DAY THREE - TUESDAY, JULY 11

SPINNER Andy Procter finished with match figures of 12 for 143 as Devon tightened their grip at the top of the Western Division with a six-wicket win over Herefordshire at Torquay.

   An absorbing final day ended with Devon being set 62 to win after Procter's second seven-wicket haul of the season had bowled Herefordshire out for the second time in the match. In the opening game of the season, Procter took seven for 62 against Dorset.

   Devon, 422 for five overnight, (click here for day two report) kicked on to 515 for nine in little more than an hour before lunch with skipper Bob Dawson finishing unbeaten on 126.

   It was Dawson's 10 th Minor Counties ton for Devon – and one of the most important. Devon needed quick runs in the board to increase their first innings lead and leave time to bowl Herefordshire out to win the match.

   Dawson and Sandy Allen (21) put on 79 in nine overs then, after a quick swish from the tail enders took the lead up to 231, entrusted the business of winning the game to the bowlers.

   Herefordshire showed on the first day when they made 284 all out in the 89 th of their 90 overs that they could occupy the crease and getting them out, especially on a gentle pitch at Torquay, was always going to be a war of attrition.

   The first wicket came easily enough, Trevor Anning getting the breakthrough on 17 when Richard Hall tried flick the ball away off the back foot but edged it to Allen behind the stumps.

   Harshad Patel and Henry Longford put on 50 for the next wicket before Procter intervened for the first time. Langford pushed forward down the wrong line and looked back to see his bails on the floor.

   Patel is a wily old campaigner Devon have struggled to get out before and he stayed around for 141 minutes compiling 69 in a stand of 112 with skipper Chris Boroughs.

   Dawson deployed Richard Foan as a partnership breaker and he duly obliged by inducing a rash dab outside Patel's off-stump that went straight to Neil Hancock at slip.

   Boroughs never sells his wicket cheaply and getting him out was vital for Devon's chances of winning the game. Procter kept nagging away at the Herefordshire skipper for over after over until his patience finally snapped and Allen claimed the stumping.

   The final stumbling block between Devon and the lower order was David Exall, who had made a handy 69 in the first innings. Procter removed Ashley Nahorniak lbw to leave Herefordshire 245 for five, but Exall wouldn't budge.

   Yet again Foan was called up to bowl and yet again he came up trumps with a full-length delivery that Exall whacked low and hard to Dawson at mid-wicket.

   That was 265 for six – a Herefordshire lead of 34 and from then on in it was the Andy Procter show.

   Morgan Rushbrook and Simon Crump put on 25, but when Procter had Crump caught at silly-point by Dave Court and bowled Duncan Willetts in the same over, the end wasn't long coming.

   In Procter's next over he took the last two wickets in the space of five balls – one bowled, one lbw – as Herefordshire's last four wickets went for two runs in a total of 292 all out.

   Devon were left with 22 overs to make the 62 needed to win and got there with more than eight of them to spare, although four wickets went down getting there.

   Chris Mole fell first, lbw to Rushbrook, then sharp catching accounted for Foan, Neil Bettis and Neil Hancock.

   Dawson and Court dealt with the last 18 needed with the minimum of fuss: Court hitting a four and a six from the only two balls he faced to secure a Devon's third win of the season and put them 19 points ahead of second-placed Wiltshire at the midway point of the campaign.