KINGSBRIDGE slipped to a second successive defeat in the C Division West when Paignton 2nd XI defeated them by 21 runs.

It seemed Kingsbridge were in the driving seat after Conner Rothwell (4-34) and Richard Carr (3-25) combined to bowl out Paignton for a modest 133.

Carl McFarlane (26) rescued Paignton from a worrying 29 for four, then Harry Roberts (48) took them close to their final total.

It all went wrong for Kingsbridge in the time it took to dive from 93 for three, when James Fletcher (35) got out, to 104 for eight. Shresth Bhardwaj (3-23) and George Woodcock (3-34) were in the thick of it for Paignton.

Rothwell soldiered on to make 26, but no one else made more than four for Kingsbridge on the way to 112 all out.

Victory lifted Paignton out of the bottom two after a one-week stay.​

Meanwhile, in the D Division West, Ivybridge 2nd XI found bottom side Babbacombe tougher than expected before eventually beating them by three wickets.

Opener Marcus Thompson made 30 – he and Dan Western (53) put on 62 for the second wicket – and Steve Broad made a studious 33 towards Babbacombe’s all-out score of 184.

Adrian Pullin (3-44) was Ivybridge’s leading wicket-taker. Farzad Safi (2-19) and Tom Worth (2-30) performed below four runs an over.

Ben Passmore (2-6 off 9), Henry Stubbs (3-41) and Western (2-34) kept the Ivybridge batters on their toes from start to finish.

Chris Greenhouse (56) and Alfie Lewis-Frost (52no) negotiated the trials posed by Babbacombe to win the game with more than four overs to go.

Elsewhere, Cornwood 3rd XI went down by six wickets when they ran into E West promotion favourites Abbotskerswell 2nd XI.

The first-against-second clash was the Wood’s chance to narrow the 27-point gap between them and the leaders.

Cornwood are now 40 points behind Abbots, who have the look of odds-on favourites for the divisional title.

An important consolation for the Cornwood crew is they remain second in the table. Tavistock (third) missed out on the chance to go past them when they were turned over by Plympton.

Ewan Grewal opened for Cornwood with 70 in a rush. Middle-order runs from Ethan Carlisle – 55 off 27 balls – helped accumulate a total of 221 all out.

Bashitha Hewagamage (3-29) and Erik Gregersen (2-8) were Abbots’ leading bowlers.

Gregersen went on to complete a man-of-the-match performance with 113 not out as Abbots knocked off the runs.

Hewagamage made 21, Chris Meikle chipped in 18 and Jamie Lee (26no) was with Gregersen for the last 64 needed.