80 from 105 balls including 11 fours. Dan Duke did most of the work needed for the home side with figures of 8-0-33-5. The Twos finished with a respectable score of 229 that proved 56 runs too many for South Devon as the youth wing of the Twos took over. Stanley Baker posted figures of 9-4-14-3 and Alex Shutt took 3-32. Highlight of the afternoon though was surely the hostile pace of Charles Finan cleaning up Jack Allen for his first wicket in 14 months.
A close win for Paignton 2XI meant that the Twos finish in Third place in C Division West. It has been a very positive year of growth for the Twos with their best season since the DCL went play-through in 2018. The Twos posted more wins and more points, backed up by more consistency and dominant performances, than any year since they joined C Division West. With Bovey Tracey 2XI struggling in B Division this year, a split of games with Paignton 2XI, and three more wins than the best 2XI in C Division East, the Twos are right in the conversation for who is the best Second Team in Devon. 2025 will bring new challenges as both teams relegated from B Division would typically be considered as ‘West’, but the Twos are poised for a big year.
With 6 points needed to confirm their status as F Division West champions, the Threes were strictly business in a trademark win at South Brent. Mike Hodge started and finished the party with the first, eighth and ninth wickets of the innings to finish with figures of 8-0-22-3 to finish with 19 at 10.58 for the season. Joe Davies engineered a middle order collapse with a spell of 3-37. Andy Bees broke the resistance of opener Bob Crooks (32 from 81) to cap a spell of 8-5-5-1 as South Brent made 137-9 from their 40. When batting, Mike Hodge supplied the finishing move with 52* from 36 with 7 fours and a six. That’s Mike’s fifth 50 of the season for the Threes, finishing with a season’s total of 478 at 68.29 and a strike rate of 126.79. The Threes breezed past the target with 14.1 over remaining and 6 wickets in hand. Ladies and gentlemen, one more round of applause for your DCL F Division West 2024 Champions, Cornwood 3XI.
The Fours also completed their season on a high with a derby win over Yelverton Bohemians 2XI. The visitors won the toss and batted well as a team on the way to a total of 226-6. There were three wickets for Simon Garland (8-0-52-3) to put him into double-figures for the season. Saturday wasn’t Ayaan Chatterjee’s day but he still finishes as top wicket taker for the team with 20 at an average of 8.95. Matt Smith (46), Joseph Trimmer (41) and Fred Smale (40) batted well for Yelverton.
The bulk of the target was knocked off in a brutal opening partnership between Ewan Grewal (68 in 44) and Luke Temple-Smith. Luke hit 112 in 98 with 15 fours and 5 sixes for his second century of the season in two appearances. The experience of Charles Knight and captain Marc Whaley completed the mop up for a 3 wicket victory. Charles and Marc end the season 1 and 2 respectively in the Fours batting charts, both averaging over 30. The team finish 8th in the G Division West, which is a relegation spot and will now have to wait to see how the league aligns for next year. No team across Devon in a relegation spot scored more league points than the Fours and no team in G Division West scored more batting points. The team has grown and built this year and can take a lot of pride from how they have played.
Luke Temple-Smith completes his century.
The Women’s Firsts ended their season on Sunday with a 42 run loss to Paignton. Gemma Lancaster put the visitors into bat, but a solid 39 from 76 for Ella Gill and 41 from 48 for captain Charlotte Massey set Paignton towards a total of 142-8 in their 35. Olivia Gibson led the bowling with figures of 6-0-10-3. Olivia ties with Shini Al Khalid for second on the wicket taking chart with 13. Kat Frost took the last wicket of the innings to make it a round 20 for her this year at an average of 11.45. Kat also top scored with the bat, making 32, as the Women’s Firsts found it challenging to reply. Evie Privett was unavailable for the match, but finishes the year with most runs on 271. The Women’s Firsts innings closed on 100-9. That meant they tied for second place with North Devon on 157 points. That’s a great result for the year as a young team has stepped up. There was also a massive boost to the Women’s Firsts this week as Cornwood were announced as the first recreational club in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset to partner with Her Game Too, a nationwide movement tackling sexism and promoting gender equality within the world of sport.
Sunday also saw the Under 11s challenge for the WDYL Cup Final against Plymouth. Plymouth were already league winners, but a sterling effort from Jon Way’s team of rock and roll stars pushed them close. The Under 11s won the toss and elected to bat, reaching 108-6 in their 20 overs for a net score of 278. That wasn’t enough for the win as Plymouth made 128-4 in their innings for a net total of 308. The Under 11s played with exemplary team spirit and sportsmanship, exemplified by Freddie admitting a four had passed the boundary in a close run chase. Earlier in the week, the colts fielded an Under 14s side that played a touring team, Hampton Hill from West London. It is good news that the club have started to build another relationship with a club interested in developing youth cricket. The colts are looking forward to a rematch in 2025.
The Fifths also were building relationships on Bank Holiday Monday with a match against Plymouth’s South Asian Society CC. The result was a 52 run victory for the Fifths, which might have been a little padded by Naveen Fernando’s 35* in 9 balls. There were Cornwood regulars on both sides of the park which made for a family atmosphere and a really fun day for all.
I think that covers everything. A massive thank you to Ivor Thomas for his artistry and patience to capture so many incredible moments through his photographs. A massive thank you also to Olivia Gibson and everyone in the social media team. A massive thank you for reading and supporting the Sweep too; it’s a pleasure and a privilege to share your stories. Cricket is an immersive, maddening, beautiful way to spend a British summer. The game is changing but there are still legends worth telling about a sport marked by local rivalry, committed volunteers, and everyday sportsmen and women leaving it all on the field. Whisper it quietly, clubs like Cornwood are still the future. See you there in 2025.
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