Having endured a heavy defeat last week to the bottom club Axminster Uplyme Seconds bounced back with a fine win over promotion chasing Honiton, writes Eddie Clarke

Uplyme were strengthened with the return of bowlers Neil Price and Ben Taylor and skipper James Dunford had no hesitation in choosing to bowl on winning the toss.

He asked Sam Wooster to take the new ball and had success in his third over when Honiton skipper Andrew Lapping mistimed a drive to be caught by Dave Norman at mid off.

At the other end Price bowled three overs without conceding a run, but his spell was disrupted when the free hitting Blake Freemantle came to the crease and hit a rapid 34. At 57-1 Honiton were in a relatively comfortable position with experienced opener Peter Beighton looking set and plenty of batting to come.

Dunford brought on Taylor to bowl and he bowled Freemantle with a straight full ball.

Dunford tried a couple of overs himself before settling on young Gabriel Maltby to partner Taylor and this proved to be the match winning combination.

The rest of the Honiton batting line up was blown away by the pace and penetration of Taylor, four wickets for 36 runs from seven overs, and the drift and accuracy of Maltby who finished with career best figures in senior cricket of 5-11 in 4.5 overs. The Honiton innings finished when Maltby bowled Ian Kelly for seven with the score on 100.

Honiton have won some low scoring games in recent weeks and no doubt they felt confident that their bowling line up could see them home again.

That confidence would have been boosted when James Dunford, Henry Perry and Dave Matthews found themselves back in the pavilion with only 16 runs on the board. Corey Lapping accounted for Perry but proved to be rather inaccurate and was replaced by Richard Hill. However, at the other end Andy Brinsford exploited variability in the bounce by bowling at pace just back of a length and had all of the batsmen struggling.

He bowled Dunford for nought and had Matthews caught behind for four. Dave Norman and Bruce Maltby came together and set about repairing the damage, but when Hill bowled Maltby for 12 with the score on 41 Uplyme still had a lot to do. Fourteen-year-old Robert Shepherd was sent up the order and joined Norman to put together a 38-run partnership which slowly, but surely brought Uplyme towards their target.

They had some luck on the way with Norman being dropped twice and wicketkeeper Andrew Lapping putting down a simple chance to dismiss Shepherd from the bowling of Hill.

It was Brinsford who was brought back to bowl Norman for a well-made 40. With 22 runs required Sam Wooster came to the crease to face left arm spinner Will Cowley. This change of bowling proved to be a mistake as Wooster hit three fours and a six from the over to ease the tension in the visitor’s camp.

However, in the next over Brinsford charged in to remove both Wooster, for 19, and Shepherd, for seven, to keep his side in the game. The bowler finished with fine figures of 5-16 from eight overs, but it was not quite good enough to save the game. Man of the match Gabriel Maltby came together with Neil Price to see Uplyme over the line with three wickets in hand and 18 valuable points in the bag.