The well-established format of visiting two widely contrasting areas of South Africa provided our young cricketers with a unique opportunity to widen their cricket experience as well as gaining from the wider educational perspective on offer.

The stats give an indication of how individuals and the team performed but, as ever, drawing conclusions on ability and future potential from a small sample might well prove to be an unreliable exercise.

Kruger provided the usual challenge of high temperatures and humidity as well as playing competitive fixtures just two days after leaving the pleasures of midwinter in the UK.Indoor nets is useful preparation but a heated indoor cricket centre simply cannot replicate the conditions, which lie ahead.

An addition to previous itineraries was two T20 games against teams from Uplands College and a Lowveldt Invitation XI, a programme that enabled everyone to be involved on the fist day. The first game was won comfortably by 69 runs whist the second,against a much more accomplished ended in a 88 run defeat.

After a welcome rest day the annual two day game against Nelspruit College ended in a disappointing defeat in a game Devon looked certain winners until some lapses in the field and some determined late order batting enabled Nelspruit to gain a 2 wicket win.

Two rest days enabled the tourists to sample what this unique area has to offer, including of course the magnificent wildlife in Kruger. We have established rewarding links with good and generous people in Skukuza who again did so much to ensure that we gained maximum enjoyment and benefit from our visit.

Cape Town with its magnificent backdrop of Table Mountain provides a sharp contrast to Kruger, a vibrant and modern city replacing the images of Africa we recognise from the wildlife programmes regularly featured in TV documentaries.

Our first game against a Western Province Development side featuring players from the townships provided another reminder of how much the quality of these players has improved since our first game at Langa Township on our very first tour.
We looked to be heading for defeat before a really excellent knock by Jack Gibbs (61not out) resulted in a 4-wicket victory.

The next game, against what turned out to be a very unrepresentative Boland side resulted in a 210 run win. Tom Lammonby demonstrated his undoubted potential with an unbeaten 123 and his partnership with Mike Cooper (63) put the opposition to the sword in a 50 over total of 293. The opposition continued to find life difficult in their innings being dismissed for just 83 runs.

The scheduled two-day fixture against a WP U14 side was replaced by a game against the recently formed ' Newlands Cricket School' While a number of players clearly had potential the school side were generally a year younger than the Devon players and Devon won the game by a substantial margin of 102 runs.

Tom Lammonby scored an impressive 169 and Mike Cooper 72 in a first innings total of 344 for 7 declared while Leon Horn proved to be the most successful bowler taking 8 wickets in the match

The last game provided an experience most can only dream about, a match against Western Province U15 on the magnificent Test match venue at Newlands.
This was by far the strongest opposition and Devon lost the 45 over game by 123 runs. Some very accomplished batting enabled WP to total 302 for 3. This was always going to be a demanding task and despite another outstanding innings by who were dismissed for 179 the feature of which was another excellent innings of 56 runs from 53 balls by Mikey Cooper.

Tom Lammonby confirmed his considerable potential with the bat while some spectacular, controlled hitting by Tom Cooper caught the eye. Kazi Szymanski was the most effective all rounder with 167 runs and 14 wickets. Joining an established team is never easy, but Jabez Weale and Ben Hayes acquitted themselves well, quickly becoming part of the group and making some valuable contributions on the field.

Feedback from players and parents clearly indicates the continuing success of this annual venture, hopefully structures can be put in place to ensure that future young players have the opportunity to sample what South Africa and the people we meet and work with, have to offer.