Devon waiting on Bess before deciding who will skipper against Wales

Jamie Stephens - poised to fill in as Devon captain against Wales

DEVON will play under their third captain this season when they face Wales at Pontarddulais in the Unicorns Championship opener - the question is who!

Matt Thompson, who replaced Josh Bess during the winter, started the season as skipper. He resigned after four T20 games in charge and passed the reins to Sidmouth’s Alex Barrow.

Barrow told the Devon management he could not play every game due to work commitments. As Devon have only played on Sundays since he was appointed that has not been an issue.

The three-day game against Wales starts on Sunday, which rules Barrow out as he has to work on Monday and Tuesday.

Sidmouth skipper Zak Bess as vice-captain would ordinarily be expected to take over, but he may have to work too!

“Zak should know by Friday whether he can play or not and if he can, great,” said Devon team chief Dave Tall.

“If Zak has to work then Jamie Stephens will take over as the senior guy in the side.

“Jamie is a capped player and has had captaincy experience in Premier cricket with Falmouth and would be ideal to step in.”

Devon also have an availability doubt over Exeter leg-spinner Ed Middleton.

Four Bovey Tracey players are in Devon’s 14-man squad for the game against Wales.

Bovey captain Toby Codd, batsman Josh Mailling and quick bowler Hugo Whitlock were in the Devon side that beat Cornwall twice in a day on Sunday at Instow in the final round of Unicorns T20 pool games.

Mailling, playing his first county game for two years, had combined figures of five for 35 from the games, both of which Devon won.

Abraham Kopparambil, the Bovey batsman who has been attracting attention from Somerset this season, is the fourth member of the squad. He has been playing for Somerset 2ndXI against Middlesex at Southgate.

Kopparambil is averaging a fraction below 50 for Bovey in the Tolchards Devon Premier Division this season. School commitments have prevented him featuring before now.

Although the side contains six players whose club cricket is outside Devon, four of them came through the county age-group system with Devon clubs. They are Matt Thompson (Torquay), Matt Golding (Whimple/Bovey Tracey), Jamie Stephens (Tavistock), Max Curtis (North Devon) and Dan Goodey (Plymouth).

Devon, who have signed Somerset’s Peter Trego as their match professional this season, are under pressure to finish in the top half of the Western Division table this season.

Anything else will mean being placed in a new second division next summer when the competition introduced promotion and relegation for the first time.

Devon’s interest in the T20 competition had ended before they met Cornwall last Sunday. Their back-to-back wins meant they climbed off the bottom of the pool table.

Devon (squad): Z G G Bess (Sidmouth), M W Thompson (St Fagins), P D Trego (Weston), J E Burke (Plymouth), J A Stephens (Taunton Deane), M H Curtis (St Cross), J H J Mailling (Bovey Tracey), M C Golding (Old Wilsonians), D J Goodey (Bashley), J O Hagan-Burt (Plymouth), H M Whitlock, T J R Codd, A S Kopparambil (all Bovey Tracey), E W O Middleton (Exeter).