BOVEY Tracey  were celebrating twice over after winning TWO cricket cups in the space of a couple of hours on what club chairman Andy Bishop has dubbed ‘Super Sunday’.

The second team, skippered by Dan Green, won the Aaron Printers T20 Cup for third year running after beating Ipplepen by six wickets in the afternoon final on the South Devon Cricket Ground in Newton Abbot.

Just a couple of hours later over at Exmouth it was the turn of the first team, led by Lewis Hammett, to carry off the Wombat Cricket Devon T20 Cup after beating Sandford by 23 runs in a final that swung this way then that.

The weather wasn’t great – both games were affected by bad weather – but that did not matter as far as chairman Bishop was concerned.

“The sun really did shine on Super Sunday for a day of cricket which will live long in the memory,” said Bishop.

Ipplepen scored 126 for nine against Bovey with Sam Wakeham making the top score of 36. Noah Ride was next best on 26.

Jonah Serong dominated Bovey’s bowlings stats with a three-for 26 return from four overs. Equally impressive were Harry Pitman (1-15 from four overs) and Archie Christophers (2-26), who put the brake on the Ipplepen batters.

Bovey did not find runs much easier to come by as they were well behind the clock at 36 for three when Green went out to bat. The next six overs changed the match.

Green hit the third ball he faced straight down the ground for six, which set the tone for what came next.

George Tapley, Andrew Bligh and Freddie Harvey all suffered under Green’s lash as he belted 55 off 25 balls to turn the game on its head.

Green went out swinging at Harvey, having hit five fours and the same number of sixes. The target was down to 17 which was soon wiped out by Tom Andrew and Christophers, who hoisted Harry Lewis for six to win it.

Penrice, the Ipplepen skipper, said it was no surprise that his opposite number was named man of the match by adjudicator Vivek Kulkarni.

"I think we did well to get that score on a tricky pitch in some tricky conditions and started really well with the ball," said Penrice.

"We came up against some ruthless hitting from Dan. I'm proud of how we performed and credit to Bovey for the win."

Bovey Tracey 1st XI had to get past Exeter in a morning semi-final at Exmouth, which they did by seven wickets. Ashley Causey hit 63 not out as Bovey chased down 106 to win with more than three overs to spare.

The final, against Sandford, went Bovey’s way by a comfortable margin in the end, although the bald facts don’t tell the full story.

It appeared Sandford had done the hard part by limiting Bovey Tracey to 105 for seven in a full 20-over match – a total that owed a lot to the stickability of skipper Lewis Hammett.

Bovey were not looking great at 25 for four after a going over from Jack James (3-20) and Dikshan Negi (4-14), but thanks to Hammett (52no) and Will Christophers (17) putting on 64 they posted something defendable on the board.

Sandford’s reply reached 52 for two without too many issues thanks to runs from Lawrence Walker (25), Albert Grieve (12) and Negi. Then the wheel fell off!

Grieve, Walker, Adam Small and James Theedom were all dismissed as Sandford slid to 66 for six. Coping with Bovey’s spinners – Christophers (3-14) and Ollie Clifford-Bourne (2-11) in particular – posed problems for Sandford’s batters.

With professional Negi still there Sandford remained in the game and getting him out became Bovey’s prime target. Toby Codd trapped him leg-before to chorus of delighted whoops from fielders.

Negi was seventh out on 76 and from then on it was downhill all the way to 82 all out for Sandford.

Christophers finished with three Sandford wickets for 14 runs given away and there were two wickets each for Peter Bradley and Clifford-Bourne.

Skipper Hammett knew exactly where to put the credit for winning the final: with the spin bowlers.

“Our spinners got to work on a slow pitch that was hard to score on,” said Hammett. 

“Codd getting Negi out was huge and changed the game. He gets most of their runs and that left them wondering where the runs were going to come from?”

“Clifford-Bourne’s spell could easily go unnoticed but apart from one six he didn't go for many more runs.

“Will Christophers is a very good T20 bowler and was too good for the Sandford lower order.”

Bovey Tracey now go forward as Devon’s representatives to the ECB Regional Final at Bridgwater CC next month.