Devon Cricket Board - Devon lose with honour on chase

Devon lose with honour on chase

DEVON’S early order batting misfired again and they paid the price as Cheshire beat them by 59 runs to maintain their push for the Western Division title.

Having lost nearly a day and a half totted up to bad weather at Bowden, the teams arrived eager to play if they could.

Cheshire hadn’t finished their first innings, parked up at 254 for seven shortly after tea on Sunday, so a certain amount of co-operation was required between the captains to get the game going again.

Terms were negotiated which included Devon using their occasional bowlers to hurry up the run rate.

Sums were done and the final calculation was Cheshire would set Devon around 280 to win in 80 overs or so, but try to get them out instead.

Cheshire got to 326 for nine then declared with Jack Williams unbeaten on a Minor Counties career best of 70.

Part of the deal was that Devon would have a brief first innings to get 40 or so off the target, declare, then go straight back out again. Confused?

The reason was to preserve Cheshire’s first innings batting bonus points, which would be lost if the captains agreed on a single innings match. Those are the rules.

Four batting points may not sound that important, but Cheshire, Wales and Shropshire were only two points apart at the top going into the latest round of matches.

Devon, helped by some agreeable bowling, went in, made 49 for none in 8.2 overs and walked off. Cheshire forfeited their innings, Devon went back out again and with the business bowlers on promptly slumped to 27 for three in reply.

Rob Holman and James Burke were both caught in the cordon as the ball zipped around, then Matt Thompson was caught off a glove at short leg.

Not for the first time this season Devon had rebuilding job on their hands – and the man with a bat for a trowel was skipper Josh Bess.

Bess with a patient 33 off 102 balls cemented up one end while David Lye played some shots at the other to make 60 off 63 balls in a stand of 81.

Lye went first, caught at square-leg , then wickets started to fall at regular intervals.

Rhys Davies was caught at slip, Sandy Allen was bowled sweeping and Matt Golding nicked one off bat and pad to silly point.

Bess was eighth out, caught behind off left-armer Danny Woods and with 134 needed to win and the tail exposed the end shouldn’t have been far away.

No one told the tail though and Cheshire started to get just a little anxious as Chris Bradley, Trevor Anning and last man Will Squire hung around for an indecently long time.

Bradley played the reverse sweep to the impressive Woods, to the frustration of the Cheshire fielders, and made a sprightly 24 before holing out to long-on.

Anning was last man out lbw to Woods when he was given out lbw to the first ball after the last drinks interval at the start of the final hour. He made 25.

Woods finished with a deserved five for 66 from 24.1 overs while there were two wickets each for Williams and Ian Tait.

There were no excuses from the Devon camp afterwards, although some evident frustration at the persistent problems at the top of the order.

“The target was a fair one, we were happy to go for it and Cheshire no doubt felt they could get us out,” said director of cricket Keith Donohue.

“When you lose as much time as we did in this game you have to set something up and I had no issue with that.

“To chase 278 we needed to do better than we did up front. We are picking the best players we can, but availability continues to be an issue and it isn’t ideal having to change the top three for every game.

“But let’s be sensible about this. Cheshire are a good side and there is a reason why they are five from five at the top of the table this season.”

If the batting issue was a negative one, the emergence of Will Squire as a left-arm bowling option was clearly a major positive to come out of the game.

“You want a bowler who takes the ball away from the batsman and Will does that very well,” said Donohue.

“This game will have done Will’s confidence the power of good as he has shown himself he can more than compete at this level.

“It is not like league cricket where you get a few overs and it is all about keeping the runs down. Here you can get settled and attack more.”

Cheshire 326-9 dec (J J Williams 70no, K Sawas 80, J A Duffy 53; M C Golding 2-15, W D Squire 2-58) & 0-0 dec, Devon 49-0 dec (J E Burke 32no) & 218 (D F Lye 60, J J Bess 33, T S Anning 26, C Bradley 24; D A Woods 5-66). Cheshire (20pts) bt Devon (4) by 59 runs.

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