DEVON’S new director of finance is experienced cricketer and business administrator Roger Wensley.
Devon started looking for a new finance director after long-serving Chris Theedom ended his 10-year tenure late in 2018.
The county executive wanted a person with a cricket background and also the admin skills to fill the role. Wensley ticked all the boxes.
Wensley started playing for Exmouth CC in the 1960s when his late father Cecil was the 1st XI skipper and has been associated with the club virtually ever since, apart from a brief stint at Woodbury.
Cecil Wensley had a long career with Exeter, Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton and Devon, and helped his son get started in cricket.
“My father was captain and Exmouth when I was around 10 years old I would go with him to games with my kit in a duffle bag,” said Wensley in a 2012 interview following his appointment as Devon Over-50s’ captain.
“Sometimes one of the players wouldn’t turn up and my father would say ‘get your kit on, you’re playing’ and out I would go.
“We used to get some big crowds for Sunday games in those days and for a young boy is was all very exciting.”
Cecil Wensley played 40 times for Devon between 1950-1960, as well as in numerous games for the Civil Service, whose fixture list included games against the RAF, the Army and the Royal Navy.
Roger played for the colts through to men's cricket and is still playing now. Along the way he acquired a level-two coach qualification.
Wensley was Exmouth CC secretary for three years between 2005-2007 and was Devon Over-50s’ first team captain in 2013-2014. His predecessor was Nigel Mountford, who is the current chief executive of Devon CCC.
After leaving school he had a brief stint in the Royal Signals before joining SWEB as an apprentice.
In 1979 Wensley joined Post Office Telephones Exeter District) and worked his way up through the ranks and finished as a project manager with BT.
An opportunity arose in 2017 for Wensley to take an early leavers’ package from BT.
He is married with three children and, apart from cricket, has a passion for restoring old motorcycles, walking his dog and spending time with an expanding family.
