The Sweep 25 Week 15: Skeemer reaches 200 caps on a bowler’s day
- Cornwood Cricket club
- Aug 13
- 8 min read
Words: Simon Travers
Match Photos: Ivor Thomas
Matt Skeemer reached his 200th First Team DCL cap this weekend as the Ones travelled to Exmouth. Matt is a First XI stalwart, playing in 92.5% of First XI fixtures since 2013. As club captain between 2018-2020, Matt achieved the highs of Premier Division promotion and navigated the lows of the Covid year. In 2019, he became the first Cornwood player to receive full Devon honours since Duncan Boase in the mid-1990s and has totalled 14 caps for the county in MCCA/NCCA Championship matches. Matt has a fearsome county-wide reputation as a bowling all-rounder. This season, Matt has tied Dave Matthews for 3rd place on the club’s list with eight 20+ wicket seasons. He is only 45 runs shy of his third season of combining 300+ runs and 20+ wickets. Highlights of Matt’s career include taking 6-20 against Bideford, Littleham & Westward Ho! In 2015. Matt is a competitor and a leader who keeps pushing himself to learn and improve. Congratulations on a landmark weekend.
Matt’s celebration was muted to some extent as the Ones lost comprehensively against Exmouth. Exmouth have marked themselves in recent weeks as a team with the consistency to challenge Bradninch & Kentisbeare’s league dominance. While the Ones demonstrated again that they have the bowling firepower to take 10 wickets against any Premier Division team, their batting collapse rolled into its third week. Batting first at the Maer, Samarpit Joshi scored 33, Charles Finan made 20, there were 18 extras and no-one else made more than three. Exmouth’s attack claimed three first ballers, as George Greenway took 3-18 and Ben Higton took 3-24. Cornwood were gone for 79.
It was never going to be enough, even though the Ones bowlers rallied with spirit. Matt Skeemer dismissed James Horler second ball, Lee Baker took a wicket second over, before Matt Skeemer bowled Dan Pyle. At 11-3, questions were asked of Exmouth, but Cameron Kidd and Finley Marks had enough of a response to put on 45 for the fourth wicket before Lee Baker took both their wickets. That puts Lee’s tally up to 34 for the year, the most a Cornwood bowler has taken in a Premier Division season. Exmouth closed the game at 80-6, and the Ones slip to fifth in the table.
Saturday’s match also marked the club’s goodbye to this year’s overseas pro, Samarpit Joshi. Samarpit has been recalled to prepare with the Rajasthan squad for the start of the Indian domestic season. Considering that Rajasthan is home to 11 million more people than the entire United Kingdom, Samarpit’s status as the best keeper-batsman in the state is a huge deal. Sammy scored 497 runs at 38.23 in 13 DCL matches, with a monster 154 top score against Bradninch & Kentisbeare. That puts him nineteenth in the all time single season list for First XI runs. He has also taken 18 catches and 3 stumpings and looked world class with the gloves. Samarpit has fitted in well across the club; coaching, entertaining in the P&D, and taking the time for some one hand one bounce with the Under 17s. Everyone at the club wishes him every success for the future, and if you want to follow Rajasthan's progress through the winter, the Cricinfo link you need is here.
Elsewhere in the Premier Division, Bradninch & Kentisbeare stay 18 points clear after outbatting Plymouth, Heathcoat step out of the dropzone by beating Sandford, Sidmouth drop to 9th after a 1 wicket loss to Exeter and Paignton comfortably beat North Devon.
The weekend also saw a grand occasion as Cornwood hosted its first ever three day NCCA Championship match. A sterling team effort from the grounds crew and the hospitality team was rewarded with a back-and-forth local derby between Devon and Cornwall. The Cornishmen had the best of the first day posting 286. Sam Read took 4-82 and Jamie Stephens 4-46. Two late wickets on the first day put Devon on the backfoot, and despite 54 from Elliot Hamilton, the home side dropped to 124-6. Matt Skeemer joined Sam Read at the crease and the pair put on a match changing 127 for the 7th wicket. Read was the aggressor, making a 130 from 107. Matt Skeemer went full Gandalf ‘You shall not pass!’ with 31 from 131 in just under 2 hours as Devon were all out for 301. George Greenaway (4-34) and Jamie Stephens (3-5) broke Cornwall’s spirit in the second innings as they collapsed to 91 and Devon made it home with 6 wickets spare. The win puts Devon top of NCCA Western Division 1 by 1 point with a game in hand on Berkshire.
The Twos were on it from ball one against South Devon at Oak Park on Saturday. Will Sharp (9-2-20-3) and Adam Goodliffe (9-3-18-2) both bowled through 9 over opening spells that reduced the visitors to 33-6. South Devon’s top order was stymied by the left hand seamers. They could only manage 14 scoring shots before first drinks. Will and Adam were admirably supported in the field by glovework from Matt Butterworth and a lovely direct hit run out from mid on by Sam Griffiths. Jason Hall cleaned up the lower order for figures of 4-14 as South Devon finished on 94 in 31.3 overs. Noah Carlisle led the Twos response with a quality 34 from 32 before he was well caught at short cover. Three boundaries from Robin Dart wrapped up 20 points just after 5 o’ clock with a 6 wicket win. Those points keep the Twos four ahead of Ashburton in the table.
