Honiton’s visit to local derby rivals Feniton is always an intense encounter, but give that fact that both side were propping up the D Division added even more to the game after both teams had lost their opening two fixtures, writes Alan Lapping.

Despite their not being a cloud in the sky the previous days thunder storms presented a very wet strip so making it seem like a win the toss win the game day!

Honiton lost the toss and not surprisingly got put in to bat, Joe Dixon opened up with Adam Thompson who swapped one end of the order for the other!

Despite getting the main headline in the previous week’s paper Dixon’s return was short lived when he was caught behind off the bowling of the ever green Stuart Bright! This brought John Hext to the crease whilst, at the other end, Thompson appeared to be settling into his new role dispatching Bright to the boundary in quick succession.

He was then caught and bowled by Charley Selley and the experiment was over with the visitors score reading just 22.

Selley picked up the wicket of Nathan Groves for a blob and Honiton seemed in all sorts of bother at 25-3.

Honiton skipper Kev Kelly was next man in and his side hoped that his early season form would continue and help to get them out of trouble!

Kelly and Hext did settle things down without doing much in the way of scoring runs free on a difficult pitch. Singles were very much the order of the day for Honiton as Hext and Kelly started to settle in to their task, as the watching players worried about who had the sun cream!

Feniton finally got a break through when Honiton old boy Brian Cann removed new boy John Hext for a well battled 22.

Rob Ingram was next in with just over 13 overs remaining and the visitors wondering what sort of a score could make a game of it.

Ingram inserted some pace to the run rate hitting 25 in quick time, at least in the context of the game it was, before becoming one of John Pyles two victims.

As the overs dwindled down Lapping and Holmes lost their wickets in the pursuit of quick runs, but not before Holmes and Kelly took 20 runs from a Chris Palfrey over and the momentum seemed to be swinging in the favour of the visitors. Kelly remained vigilante throughout, ending the innings on 53 not out, and Honiton more than doubling their score the last 10 overs to finish on 167 for 7.

Pyle 2 for 35, Cann 2 for 31 and Selley 2 for 16 sharing the wickets for the home side.

The visitors took to the field feeling very much in charge of the game knowing that early wickets would be needed as the mid-way rolling of the wicket seemingly taken the life out of the pitch.

After a couple of overs Adam Holmes had removed both Feniton openers having Brian Cann caught at mid-on by Joe Dixon and Josh Cann played on, to leave the home side in bother on 17-2.

This soon became 26-4 then 31-5, as Adam Thompson removed Tucker and Kingdon in quick time then Ian Kelly had Palfrey well caught in the deep by Conway and now Honiton smelt victory!

With spinners Ian Kelly and Rob Ingram working in tandem Feniton didn’t know whether to stick or bust and did neither for a time, as Honiton looked to turn the screw and finish them off.

Charlie Selley tried to get the home side back into the game, but when Ingram had him bowled for 22 before taking care of Salter and Pyle, the writing was on the wall for the Acland Park men.

Captain Kelly then looked to finish the game off and brought paceman Holmes back into the attack and he needed just four balls to clean things up and leave the hosts rooted to the foot of the table.

Adam Holmes finally got amongst the wickets to reward his efforts finishing with four for 19. Rob Ingram rounded off a better day for him we equally impressive three for eight from his six overs and Thompson chipped in with 2-11 and Ian Kelly, 1-26.

Honiton will look to push on from this big derby win at home to Uplyme next Saturday