Sidmouth sent Saj Patidar along to the Francis Clark Devon League awards night to bring back the silverware, writes Conrad Sutcliffe.

The Premier Division title was regained from Exmouth after a 12-month absence. Sidmouth 2nd XI won Premier Two as well.

Patidar is a former skipper of both teams so it made sense to dispatch him to collect the cups.

Awards for the 2014 season were handed out by league chairman Stuart Munday immediately after the competition annual meeting at the Exeter Court Hotel at Kenford.

Player of the year was Sidmouth’s Josh Bess. Young player of the year went to Exeter’s Ben Green, who is about to fly off to Dubai to play for England U17s aganst Pakistan.

The annual meeting was a relatively calm affair with only one major rule revision.

The Duckworth Lewis formula will replace old-fashioned run-rate as the method used for calculating winners in ran-affected games in the Premier Division next season.

Gavin Lane, the rules officer for the league, negotiated a deal with ECB to licence Duckworth-Lewis in the Premier Division only.

Will Murray, the Sidmouth captain, said the switch to Duckworth Lewis was long overdue.

“It will help make the competition a far more level playing field in rain-affected games,” said Murray. “I am very much in favour and looking forward to it.”

A less significant change was reducing the number of power plays in a game from three to two.