Devon completed their pre-Festival preparations with a further home game against Dorset at the picturesque setting of Knightshayes, home to Heathcoat CC. Asking Dorset to bat first on a pitch that looked to offer assistance to the bowlers, the early loss of Dorset’s opener to a fine slip catch by Jack Whitaker off the bowling of Harry Pryce was soon followed by another fine catch from skipper Harry Passenger off the bowling of Alec Holifield looked to be the right decision. As wickets tumbled, Dorset were reduced to 61-5 as skipper Passenger and legspinner Jacob Kopparambil got into the wickets column. A half century stand between Rufus Harmise and Oscar Berridge was broken by the run out of Harmise with a superb direct hit from Jake Pasoce which proved to be the catalyst for a further flurry of wickets to reduce the visitors to 117-9. Despite this Oscar Berridge carried on calmly and with last man Joseph Huns managed to get Dorset to a final total of 142, as he remained unbeaten on 53. Harry Pryce 2-5 and Jack Whittaker 2-22 being the leading wicket takers. Devon continued with their policy of rotating their batters again but on this occasion it backfired as Dorset’s opening attack made early inroads into the Devon batting as they fully utilised the conditions sharing 9 wickets between them as only Alec Holfield (32) offered any resistance with some assistance from Harry Passenger (11) and Teddy Haffenden (10), Passenger and Holifield adding the only notable partnership of 43 for the 6th wicket as Devon slipped to 94 all out to lose by 48 runs.
