Devon slipped to a 3 wicket defeat in their opening Division 3 County Championship match with Wales at Budleigh Salterton. In a very closely contested game Wales got home by 3 wickets. Devon won the toss and batted first on a good hard surface. A little uneven bounce at times but a good batting track. Devon made a bright start with openers Bowden and Richards adding 63 for the 1^st wicket before Bowden was one of the three victims for Becky Struthers, bowled for 30. Amara Carr hit a breezy 10 before holing out to Lauren Parfitt at extra cover looking to go over the top. Aimee Watkins fell in similar fashion and that brought Giselle Ansley who together with Nicole Richards added 78 for the 4^th wicket, Ansley making 44 from 45 balls including 6 boundaries. Richards fell for a well made 70 (118 balls, 8 boundaries), bowled by Struthers. Devon were well placed at this stage to post a challenging total with Ansley joined by skipper Lottie Miles, however they committed the cardinal sin of not pressing home the advantage as Miles and Ansley both departed in quick succession as 181-3 became 181-6. Credit to the Welsh girls who stuck to their task as all momentum went from the innings and a score in excess of 220 became a disappointing 201-7.

Devon’s bowling lacked any real penetration, with Donohue looking the most likely to prosper. A couple of chances went down off the bowling of Aimee, one a relatively simple chance to get rid of the very impressive Becky Williams who made 84 from 109 balls with some clean hitting. Far too many loose balls from the Devon girls (22 wides in a total of 44 extras). Singleton did pick up a wicket with an impressive one handed catch from keeper Carr to dismiss Lauren Parfitt. Two run outs from Clara Nielson and Nicole Richards to dismiss Becky Williams and Marsha Davies appeared to swing the game back to Devon, however Gemma Mumby (32 no from 99 balls) was joined by Hannaa Zaman who made 15 from 21 to get Wales home. The ball running away for byes when Donohue bowled Zaman leg stump and the bails didn’t come was probably the best sign that it wasn’t Devon’s day. Full Scorecard