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SKIPPER Bob Dawson believes Devon can manage for one game without three key members of the side that won the Minor Counties Championship outright last season.

   Arwyn Jones took seven second innings wickets in the play-off game with Buckinghamshire at Exmouth last September to hurry Devon to victory.

   Plympton left-armer Jones won't be travelling to Chester to face Cheshire tomorrow as he is a attending a trade show related to his pottery business in Modbury.

   One of the reasons Devon got to the final in the first place was the prolific wicket-taking of Budleigh Salterton's Andy Procter – he claimed 41 wickets in the Championship – and the 799 runs scored by Sidmouth's Neil Hancock.

   Procter is out for the rest of the season having taken a job abroad while Hancock can't get off work on Monday, which means missing the match.

   That's three serious players missing – although Jones and Hancock will be back for the match against Wiltshire at Bovey Tracey in two weeks time.

   Dawson said it was a blow to start the defence of the title with three match winners missing, but added it wasn't the terminal one some people might think.

   “Arwyn, Hank's and Proc's are all proven match winners for Devon and of course I would want them to play if they could,” said Dawson.

   “Devon have been the most successful Minor County of them all for more then 10 years – and that's not down to the efforts of the same two or three players all the time,” said Dawson.

   “Teams evolve all the time, players come in, seize their chance and the team moves on.

   “It is the strength of league cricket in the county that has kept Devon at the top for so long and I am confident the players being brought in for this game will do the job we want.”

   Sandford's David Lye, out of favour at the end of last season, returns to the three-day side, ostensibly as cover for Hancock.

   Exeter's Adam Gribble, who lives in Bovey Tracey, is finally rewarded for many years of honest toil in the Premier Division as spin bowling cover for Procter.

   “Adam has been around for years bowling away in the Devon League and going for two or three runs an over,” said Dawson.

   “Three day cricket is all about getting control and a bowler like Adam enables you to do that by keeping the batsmen quiet.

   “He might not take the wickets that Procter or Jones take, but don't bet against it.

   Dawson generally gets a few overs out of Hancock with the new ball so needed a quickie as well. Tom Allin from North Devon, who spent the winter in Australia honing his game in Grade cricket, gets a first-time call up.

   “Tom's one of the up and coming fast bowlers in Devon and this will be the first of many games he will play for Devon over a long period of time,” said Dawson.

   If the name's familiar it ought to be as dad Tony was a Devon regular between 1975-95, other than the season he was with Glamorgan, and took more than 300 Championship wickets in just under 100 appearances.

   Tom's brother Matt has also appeared for Devon in the old C&G Trophy.

   Replacing Jones left-arm spin will be down to opening batsman Richard Foan, who bowls long spells in the league for Sandford but has been used sparingly up to know on his county appearances.

   Devon: C M Mole (Cuckfield), R J Foan (Sandford), N C Bettis (North Devon), R   I Dawson (Budleigh), D G Court (Exmouth), D F Lye, T S Anning (both Sandford), A P W Allen, I E Bishop (both Budleigh), A Gribble (Exeter), T W Allin (North Devon).