SUNDAY, AUGUST 5
IAN Bishop and Bob Dawson both had four-wicket hauls as Devon shaded the first day of their Minor Counties Championship game against Cornwall at Budleigh Salterton.
Devon skipper Dawson, who tends to use himself as a fill-in bowler or partnership breaker, had to toil away in the midway sun after paceman Tom Allin was helped off before lunch with a knee injury.
Pehaps Dawson should bowl himself a bit more often as by Cornwall had subsided from 67 without loss to 103 for four by lunch – and the Devon captain had taken every wicket to fall.
Chris Martin (30) and Gary Thomas were both caught behind then Cornwall captain Tom Sharp was brilliantly pouched one-handed in the gully by Chris Mole.
Ryan Driver, the former Worcestershire and Lancashire batsman was the last out before lunch when he went leg-before.
Dawson sat down to his piping hot lasagne – just the thing on the hottest day of the summer so far – with figures of four for 25.
Devon really turned the screw immediately after lunch when Ian Bishop struck twice in the space of four balls to reduce Cornwall to 119 for six.
Chris Hunkin departed caught behind – the third of four victims claimed by Devon glovesman Sandy Allen – the Alex Smeeth was leg-before without getting off the mark.
The one batter who had eluded Devon was Matt Robins, who had gone in at first wicket down and watched from the other end as his colleagues came and went.
When Smeeth went out Justin Stephens came in and between them they repaired the damage done by putting on exactly 120 for the seventh wicket.
Dawson worked the bowling changes in an attempt to unsettle the batsmen without any noticeable effect.
Arwyn Jones wheeled away for a gruelling total of 25 overs and finally got the breakthrough Devon needed when Robins drove a half-volley back at him and the Plympton spinner took a difficult return catch at knee height.
Robins had batted for 12 minutes longer than three hours for 93 and even the most devout Devon follower wouldn't have begrudged him a century after that marathon effort.
Bishop winkled out Stephens, who made a tidy 53, thanks to a one-handed catch by a diving Allen.
The tail-enders managed another 43 between them in the time it took Jones (2-53) and Bishop (4-85) to bowl Cornwall out for 282.
Devon had to bat out the final 25 overs last night and made a 75-run hole in the first innings deficit.
Allen opened up in place of the fatigued Mole and got to 30 when Driver bowled him with a delivery that kept low.
Cornwall broke through again in the penultimate over of the day when Neil Bettis couldn't resist trying to pull a Driver half-tracker and only succeeded in gloving it through to keeper Mark Horwell.
Richard Foan, dropped in the gully by Sharp in 28, added one more before the close to finish 29 not out in a Devon total of 75 for two.
Cornwall 282 (M L Robins 93, J C J Stephens 53, G M Thomas 36, C P Martin 39; I E Bishop 4-85, R I Dawson 4-52, A Jones 2-53), Devon 75-2 (R J Foan 29no, A P W Allen 30; R Driver 2-13).