DESPITE recovering from a calamitous 26-6 to post a total of 175, Devon Dumplings were soundly beaten by the Free Foresters at Seaton.
The Dumplings elected to bat, knowing that their key bowler, Axminster's Joel Seward, would be making a delayed arrival.
Things began well as Sidmouth's Simon Sobczak and Andrew Parr appeared untroubled taking the score to 14.
Sobczak departed to a mistimed drive to be swiftly followed by clubmate Louis Talay, Ben Wakim, Angus Hamish and George Sandbach to make it 17-5.
When Shobrooke's Francis Pyle fell to a fine reaction catch at slip, the score had plummeted to 26-6.
A dogged stand of 76 between skipper John Goodwin (Sidmouth) and opener Parr that spanned the lunch interval rescued the situation.
Goodwin was out for 44 and the late arriving Seward came in to play the innings of the day, albeit for the losing side.
Seward scored 61, made up of cultured drives peppered with powerful hits, to take the Dumplings up to 175.
Soon after Seward reached the crease he lost Parr for a valiant 34 and, as well as maximising the runs, he had to guard tail-enders Phil Chappell (Bradninch) and Jeff Stanyer (Exeter) from the strike.
When the Foresters batted there were to be no early breakthroughs for the Dumplings and the score had reached 61 before Pyle struck with the first of two wickets in a typically controlled spell.
Wakim held on to a sharp catch at short cover for the first and Sobczak pouched a sliced drive at point for the second with the score on 95.
While Pyle was operating in tandem with Chappell, the Foresters were unable to cut loose, but they were moving inexorably towards victory.
The Dumplings had no further joy until Talay induced a mistimed drive and the ball skewed to Seward at backward point with the score on 156.
From there the Foresters coasted home, reaching their target before the last 20 overs started.
Devon Dumplings 175 (A Parr 34, J Goodwin 44, J Seward 61), Free Foresters 176-3 (F Pyle 2-28). Free Foresters bt Devon Dumplings by 7 wkts.