Devon were represented by six players in the festival which commenced on Monday 10 th November 2003. Chris Theedom (Manager), Tom Stanton (Captain), Brent Howard, Richard Coe, Richard Cavendish and Phil Matten made up the nucleus of a team from the West of England. They were joined by a number of players from Hereford, Shropshire and Cumbria. The team were known as England West. Other teams from England taking part were Suffolk, Bedfordshire and Berkshire and the international teams were Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Ontario and British Colombia.

Accompanied by Stan Newell the scorer the players and wives were entertained on the Sunday to a spectacular opening event in Bridgetown. Unfortunately the much heralded sunshine of Barbados was in short supply on Saturday, Sunday and Monday and torrential tropical rain on the Sunday produce incredible flooding. Could this really be Barbados!!

Fortunately the hotel, beach and facilities were outstanding and the unusually bad weather was soon forgotten when the sun came out and we played our first game against British Colombia.

To the Devon players this was a real eye opener in that the square consisted simply of two wickets and the wicket that we were playing on was simply baked mud and the outfield had certainly not seen a roller for a number of years. However, we were to find out that this was the norm in Barbados and throughout the West Indies.

Having won the toss British Colombia were invited to bat on a slightly damp wicket but with the temperature in the nineties and incredible humidity the wicket soon baked.

Playing in a team that came from different parts of the country was not easy but British Colombia were eventually restricted to 125 for 9 wickets with Phil Matten taking the important wicket of the ex Barbadian, Colin Deare. Fielding in these conditions were incredibly difficult and drink breaks were taken every ten overs.

As far as batting was concerned Richard Cavendish showed his metal by hitting quick boundaries and made 16 off four scoring shots before he was brilliantly caught in the gully. Theedom had his first bat of the tour and soon realised that playing the English way on Barbados wickets simply doesn't work.

The wickets were hard and low and we soon found out that to be a successful batsman you had to hit the ball hard and through the line. Devon overtook the British Colombia total with overs to spare losing 5 wickets in the process.

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