Honiton were eight wicket winners when they met Upottery in a D Division (East) meeting.

Upottery batted first and were never able to take charge of some accurate and disciplined Honiton bowling.

A key feature of some, at times, impressive support fielding was the wicket keeping of Kevin Slynn who stood up to much of the bowling and this added pressure to the Upottery batsmen.

At the end of their 45-overs Upottery had 190-9 on the board with the in-form James Mitchum the main contributor with a fine knock of 80.

Harry Wright was the most successful Honiton bowler with 3-47 and Kev Kelly was another amongst the wickets.

Kelly launched the Honiton reply alongside new regular opening partner Brian Cann and once again the pair gave their side a near perfect start, adding 120 for the opening wicket. Both fell in quick succession with Cann departing for 56 and Kelly for a ‘jug avoiding’ 49! However, that proved to be as bad as it got for Honiton in terms of wickets lost for Adi Pullen (22) and Pete Matravers (29) saw the Mountbatten Park men to a comfortable eight wicket win.

A delighted Honiton skipper Rob Ingram said: “It was good cricket all round again from us. Having Kevin (Slynn) behind the stumps and keeping like that – up close and tight for much of the time – really did give us the edge over the Upottery batsmen. The support fielding was also good with the exception of a mid-innings period when we got sloppy and that resulted in us having to chase 30 more runs that we ought to have been looking at. However, we got over that and we are looking a confident side now. It seems that the early season wobble we had is a thing of the past and I get the impression that the team are looking forward to each game with real relish and confidence.”

Honiton sit fourth in the table on 71 points with Saturday’s opponents being Kilmington who will start the day one place, and one point, better off than them.

Ingram says: “It’s another big game as they have made a good start and there’s also the East Devon derby nature of the contest. We’ll prepare well for the game and, as long as we eradicate the sloppy periods wee had in the field last time out, we’ll be able to give a good account of ourselves when Kilmington visit.”