CORNWOOD 1st XI defeated Paignton by 49 runs to stay in touch with the leading group of clubs in the Premier Division.

Two wins on the spin have hoisted Cornwood into fourth place behind Exeter, Exmouth and then Paignton in the race for the title.

Skipper Matt Skeemer top scored with 70 for Cornwood, who were all out for 265 in the last of their 50 overs.

Charlie Finan (36) found a few balls to hit early on, Stanley Baker (55) and Mohsin Khan (49) put on 94 for the third wicket; then Skeemer carried on until he was the last man out.

It was 15-year-old Baker’s first Premier Division half-century for Cornwood. He played himself in before getting his shots out of the locker, the most memorable a six down the ground off Paignton spinner Rory Medlock.

To be fair to Medlock (3-50) he mostly bowled with control for Paignton in the middle overs in conditions made for batting.

Aya Gquamana finished with four for 55, two in each spell, and Charlie Ward trousered two at the end.

Paignton were on the ropes from the get-go with of the first four out getting to 13. Skeemer had two wickets and Khan the third.

Harry Ward (45) and Luke Medlock (33) batted Paignton back into the game as they recovered to 106 for four.

Charlie Ward (60no) and Ollie Woodcock (32) kept going, but not quite quickly enough to keep up with the asking rate.

Skeemer (3-30) and Adam Goodliffe (3-52) returned for second spells to go through the stragglers and leave Paignton all out for 216.

Skeemer skipped over his own role when he summed-up the game, preferring to share the credit around.

“I was very pleased with the result and how we got there,” said Skeemer.

“We have been looking to improve with the bat so to win the toss and post a good score was exactly what we wanted.

“Very happy for Stan, who set-up the whole innings.

“Our bowlers built pressure and, despite some impressive hitting from Charlie Ward, we were always comfortable.”

Meanwhile, Cornwood 2nd XI’s batting performed a disappearing act at Queen’s Park, where Paignton 2nd XI skittled them for 112.

It is hard to win a 45-over game when you are 9-5 batting first, which is where the Wood were after a duffing-up from Jack Harman (3-24) and Jacob Lander.

Double-digit scores from Ayaan Chatterjee, Eoin Hewitt and Ethan Carlisle spared Cornwood from a fate worse than all out for 112, but not by much.

Lander finished with match figures of five for 27 in two spells.

Paignton had the game won before the end of the 19th over for the loss of openers Sam Woodcock (13) and Max Pedley (23).

Matt Lipton (27) and Ethan Hancock (25) were the not-out batters when the winning runs were scored.

Lastly, Aviral Srivastava plundered an unbeaten century to steer Cornwood 3rd XI to a four-wicket derby win over Plympton 2nd XI.

Plympton recovered from a six-wicket battering by veteran seamer Andy Bees (6-15) that left them a wobbly 126 for seven to reach 231 for eight.

Jack Sellick with an unbeaten 81 – 15 fours and a six – had a helping hand from Joe Coppola (26no) getting Plympton past 200.

Srivastava, batting first wicket down, was the fulcrum Cornwood batted round to reach their target. He shared a stand of 81 with Duncan Cumberland (28) and 47 with Mike Hodge (16) to put the game beyond Plympton’s reach.