Whimple suffered a 25-run defeat in their East Devon derby game at Feniton and now are faced with having to win one of their final two games to avoid joining Budleigh 2nds and Clyst Hydon in D Division East next season.

Whimple skipper Ben Silk was deeply upset with his side after the first innings at Feniton, but his batsmen did restore some faith; however, he was still feeling the pain of the defeat 24 hours later.

Feniton batted first and scored 277-6, led to that total by a superb century from Alex Frankpitt. Silk was the only Whimple bowler to claim more than a wicket, though his two did come at a cost of 44 runs from just four overs!

Silk said: “I am afraid I let the lads know a few home truths at the break. That was comfortably the poorest collective display of bowling and support fielding we have served up for this season – and possibly many seasons!

“I was so unhappy. I told the lads a lot of people, myself amongst them, work incredibly hard during the week to make sure we have cricket on offer at the club each Saturday afternoon and the way we had just performed made me think nobody cared if we did slip down a division.”

He continued: “The batsmen restored my faith as we made a good fist of the run chase, but the damage was done in the first innings when we let them [Feniton] get too many runs.”

The defeat leaves Whimple still fifth from bottom, but, with just two games to play, they are only 13 points ahead of third-bottom Feniton and just six better off than fourth-bottom Braunton.

This Saturday (August 25), Whimple face table-topping Kilmington, who need to win the game just as much as Whimple do! Silk says: “Successive poor performances have now left us with work to do. However, it’s just like us to raise our game against a side such as Kilmington and who is to say we cannot turn in the sort of performance that I know this team has in its locker.”