DARTINGTON & Totnes fell to a two-wicket defeat in the E Division West against Stokeinteignhead, for whom this was a fourth consecutive win.

Stokeinteignhead may have muscled their way back into the promotion picture with this form, but at the other end of the table, Dartington & Totnes appear to be heading for a fourth straight relegation.

A loss to Paignton 3rd XI this Saturday would confirm it.

Openers Jono Lloyd (76) and Justin Osborne (23) gave D&T a decent start, which was built on by Jon Perkin (30) and Javin Raj (22no) towards a total of 192 for five.

Chacko John (3-25) was Stoke’s most successful bowler. Jamie Clinkett and Lishoy George both operated well below four runs an over.

It looked like a done deal when Stoke were 167 for three in reply with runs in the laptop for Hugo Longrigg (69), Joe Liyo (52) and Paul Russell (24).

Losing five wickets for just two runs left Stoke in all sorts of trouble at 169 for eight. Osborne (3-23) and Stuart Featham (2-44) did the damage.

George got his head down for an unbeaten 19 that saw Stoke to victory early in the 31st over.

ON the topic of relegation and Stoke Gabriel 1st XI still have plenty of work to do to avoid the drop after going down by five wickets to A Division bound Budleigh Salterton.

With just six points between them and second-from-bottom Ipplepen, there is virtually no margin for error in last two games of the season.

Stoke, who defeated Budleigh two weeks earlier in the Corinthian Cup final, recovered from being 35 for three to make 194 all out at the Holt.

A middle-order rescue mission was carried out by Danny Duke (46), Isaac Withington (20), Mike Meech (22), Abhishek Anand (39) and Adriaan Maxwell (42no) that got Stoke out of trouble.

Budleigh seamers Hugh Moore (3-27) and Jack England (2-41) took front end wickets, spinner Alex Roper (2-34) broke a couple of partnership and Ryan Harris-Cotton (3-25) reeled in the stragglers.

Budleigh lost run-machine Luke Domachenz cheaply to Maxwell, but a partnership worth 141 between Luke Davies (52) and Max Mejzner (76) thwarted Stoke’s hopes of a bowl-out win.

James Doble (25no) took Budleigh the rest of the way to a win sealed with more than nine overs to go.

IVYBRIDGE 2nd XI dropped back to fourth in the D West table after they lost to lowly Yelverton by six wickets.

The 23-point gap between the Bridge and second-placed Plymouth 2nd XI is not wide enough to rule out promotion yet, but this means they cannot afford any more defeats and need teams ahead of them to slip up.

Ivybridge opener Chris Greenhouse was fifth out on 116 for 43. Sam Northmore (23) made the only other contribution until then.

Veteran Adrian Pullin got his head down to make 45 and was the last man out in an eventual total of 164 for nine.

Hadleigh Scott-Kirk (3-24) and Matt Smale (2-26) took the bowling honours for Yelverton.

Yelverton found runs hard to come by at first – Pullin (1-29 off 9) was particularly hard to get away.

At 48 for four with opener Mike Lemmings just out for 40, there was a job to be done. Fred Smale was already in by then. Brother Matt joined him and they won it for Yelverton with an unbroken stand of 117.

Fred Smale was 71 not out at the end and Matt was unbeaten of 41.