Devon defeated Cornwall by 10 wickets when the teams met at the Fortfield, Sidmouth, writes Mark Gordon.

Cornwall batted first and Devon did well with the ball to bowl them out for 286. The only Cornish batsman to get beyond a score of 34 was Brad Wadlan who stroked his way to an impressive unbeaten 116.

The Devon reply was hit by the loss of skipper Matt Thompson to spinner Libby on 23 to plunge Devon into deep trouble at 116-6.

However, 23-year-old Zac Bess was joined by Jack Dart and the pair launched a fightback that took Devon to 137-6 at stumps on day one.

Monday dawned bright and sunny. Hopes centred on Devon scoring enough runs to take the game to a third day! Bess and Dart batted carefully, punishing any bad balls (and some good ones!) Bess overtook Dart, who departed for a valiant 78, and reached his century before lunch after felling umpire Andy Hicks with a straight drive! However, after there was no ill feeling, Andy gave Zak not out shortly afterwards!

After lunch a large Fortfield crowd were treated to a magnificent display of straight six hitting by young Bess as he piled on the runs, taking his score to a terrific 166 not out and, with support from Jamie Stephens (43), meant Devon were able to close on 404.

After such a long and energy-sapping innings Bess then tore into the Cornish batting with the ball!

Bowling from the Belmont End, Bess worked up a head of steam and whipped out three of the top order on his way to closing figures of 5-37 giving him seven wickets in the match to go with that unbeaten big century!

Fittingly, it was Bess who claimed the final wicket to see Devon to an emphatic 10-wicket win.