FIRSTLY, let me say I am proud and honoured to have another opportunity to captain the Devon county side.

Devon is one of the few Minor County sides that is made up of players from within the county league, and those who have strong affiliations with the county.

This trait of the club has grown stronger in recent years, with all of last season Championship team having come up through the County age-group set-up.

The 2017 season should be an exciting one; as a squad we have high aspirations what we want to achieve, and how we want to play.

The Championship competition is a great area for all us players to test ourselves, and a very different challenge to playing limited-overs cricket.

Over the previous seasons we have seen time and again how a game can be won or lost in a single session.

In my eyes the most important thing in three-day cricket is consistency, and this is something we are really looking to deliver this season.

Few players come into three-day cricket and have immediate success, and as a result there have a been some tougher times over the previous seasons, as some of the senior guard have made way for younger players.

This year I see the Championship as an enormous opportunity for the County.

We now have a group of players, who have played a lot of cricket together and experienced both sides of the game’s ability to turn on its head.

Last season there were some great individual and team performances, but as a group we need be producing these throughout the three days.

Players such as Jack Dart, Zak Bess and Josh King have shown this over the last year, and I expect more players will follow.

Hopefully with the recent introduction of three-day cricket to the under-19s’ competition, this will hold the county in good stead to develop players for the longer format, whether it be for Devon, or those trying to make their way into the professional game.

Over the previous seasons our performances in the 50-over competition have been strong, and in 2017 we will be targeting the Unicorns Trophy as one we want to win.

One of the finest moments of last season was our away win in the quarter-final in Cumberland at Furness. We came out on top in a rain-affected game, which went to the last over using the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Matt Thompson scored an outstanding hundred, and Scott Barlow produced the goods with the ball in his first game for the County since the victorious 2014 Trophy final.

The win set us up with a home semi-final against Herefordshire at Sidmouth - a ground that has been a successful one for us in recent times.

However having posted just short of 300, it was bitterly disappointing to lose the game in the final over; and for all of us concerned felt like an opportunity missed.

This season the competition begins in April and we have some great pre-season fixtures lined up against the First Class counties.

With the anticipated availability of several players who have been away, injured, and in professional set-ups over previous seasons, the campaign this year is one that we are all looking forward to.

Hopefully, come September the players, and our ever-loyal supporters can look back on 2017 as a year to remember.

Josh Bess