Todd was past his 50 and starts the second day on 57. Penn had batted 69 balls for his 15 and Devon’s fielding had been good with McDowell patrolling the leg side boundary most effectively. Time to watch the final half hour of the third Test as Ponting is caught behind – game on

On another hot day Devon anticipated that their opponents would advance to their initial target and tee off, how wrong they were! Hyde’s second ball of the day sent back the visitors captain Penn caught behind and 120-3 felt better In the 60th over Carroll brilliantly held Todd at slip, Penn was Chappell’s third victim for a well constructed 77 and Sam Smith took his first under 16 wicket at 178 when he bowled Horsley and in the sixty-seventh over Devon’s first innings total was passed. Instead of kicking on Somerset seemed to go into reverse as they took another eight overs to pass 200. With lunch approaching and Somerset digging in discussions took place. It had taken the visitors 20 overs to advance from 174 to the lunch score of 224 when they declared 34 ahead. Chappell continued his golden summer with the ball taking 3-44 off 31 overs. Devon would bat for 240 balls maximum and ask their guests to chase. Devon response of 190 off virtually 40 overs would have been probably acceptable in a 50 over game but the side faced 144 dot balls. Their end product of 191-8 would have been better if 50% of the dot balls had been taken a singles. Long term lesson there. An eventual moment was when this large red noisy shiny object suddenly descended on the ground and made its intentions quite clear – it wanted to land. The Devon Air ambulance quickly received its passenger with the game delayed for just 8 minutes. Chappell hit a 23 ball 27; Benton a 36 ball 26 and was then run out; Carroll a 40 ball 42, Seward a run a ball 19 and Eliot Acton a 15 ball 19. Somerset would have to score at around six an over. They reached their target with over 3 overs to spare. At 26 Chappell caught Fear off Hyde for 1 but Todd and Cambell put on 96 off 69 balls and Somerset were on their way. Wrench caught Cambell for a 37 ball 55 and Penn holed out to Carroll on the boundary both off Robinson who took his third wicket when he bowled Todd but the cider men reached their target at their leisure in 21.2 overs. Devon held their catches, Hardy was in top form behind the stumps putting the batsmen under pressure by standing up to the seamers and Devon felt really disappointed with their overall performance over the two days. They now have a week in the Isle of Wight to start playing to their strengths. This was the fifth day of under 16 cricket at Axminster and the side could not have been looked after better. The club’s commitment to Devon youth cricket in 2005 has been outstanding.

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