Sidmouth suffered their first defeat in league and cup competition this season when they went down by six wickets to hosts Exeter, writes Stephen Birley.

It was a miserable day also for the Fortfield club’s second eleven as they also fell to their first defeat of the Francis Clark Devon League season when they were beaten by Exeter II.

The senior side reversal sees Will Murray’s team drop to third in the table behind new leaders Bovey Tracey and Exmouth.

It looks increasingly likely that the current top three will fight it out until the final game of the season to determine who will be the 2013 champions!

Up at The County Ground in Exeter Sidmouth suffered a serious does of wide’s woe as they sent down no fewer than 23 wide’s compared to the three that the home team bowled.

Exeter won the game off the final ball of the penultimate over after Sidmouth had batted first and posted what looked at the time a slightly below par total of 263-6.

Skipper Will Murray lamented: “There are many theories as to why we came up short at Exeter. I guess fundamentally we did not score enough runs, nor did we bowl well enough to defend the total we had. On the whole I think we were complacent and expectant. It was an incredibly disappointing performance, but we win as a team and lose as a team, Exeter definitely outplayed us on the day and we need to bounce back, and quickly.”

Tomorrow (Saturday) Sidmouth travel to fourth placed Plymouth and with the top two also meeting there are sure to be more table changes come stumps tomorrow evening!