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The Sweep 26 End of Year Part 1: Best ever bronze finish for Ones
Words: Simon Travers
Match Photos: Ivor Thomas
With the weather claiming the last round of fixtures for the second year running, this week’s Sweep is starting to put the year to bed with a season review for the Ones to the Fives. The Women’s Firsts still have one match left and the Colts have their awards night on Friday, so they will be covered next week. Don’t forget to vote for the club awards before this Saturday. Links to the voting form are in the Announcements WhatsApp channel.
Only one match was played in the Premier Division on Saturday. With eighth place Hatherleigh’s game called off at Oak Park, Plymouth were still mathematically capable of avoiding relegation by beating guaranteed relegated Sidmouth. Needing 19 points, Sidmouth made Plymouth’s life harder by winning the toss and forcing the visitors to bat. That meant they required 200+ runs and to bowl Sidmouth out in a 23 over game reduced to 21 overs. They did not achieve that as 4-14 for Charlie Gaywood and strong finishes from Dan Powell (61) and Luke Bess (56* from 37) ensured the sides will meet again in A Division next year.
The cancellation of all other matches ensured that, for the first time in their history, the Cornwood First XI finished in the top three of the Premier Division. That is a great achievement that is in the books forever. It is a deserved reward for a concerted push over the past five seasons to establish Cornwood as a perennial presence at the top of the county structure. It is worth remembering that in the seven seasons of Premier Division cricket that Cornwood competed in before 2022, the Ones collected 22 wins, were in the bottom 2 four times and finished no higher than seventh. Since 2022, the team have never had a losing season, never finished in the bottom half of the table, and have won 43 matches. Only champions get their name in next year’s Wisden these days, but everyone in Devon knows who Cornwood are and what our team are capable of.
The strength of Devon cricket is demonstrated by the county side reaching T20 finals day and the final of the NCCA Championship next week. The Premier Division table suggests this season has also been unusually even. No team in the win/lose era since 2013 has won the Premier Division with fewer points than Paignton. The same would have been true for Exeter without their 60 point deduction. Only three teams in the 21st Century have come third in the Premier Division with fewer points accumulated than our Ones. In this century, only 2012 and the foot and mouth season of 2001 have seen a smaller difference in points between tenth and first place in the league. Within that unprecedented level of parity between sides, the Ones have shown they can beat any team on any given day, even when availability is challenging. They were just one wicket against Sidmouth and four runs against Hatherleigh short of beating every team in the league.
The strength of the Ones remains the bowling attack, which centred around the new ball pairing of Mohsin Khan and captain Matt Skeemer, and the left arm, right arm spin combination of Lee Baker and Elliott Staddon. All four bowlers are statistically in the top 25 of Premier Division bowlers by combined wicket taking and average, while Lee Baker with 28 wickets at 16.89 and Mohsin Khan with 27 wickets at 18.19 belong in the top 10 of Devon bowlers. Mohsin has had an exceptional all round year statistically for the team. His 651 league runs, including the first ever Cornwood double ton, fell one run short of being the highest scorer in the Premier Division. He becomes only the Third Cornwood player, after Mohammed Salman in 2005 and Dave Tall in 1997, to score 600+ runs and take 25+ wickets in the same season and the first player to achieve that feat in the Premier Division. Matt Skeemer has also demonstrated phenomenal all-round consistency with his third consecutive 300+ run, 20+ wicket season. Only Mohammed Salman (2005-07) and Kevin Willcock (1998-2000) have previously achieved that combined performance three years running. The Ones top batsman of the year is Charles Finan, who made 412 runs, monstering powerplay bowlers at an average of 45.78. Charles is one of only 16 Premier batters to break 400+ runs, and his phenomenal innings of 178 was eighth best across all DCL matches.
The gap between B Division and C Division West was made plain as Ipplepen 1XI went straight back up undefeated while last year’s C Division West winners Ashburton came straight back down with 4 wins. It became clear that the Twos were not going to be pushing for promotion like last season by the end of the first cycle of fixtures. At times, the Twos second round of fixtures felt attritional as they won two and lost six of their last nine to finish seventh in the table. A key statistic for the season is that of the 23 players who played 1XI cricket this season, 14 also appeared for the Twos. That illustrates the way that, this season, the Twos played a more traditionally supporting role in the club by helping players stay sharp for selection by the Ones. The Twos were in the thick of the club’s youth development, as 11 of the 33 players who appeared for the team were 18 years old or under. Of those young players, Charlie Cawardine perhaps had the biggest impact, taking 10 wickets at 24.30.
