Whimple were three wicket winners on their visit to Topsham St James and the 19 points them banked from the visit took them top of the table.

Whimple skipper Henry Gordon Lennox won the toss, invited the home side to bat first and saw them move confidently to 55-2 after a dozen overs.

The first change bowlers, Phil Hope and Steve Wallace then appeared and both bowled extremely good line and lengths meaning the Tops were only able to muster 25 runs off the next 18 overs whilst also losing another four wickets! Hope was to finish with figures of 2-15 fro nine overs with four maidens whilst Wallace sent down nine overs, six of which were maidens and he claimed two wickets for a miserly six runs! Those Wallace figures were made all the more impressive considering that he had conceded three of those runs before delivering his firs legitimate ball!

It was left to last season’s skipper Ben Silk to finish things off as he claimed three wickets for 10 runs in six overs, whilst opener Steve Hathaway returned to finish with figures of 3-29 from 7.3 overs as the Bonfire Field side were bowled out for 105.

All the Whimple batsmen contributed in a successful ruin chase as a seven wicket win was wrapped up with 15 overs still available. Matt Brown (21), Steve Palfrey (16) and Ben Silk (16) were the main scorers with Silk proving to be the ‘finisher’ prior to stumps!

Whimple skipper Gordon Lennox said “After losing to Kilmington and being rained off against Kenn it was important to get back to winning ways and we did that. While the pitch looked good there was still a lot of moisture around and in overcast conditions it was a good toss to win. The bowlers, backed by good fielding, did the job for us. Our first change bowlers bowled beautifully together and killed the run rate. Once Hope and Wallace had bowled their nine overs each for 25 runs, it never looked like they were going to pose a significant total. While they tried to move things along at the end they didn’t have the firepower to do that and I was very pleased to have bowled them out for 105.”

He continued: “I would have expected the pitch to have been easier for batting for us, but actually it misbehaved more! I don’t think any batsmen really felt in, but everyone contributed some runs and we got there with 3 wickets to spare in 30 overs. It was good to see the middle order stepping up and getting runs. It was a job well done and I am very pleased with the team performance. With Cullompton losing the win puts us top, but there is a large chasing pack and so we cannot be complacent and have to continue our early form. We have another tough game next against Countess Wear who have won the last two games they have completed.”