Skipper Matt Golding led by an example as Devon beat Wiltshire by 30 runs at Sidmouth CC. With heavy overnight rain and thundery showers in the area thanks must be given to Terry, the groundsman at Sidmouth, for getting the pitch ready for play. Amazingly play started on time at 1130. After losing the toss Devon were asked to bat and got to 29 in the 9th over before losing Craig Eaves, bowled by the impressive Callum White. Tom Ansell soon followed after making a breezy 15. Alec Bosomworth and skipper took the score to fifty but when he was caught at the wicket soon to be followed by Craig Overton, Devon were suddenly 58-4. Seamus McKenna then came in and played a gem of an innings as he hit 56 from 48 balls. Matt was playing a controlled innings at the other end and Devon looked like they would post a large total.The loss of McKenna prior to lunch was a blow as the home side went in at 165-5 with Golding still there. With 19 overs to bat a score of 250 plus was a realistic target. Credit must go to Wiltshire though as they came out and bowled good lines and lengths, the coaches had done their work and Wiltshire dried up the runs with some good field settings. A 47 run partnership between Curtis was broken and when Golding fell for an impressive 77 soon after it was left to Osama Alam to try and steer the tail through to a challenging total. He hit some impressive straight drives but tried one too many as he was caught for 16. Poor running at the end meant that Devon limped to 225, scoring just 60 from the last 19 overs. There followed an ineffective period of play as Devon's seamers collectively have probably never bowled as badly as they did in this game. Merrick Steward escaped from criticism as they sent down 37 wides. After discussing during the break how well Wiltshire had bowled, maintaining a straight and full length it was particularly disappointing to see the seamers, Steward excepted, bowl with no consistency, in fact the only consistency evident was that the bowling was too short and too wide. They had to be thankful that Devon's ground fielding was of a much improved standard than in recent games. It can still get better as two catches went down. Thankfully the spinners came to the rescue again as collectively they bowled 24 overs for 82 runs to put Devon back in control. It was only a 111 run 6th wicket stand that saved Wiltshire from a heavy defeat and as it was had they been a little more positive earlier they may well have got passed Devon's score. In the end Devon secured a 30 run victory but not after a scare. The real concern at the moment is the form of the front line seamers who badly need to get to grips with what they are trying to do with the new ball because they were ineffective and to be honest never really looked like bowling a wicket taking delivery. Still a win restores the confidence and we now look forward to Dorset.