Ben Griffiths came back to Cornwood and top scored for the side with 227 runs at 37.83 including a ton. Alex Robinson, as well as stepping into captaincy duties in the second half of the year, also was the leading wicket taker with 23 wickets at 15.17. Jason Hall had the best team figures of the year with 6-24, and took 19 wickets at 24.05. Even in a down year for the Twos, the team are still in the top 5 of the 58 2XIs in the county. Next year, they get to stake a claim to be best in class as Bovey Tracey 2XI were relegated to C Division West.
The Threes can certainly claim to be the best of the 33 3XIs in the DCL after repeating last year’s achievement of coming third in E Division West and making the finals day of the Tidball Insurance Cup. Paignton 3XI, the only other 3XI playing E Division standard, were relegated. Adam Whiting’s team pushed Babbacombe and Kenn throughout the year and were able to score wins against both teams at Delamore Park. The Threes benefitted from a settled squad and a clear gameplan. As a chasing side, the Threes win-loss record was 1-2 batting first, but 8-4 batting second.
Brian Gould’s team record of 31 wickets in a season was finally broken after standing since 2004. Andy Bees now holds that record after claiming 33 victims at an average of 7.12, an economy rate of 2.49 and a strike rate of 17.18. Charlie Martyn also had a good year with the ball, taking 14 wickets for the Threes at 18.21. Aviral Srivastava made a big all-round contribution to the team on his first season as part of Cornwood. He led the Thees batting with 410 runs at 82 and taking 11 wickets at 21.82. Ewan Grewal also acted as an impact player with 277 runs at 69.25 with a handy strike rate of 164.88.
The Fours can also make an argument that they had the best year of the 13 4XIs across the county. Paignton, the only 4XI at F Division standard were relegated with 2 wins, while the other 2 G Division 4XI’s were also relegated or withdrawn. The Fours continued to make genuine progress under Marc Whaley’s leadership finishing fourth in G Division West with their first winning season since 2021. Highlight of the year for the team was a home and away double against first placed PCS&R 2XI. Youth development was an essential part of the Fours makeup, with 13 of the 31 players appearing for Fours eighteen years old or under. However, it was the dads who showed the lads how village cricket games get won. Charles Knight showed great consistency scoring 391 runs at 35.55 while Julian Burrows came through in the clutch with 357 runs at 39.67. Simon Garland was the team’s top wicket taker with 15 at 23.00, while Tom Burrows took 14 wickets for 15.71.
Across the Four Devon Cricket League teams, seventy two heroes wore the badge for Cornwood CC in 2026. Twenty one of those players were aged 18 or under. No players managed to be picked for all four DCL sides this season, but six players represented three teams. Noah Carlisle and Ewan Grewal both appeared for the Ones, Twos and Threes, while Tom Burrows, Sam Gibbs, Charlie Martyn and Rocky Travers all turned out for the Twos, Threes and Fours.
The Fives’ year was curtailed by an unfortunate run of other teams cancelling due to availability. That meant they were only able to play 2 fixtures in the second half of the year and 8 games in total. There were good wins against Modbury and the South Asian Society, as well as the obligatory demolition of Pearse Brothers. 33 players made at least one appearance for the Fives, with 16 of those players not having an opportunity to play DCL cricket this season. Of those 16 cricketers, 9 were 16 years old or under, making a total of 30 colts who played adult cricket this season. Noah Garland top scored for the team with 100 runs at 25.00, while Harvey Smith terrorised some veteran players bowling a heavy ball for 12 wickets at 11.33 including a five-fer.
With all of the ups and downs that hurtle at a club like Cornwood through the eighteen weeks of the Devon Cricket League campaign, it is surely an upward year for the club. If someone had offered the season described above on the first day of May, your writer feels confident that most players, volunteers and clubhouse pundits would have accepted it gratefully. Beyond the good results, Cornwood remains a great place to play and watch cricket. Up the Wood, we remain a cricket family who raise our young, respect our veterans, and like good cricket. We try and go about things the right way and there’s no problem too big that it can’t be sorted over a pasty and a pint of Oak Park. There’s only 243 days until we go again with the first matches of the 2027 season, weather permitting.
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