Sidmouth go in search of a little piece of cricketing history on Sunday when they bid to become the first team to win the Devon Senior Cup in three successive seasons, writes Stephen Birley.

The competition has seen 15 different teams win it since 1966.

Sidmouth’s first win was in 2000 when they became the 13th different outfit to lift the cup.

Since then they have held the cup at their Fortfield home after wins in 2002, 2009, and in each of the last two season’s.

Previously four teams have won back to back cups. Exeter St Thomas were first to accomplish the feat with wins in 1968 and 1969.

Barton were next with their wins in 1995 and 1996 and, more recently Sandford won it in 2005 and retained it in 2006.

Skipper Will Murray is delighted that his side have another chance to make history.

He said: “Winning the cup is special as it says you are the best around at the 40 over-game so to have the chance to be the first in the 47 years the competition has been running to land it three years on the spin, would be very special.”

However, “Murray is wary of the threat Exmouth pose as he underlined saying: “We have played twice in the league with the score being one each and we did win that Twenty20 contest at Heathcoat. However, I am not reading too much into that T20 game for they (Exmouth) had a much weakened side out that day – and still ran us mighty close. They are a team we know all about and I’d like to think we know all their strengths and weaknesses, but you can be sure that as much as we know about them they’ll know of us. It’s all a question of who performs on the day.”

Sidmouth will take the same twelve to Plymouth for the cup final as they have on duty at Bovey Tracey 24-hours before with Dom Bess the 12th man on each occasion.

It’s a great shame that Sidmouth and Exmouth are both hang to venture down the Devon Expressway to Plymouth for the game – it also means that supporters of both teams will battle the bank holiday weekend travel to support their sides. What a pity that, once it was discovered that two East Devon sides would meet in the show piece final that a venue could not have been sorted nearer home!