At Delamore Park, the Threes also capitalised on bowling first. Adam Whiting won the toss and Plympton 2XI were 1-3 within 13 balls. Andy Bees (5-4-1-1 and a run out) and James Bowden (5-0-24-2) were both effective with the new ball. Plympton looked to steady the ship with 31 for Jack Sellick, but he was one of Mike Hodge’s victims. Mike took figures of 9-2-42-5 for the third five-fer recorded by a Threes bowler this year. Plympton were all out for 105 in 30.4 overs, which meant the Threes had to bat before tea. Early wickets for Adam Sellick made the chase less comfortable than it might have been. Tom West (29) and Ayaan Chatterjee put on 42 for the 4th wicket and that, with a 9 ball 18 from Ethan Carlisle, was enough to win by three wickets. The Threes stay second in E Division West, 7 points ahead of Stokeinteignhead and 11 points ahead of Tavistock 2XI.
On Sunday, the Women’s Firsts travelled to the Convent Field to face Taunton Deane 2XI. The team can take confidence and momentum from a strong team batting performance. Gemma Lancaster top scored with 48 from 50 but the top six all made double figures in a score of 167-5 in 35 overs. That included a quality knock of 24* from 37 for Helly Simpson. There aren’t many close finishes in the DWCL but the Women’s Firsts have done well at closing out tight games this year. The team survived Emily Dummett scoring 55* from 48 to hold on for a 19 run win. Kat Frost made a welcome return with the new ball while Charlotte Shutt took 2 late wickets to curb Taunton Deane’s momentum. The Women’s Firsts third win of the season secures fifth place in the table, and fourth is not out of reach yet.
In a bit of business that was missed from last week, the Cornwood Delamores beat the Cornwood Oaks in the second inter-club softball showdown of the year. The Delamores emphatically claimed the bragging rights through winter with a 115 run victory. That win puts them ahead of the Buckland Moorland Maidens in the Tamar Division on the basis of a better run rate.
The Fours made the short hop to Delganey to face Ivybridge 3XI. The good news was that the Fours scored more than any other team batting first in a game involving Cornwood on Saturday. The bad news was they made 110 and were comfortably beaten by 7 wickets. Charles Knight made a solid 30 early on but wickets kept tumbling. Credit to Eoin Hewitt and Raff Gribble for the way they stuck around at the tail, as Archie McWhinnie took 4-19. 52* from Duncan Wilmot closed the chase swiftly. The Fours remain seven points above the G Division West dropzone, as Plymouth 3XI chose the path of violence against Chagford.
The Under 17s came close to pulling off an impressive win against a strong touring side from Lisvane in South Wales on Wednesday night. Batting first, Lisvane set their stall early with 52* in 29 from Prithvi Tripathy and 41 in 28 from captain Aryan Misra. Spin brought the game back into the balance as Raff Gribble took 3-37 and Lennon Way posed questions throughout his spell. Both were assisted by Greg Thomas’ wicketkeeping skills. A late 32* from Zain Ul-Haq pushed the Lisvane score to 172-5 in 19 overs. Lisvane had quality options with pace and spin as the light started to fade. Rocky Travers kept the team near par in the early going with 50* from 32 balls. Sam Gibbs kept pushing forward, reaching 53* from 41 in the last-ball gloaming. Lisvane won by 16 runs in a fun, high-quality matchup.
In the socials, the Fives travelled back to Wembury. It was mostly men against boys, so there were plenty of positives in the Fives getting within 34 runs on the chase. James Bowden looked sharp with a brace of wickets and Neel Shivane was economical. Highlight of the batting innings was Eoin Hewitt scoring 39 from 55. Eoin hung tough against bowlers twice his size and put away every boundary chance he had on the leg side.
The P&D team finished their campaign with a satisfying win at Mountwise against Plymouth. Plymouth got off to a flier but were lassoed in by three quick wickets from Dave Stubbs. Dave finishes as the year’s top P&D wicket taker with 9 at 22.56. Shikhar Bhaskar had a great night in the field with three catches and a miserly bowling spell. Matt Puttock also claimed two wickets as Plymouth finished on 136-8. Cornwood chased that score down with 34 balls and 9 wickets in the tank. Team top run scorer Rocky Travers got things started with 37 from 19. It was then over to Ayaan Chatterjee (51* from 40) and Ewan Horner (36* from 27) to close out the season with a classy unbeaten 79 run partnership. Over the season, the P&D team won 4 in the league and 1 in the cup. 53 different club members from all levels made at least one appearance across the course of the season. Thanks go to Ryan Hewitt for setting up the season and managing the admin and Rocky Travers as on-field captain.
Next weekend, the Ones travel to Sandford but the Twos, Threes and Fours all have crucial matches. The Twos host Kingsbridge at Oak Park, the Threes travel to the Ring to play Tavistock 2XI while the Fours play Chagford at Delamore Park. On Sunday, the Women’s Super8 team travel to Bovey Tracey for the Plate final against Whimple. The Threes also have their finals day, playing Fileigh in the semi-final of the Tidball Insurance Cup.
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