Friday 7th January

A belated happy new year to you all. I hope everyone had a pleasant Christmas and that you're all in training for the new season! All the North Devon League Sunday fixtures are sorted out, but the state of play as regards the Tuesday Exeter Evening League is still unclear. As you may know there was talk amongst such clubs as Creedy Cruisers, Witheridge, Rackenford and ourselves, of setting up our own "Mid Devon" league, but this may not take shape until the 2006 season. I'll let you know of any further developements.
The Indoor Season kicks off again on Sunday 16th January, where we hope to improve on our rather sorry performances and position at the half way point.

Nets have been provisionally booked at Lords Meadow Leisure Centre on the following Sundays, 20/02/05, 06/03/05, 13/03/05, 20/03/05, 03/04/05 and 10/04/05, all at 0930!!! Reminders will be sent out closer to the date.

Sunday 16th January

BAICL v Witheridge II

Another dismal performance by the Cheriton batsmen meant we missed another opportunity to win our first game. We fielded in our usual sluggish fashion, as the Witheridge batsmen scampered runs and hit boundaries throughout their innings. Phil then came on to bowl his best spell of the season, taking three wickets (all bowled), and coming very close on a number of other occasions. Restricting Witheridge to just 105 was a very good performance and should have put us in the driving seat.
Mike played out the opening over which yielded just 1 wide and no runs. Phil at the other end was provided with 2 juicy full tosses at the start of the 2nd over, which he despatched with relish. Mike again struggled to get the ball away in the 3rd over, and when Phil dragged the ball back onto his stumps chasing a widish half volley, the rot truelly set in. The score then was on 23, as it was a ball later when Robbie found himself walking back to the balcony after falling LBW first ball. Steve played his usual role of "boat settling", but found the runs difficult to come by. Mike was caught after hitting one too many too high, Colin was done by the high bounce and when Steve was caught it was left to Eric to try and make things half decent. He did manage to get us past the 50 barrier, however it's 75 you need for your first batting point and so this latest humiliation secured us the measly amount of 2 points.
If we are going to win a match this season, it will only happen if and when we learn to run between the wickets! P.C.

Result Lost by 48 runs

Sunday 23rd January

BAICL v Bickleigh

Victory at last, and possibly when we least expected it!
Good news for the team, but not so good for Mike who chose to go to the horses instead! This paved the way for Darren to come in and take centre stage. The Welsh Wizard took no time at all to get into the groove, and helped Phil get us off to a good start. As this was the first match of the day, the ball was new, and so swung a long way. After failing to get on the end of a number of deliveries, and feeling the need to keep the score moving, Phil went for a quick run and was run out. No problem. Colin came to the wicket and played his best innings of the campaign, ably assisted by Robbie once Darren had retired. Robbie does play and miss on alot of occassions, but then surprises us all by hitting sixes.This he did here, playing through the line of the ball, the result being a shot that would have carried to many a boundary. 125 for 1, was for us a good score, and against some decent bowling. However, we didn't feel confident that it would be enough.
Eric opened the bowling with a decent first over, but Robbie from the other didn't fare so well. After seeing the last two balls of the over soar over Robbies head for 6, Colin took a captain's decision and took him off straight away. The Bickleigh openers were scoring quite freely, running 3's, and had reached 48 from the opening 4 overs. There was no sign of a breakthrough and it felt as if we were just waiting for the inevitable to happen. Then our luck changed, and how! Robbie, fielding at square leg threw down the stumps at the bowlers end. Our fielding visibly improved after this, and there was a hunger in the way we attacked the ball. Eric saw out his 3 overs, and Colin continued to slow the run rate down. Phil, for the second week swapped his batting head for his bowling head, and again came out with very good figures. But it was run outs that won the day. 5 in all, one by each of the outfielders, as Bickleigh succumbed to the pressure.
So victory at least, albeit against a Bickleigh side without three of their regular players. This was still a very good win, and has filled us with renewed confidence. P.C.

Result Won by 9 runs

Sunday 30th January

BAICL v Sandford Youth

We should have won the corresponding fixture but Robbies car decided not to work, and so we were left a man short. Well it happened again, only Robbie had time to get to the match on the bus - such dedication!
So we had 6 players this time, but Mike was feeling ill, James, as stand in for Colin, was knackered and feeling a little car sick, and Eric was aching after too much squash in the morning! The rest of us, Steve, Phil and Robbie at least were not complaining.
Mike decided to field first and stuck with the new combination of fast(er) and slow(er) bowlers, ie Eric in tandem with James (on this occasion) and then Robbie and Phil. Everyone bowled very well and each bowler got one wicket apiece. Eric bowling one opener, James tempting the batsman into a big shot which he missed, leaving Steve with a smart stumping. Phil caught one off Robbies bowling and got yet another wicket himself, his 5th in three games, all bowled. This together with a couple of run outs added up to a smart performance and left us chasing just 89 for victory.
Mike dropped himself down the order in the hope that he wouldn't be needed. Phil and Robbie were going along very nicely, although Phil rode his luck early on offering a catching chance that really should have been taken. Robbie was very unlucky to get run out. Having hit a good shot that would have been 6 had it been 2 inches to the right, hit both walls and rebounded directly to the stumps where the fielder had the easiest of jobs to remove the bails. Steve joined Phil who soon passed 25 and so retired. Eric joined Steve and the two of them took us nearly all the way before Eric tried turning a very straight delivery round the corner and was plum LBW. So it was left to James and Steve to see us home which they did with a good over to spare.
So two wins in two weeks, can we continue the run next week? P.C.

Result Won by 3 Wickets

Sunday 6th February

BAICL v Morebath

Normal service has been resumed! With our regular starting line up we returned to losing ways with one of our bad batting performances. Colin elected to bat first, a plan that back fired after one ball as Mike got an edge and was caught behind. Not the start you need to instill confidence in the rest of the team. Phil and Colin got things going, but once they were out we never looked like making anywhere near enough runs. No one got to grips with the bowling, which was strange as it certainly wasn't the most testing attack we've had to face this season. It's always a crime not to use up your allotted number of overs in any form of cricket, and we paid the full price here, although I think we surprised Morebath in how long it took them to reach the total. They finally passed our total with just nine balls to spare. A fact that makes one wonder how different this match might have been, had we fielded first. P.C.

Result Lost by 4 Wickets

Sunday 13th February

BAICL v Rackenford

The final league game of the campaign pitched top against bottom, and resulted predictably with both teams heading out of the 1st division in opposite directions (unless the league reverts to a two tier format which it is threatening to do, due to two teams dropping out during the season!). Rackenford dominated this game from the start, despite only having 5 players. A fact that worked in their favour when batting and made little or no difference when bowling. Cheriton did have a spell where things went our way, with Steve taking another stumping off the bowling of Robbie, and then a smart bit of footwork, aided by the shape of the ball, saw Robbie run out the prize wicket of Rackenford captain, Owen LLoyd. After a quiet spell in the middle of the Rackenford innings, their batsmen opened up with some powerful hitting, taking them to a very good total of 138.
Mike and Phil opened the batting as always and for once both scorede runs, but as with the rest of our innings, not quickly enough. Faced with fast, acurate bowling we found ourselves pinned down and increasingly frustrated. Both batsmen were forced into shots they wouldn't choose to play, and Colin was undone with a slower ball.Robbie took his time but then when the overs were running out picked up the runrate with some well hit boundaries. However it was too little too late, and when he was run out it was left to Eric and Steve to salvage any pride and see out the remaining balls. P.C.

Result Lost by 43 Runs

Sunday 20th February

Sunday 27th February