Another sunny day greeted the twenty-ones at Exmouth with the only cloud being the fact that their captain Nick Watkin was at the Crown Court, Exeter and it was hoped that he would be acquitted in time for the start. Fortunately the news came through that he would be free to lead the side but not so reassuring was his firm believe that Devon should field, surely not, most of our batters have not yet reached the crease in this most inclement of summers. Fortunately he lost the toss and his side was inserted by the Isle of Wight skipper. The end product of 251 was still made up of major contributions from Bess, 49 off ninety balls and in the same number of minutes – the all rounder is now averaging over a hundred, Nick Watkin, who reached 24 before being stumped and Seb Benton 78 off 72 balls. The good news was that Bovey’s Andy Kingdon at last made a batting county debut but displayed a lack of temperament by getting out one short of a maiden fifty! With his former club colleague, Benton, he put on 129 for the third wicket. Kingdon batted for 72 minutes facing 80 balls. Watkin felt that a final charge was needed and to Bowser’s real disappointment sent in Parker at Kingdon’s demise when he was caught going for his first county landmark. Parker hit 12 off seven and Dan Bowser did reach the crease to face a ball.

The Devon seam attack then destroyed the Islands aspirations as Barlow had Hatt stumped by Yau, and Morris followed four runs later in the same manner. In his fifth over the Sidmouth seamer made it 3-10 as Bess took the catch. Parker bowled Brown and Yau completed his third dismissal when he caught Calloway off Porter to leave the visitors 27-5. It then became 37-7 as Bowser caught Woodhouse off Parker and Porter bowled Friend. The Island were all out in the thirty-seventh over for 65 as Yau made it four with another catch this time off Acton, Bess bowled another batsman and Barlow completed the task when he bowled Cotton. Two difficult away games now face the side in a hard final week of August when they also take on the League Overseas stars.