Sidmouth lost a Tolchards Devon League Premier Division game for the third time in four outings when thrashed by eight wickets at Exeter.

Not for the first time the Sidmouth effort with the bat was unable to go the distance as all 10 wickets were lost with the final delivery being the first ball of the 47th over.

Indeed, but for a splendid half century from Josh Bess, the total would surely have been far less than the 209 the County Ground score board showed tat the end of the innings.

Only Zac Bess (45), Luke Bess (26), Stuart Barlow (23 not out) and Nick Gingell (11), managed to post double figures scores in what was another disappointing all-round batting performance fro the Fortfield men.

The standout contribution with the bat was the 105-minute stay at the wicket by Devon skipper Bess who hit nine fours in his 85-ball knock of 75.

Together with Luke Bess, he put on 86 for the second wicket, but the next best partnership was the 25 that Zac Bess and Nick Gingell added for the fifth wicket.

The total of 209 did not look anywhere near enough as Exeter made short work of soon getting the required runs total down under three figures as the home side reached 110 before they lost their first wicket halfway through the 20th over. It was a Nick Mansfield stumping off the bowling of Charlie Miles that saw the first Exeter wicket taken.

The Mansfield/Miles combination, this time with a catch behind, saw an end to the second opener to leave Exeter then 150-2 after 27.4 overs, but still well on their way to a comfortable success, getting home with 13 overs still to be bowled and with eight wickets in tact!

The Sidmouth bowling figures made sorry reading with the most successful being the two wicket take of Charlie Miles, who finished with figures of 2-50 from 10 overs.

The others to bowl were Josh Bess (0-33 from six), Stuart Barlow (0-35 from eight), Will Murray (0-67 from 10) and Miles Dalton (0-23 from three).

The league table does not make for good reading for Sidmouth followers at the moment with the reigning champions in the bottom two four weeks into the new campaign.

On Saturday, Sidmouth host the only side to sit below them in the table, Torquay (12.30pm).