A brilliant bowling and fielding performance could not make up the lost ground a below par batting performance had placed the side in this vital re-arranged Inter County game against Wales. James Carr won the toss and batted with James Fraser, returning after injury breaking up the Bess/Bowser partnership. On a typical Axminster track Bess was the first to depart at 33 bowled pulling. Bowser came in and with Fraser driving on the up well they put on 16 and the two left handers confronted with left arm spinner Fisher decided that the sweep was the best option six sweeps later Bowser was bowled. Cooke came in and was immediately run out by a brilliant left hand pick up and throw from square leg and was the only unlucky Devonian batter in the day. 57-4 became 57-5 as Fraser was stumped off Fisher for the side’s top score of 32. It became 67-5 as Jack Porter was caught flicking to square leg. Up to their necks with 27 overs remaining and five wickets left the lower order would have to do some digging and the game plan was rapidly revised and let’s get to 150 first. Fortunately Devon do bat deep and the required application and ability took the side to 140. Unfortunately there were 29 balls unused which with the benefit of hindsight would have proved useful. First Tom Allin and Justine Yau put on 28, taking it up to 95-6 with the loss of Allin which was soon 95-7 as Yau was trapped leg before. The eighth wicket yielded another 14 as Wilkinson was timing the ball well, but Carr was then Roberts second leg before victim. A vital 25 came from the ninth pairing of Acton and Wilkinson but at 134  it was critically Wilkinson back in the pavilion for a 25 ball 22. Six more runs for the last wicket pairing of Acton and Knight but of most importance four plus overs unused.
The feeling was 20 more runs would have made it a contest and Devon had to pull out all the stops to retain top place in the Western League. To their credit they pulled out all bar one - the vital tenth wicket – of the stops but the feeling of anticlimax was marked as the side put every ounce of effort into recovering the game. With James Fraser back from injury bowling still quickly at 70% but it was Tom Allin who was on fire as he whipped out Stenner and Garland in the sixth over to leave the visitors 8-2. He bowled the opener and Yau took a smart catch behind to remove Garland. Allin finished his first spell of six overs with figures of 2-2. The second wicket brought the 2003 Under 15 Cricketer of the Year, Ben Wright, to the crease. He fell 26 runs later brilliantly caught driving Acton on the up and with great power by Matt Cooke at mid off.

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