League form earns Medlock (pictured) Lions call-up to face Gloucestershire in development match | Back-to-back hundreds give county management a nudge

Luke Medlock, whose league form has been noted by the Devon management

PAIGNTON’S Luke Medlock has batted his way into the Devon Lions team for Sunday’s 50-over match against Gloucestershire U18s at Clifton College.

Back-to-back Premier Division tons against Exmouth then Sandford gave the Devon management a reminder of what Medlock is capable of.Elliot Hamilton – back in the Devon fold | Photo: Al Stewart

Tim Western, Devon CCC’s performance director, said the Lions is an appropriate stage for players like Medlock to showcase their talents, as others have done in the past.

“The role of the Devon Lions continues to include the filtering of league players,” said Western.

“We focus on those we believe have the potential and mindset to play at first XI level. 

“Ed Middleton (now on the Gloucestershire staff) is a real example of how Devon players can get noticed in games like this.

“As we found against Somerset Academy earlier this month, it is beneficial for our players to be challenged by the professional academies.”

Medlock is one of two Paignton players in the squad travelling to Bristol on Sunday morning. The other is all-rounder Charlie Ward, whose Devon prospects over the past couple of seasons have been derailed by injury problems.

Most of the names on the team-sheet belong to players in the development category, which is the other function of the Lions programme.

The exception is Plympton left-hander Elliot Hamilton who, this time last season, was a regular in all three of Devon’s National Counties sides.

Hamilton took a break from representative cricket last summer, but is back in contention for three-day matches in July and August.

Gloucestershire’s side contains six players with Second Eleven Championship experience either this season or last – and Oscar Moore, who has featured in National Counties cricket for Wiltshire.

Moore played for the South & South West at the 2023 Bunbury Festival in Loughborough, where Devon’s Matt Whalley was a team-mate.

Gloucestershire U18s (squad): W S J Sweeting, Z Syed, R Pollitt. L P Bowden (WK), A J Newton, R T Baker, O R Moore, A A Trotman, J J B Taylor, W Jordon, H D Bryan, Z A Shafi.

Devon (squad): J A W Ford, O S Gribble, N Musikanth, L W Medlock, T J Haffenden, M G Whalley, C W B Ward, J M Triner, T Hodgson, T W Mitch, A Bharadwaj. E H Hamilton.