Cooke was undefeated on 40 having batted 61 minutes facing 69 balls. Despite the aspertions cast by the top order about the quality of the pitch and a nasty rap on the fingers for Matt Cooke this still was some 60 runs short of par so it was always going to be difficult.

Dorset reached 21 before their promising opener House was caught behind in Allin’s fifth over. It was downhill from then on as Dyson (52*) and Park (76) put on 135 in 106 balls. Hands did not get to a difficult over the shoulder effort and Dyson hit Parker straight to short mid-wicket only for the ball to nearly rebound from the fielder’s hands to the batsmen! It is impossible to know what difference the acceptance of these two chances would have made but the batsman found any gap in the field in the air with positive committed batting. Devon kept to their task which always looked beyond them. Nick Watkin trapped the impressive Park in front and keeper Tweedle hit his fourth ball straight to take the scores level. Overall a most inauspicious start to the season - a bad day for everyone at the office.

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