The juniors at Budleigh Salterton Cricket Club have once again been racking up the runs and the wickets, writes Amelia Picton.

Ollie Extence topped the Budleigh U11s batting stats in a narrow defeat to Seaton, with the star bowlers being Noah Hill and Reuben Bond.

The U14s hosted a team from Axminster and scored an amazing 184 runs in the first innings. Then came Axminster, who sadly only got 43 runs and were all out at 8 overs. Budleigh’s Zac Scarth retiring with a six under his belt and Henry Russell getting two sixes, which brought his total up to 30 runs off 23 balls. Budleigh’s bowling was right on the money also with four wickets from George Mills, three from Oscar Simms and two from Daniel Gracie.

Budleigh U13s travelled to Upottery and reached 158-4 after the required 20 overs with some memorable moments including Alfie Gray retiring on 32. Other highlights saw Isla Dixon notch up 19 runs off 26 runs and Ben Picton retire on 33 with his last three balls being a four, a four, a six. A flourish of celebration came when Nick Eaves achieved his first runs of the season.

The team went mad! Then came Upottery’s innings with Daniel opening the bowling with a clean-bowled wicket with his first ball, and three more on his fourth, fifth and sixth ball, to complete his hat-trick. Incredibly, Daniel achieved another hat-trick in his second over, as Budleigh won by 134 runs.

The U15s suffered a final over defeat to Upottery. Jack Larmour and Max Jasper were top scorers with the bat, while wickets were taken by both Luke Hoban and George Mills.

In the U12 match against Exmouth, Budleigh had to chase down 134 and fell just nine runs short. Despite their loss, there were some impressive batting performances to be seen from Josh Down, Ted Neill and Cody Rowson. Rudi Wilkinson took three wickets for Budleigh.

A depleted U14 side slipped to a defeat at Seaton. George Mills and Ben Picton shone with the bat, while Henry Russell returned from injury to snare three wickets.

By Amelia Picton