By CONRAD SUTCLIFFE
FIVE players aged under 20 – six if Somerset’s Ned Leonard is also included – have been named in Devon’s 13 for tomorrow's (Sunday's) 50-over friendly against Cornwall at Sandford.
Dave Tall, the county club’s director of cricket, is determined to use the break from competitive cricket caused by the Covid-19 crisis to have a look at as many future players as he can.
So it is for that reason Tall has brought in seven players who did not feature in the win over Dorset last Sunday to have a closer look at them. Leonard, dual registered with Somerset under the partnership agreement signed last year, is the only one who has not gone through the Devon youth system.
Among the players picked for the first time at this level is Plympton’s Ben Privett, who steps up from age-group cricket.
Opener Privett may have been out first ball against Cornwood last Saturday, but that blip can’t disguise his appetite for runs.
In last season’s Devon Development side for under-16 players the Plymouth College student averaged more than 60 and made a century against Nottinghamshire.
The only player to make more runs at a better average was Plympton team-mate Elliot Hamilton – and he is also in the 13-man squad for he Cornwall game.
Privett, who averaged nearly 80 for the Development team, played for Devon last Sunday in the win over Dorset. As he was in and out cheaply he has been given another opportunity.
Cornwood’s Ben Beaumont, another age-group graduate, keeps his place in the 13 having made an unbeaten 44 in the four-wicket win over Dorset.
Two more match days are booked – Dorset for a T20 and Wiltshire in a 50-over game – and Tall has other young players in mind for those games too.
Cornwall’s original travelling party has been changed by the introductions of Joe Phillips and Piran Kent for Chris Gibson and Ellis Whiteford respectively.
No players from Callington or Wadebridge have been invited to play as the two teams have a rearranged Bond Timber Trophy game that clashes.
Devon (squad):M C Golding (Bovey Tracey), A J Small (Sandford), B A Beaumont (Cornwood), E H Hamilton, B H Privett (both Plympton), D J Pyle (Heathcoat), J H G Degg (Plymouth), M P Skeemer (Cornwood), T R J Codd (Bovey Tracey), H C B Ward (Paignton), E O Leonard (Bridgwater/Somerset Academy), S O Read (Exeter), H M Whitlock (Bovey Tracey).
Cornwall: A W Bone, C A R, Gilbert (both St Austell), M H Gribble, T J Dinnis (both Werrington), J Phillips (Truro), L P Goldsworthy, C D Lello (both St Just), C J Kent (Truro), J A Paull, M J Lawrence (both Penzance), P M Kent (Redruth).
Umpires: R G B Allen & P A Smith
DEVON’S T20 double-header against Dorset has been moved from North Perrott to Bridgwater CC due to a clash of fixtures.
North Perrott now need their ground themselves to host a Cricketer Village Cup tie.
Nigel Mountford, the Devon CCC chief executive, said Dorset had chosen a venue that was easy to get to rather than impose a strenuous trip up the A35.
