Better let Porter know the news and he could celebrate tonight and not worry about the Twenty20. Seward came off having ripped out the middle order in his best county spell of 6-2-13-3 -  superb. The spinners now took on the mantle at 84 Burfitt was well held by Thompson on the square leg boundary off Benton, Chappell trapped Sweatman leg before and at 93 Whittle at slip took out the aggressive Malik also off Chappell. It was a year to the day when Chappell and Yau had put on a record tenth wicket partnership and today’s was starting to frustrate, 29 had been added for the ninth and now 35 for the tenth. A great intake of breath followed Buzza’s fifth catch of the season off Seb Benton. They had achieved a remarkable victory when inclement weather had been the worry – Devon was now safe and need not worry about the other results. Tea was taken, the follow on imposed, which in retrospect was Hardy’s only error of an outstanding season. This would be the sides last session together, as the news of the Twenty20 cancellation was broken – can we have a bonding day together instead (a typical response from this side). Instead we had  the worst session of the season. As Ian Botham said the next day in reviewing England’s poor performance at the Oval you can have a poor session but not a poor day. Well this was a very poor session with just a single point being picked up as Hardy caught Stickland for the second time in the day, this time off Orchard, he then stumped Pearce off Benton and Buzza made it six catching Ridley off Chappell. Orchard limped off with an ankle injury making him doubtful for the IOW festival. They missed the hard hitting Armstrong four times in the forties, with Acton bringing out the teapots and a flung cap, Tidball missed equalling a season’s record on a simple one, a chance behind and then Seward missed a hard hit drive. Some drizzle was around resulting in a rainbow and Dorset finished on 173-3. The works game played afterwards was of a higher standard than this Devon two hours. The final football game resulted in a penalty shoot out for the title which went to the seventeen’s. The Cricketer figure will have a prominent place in the garden and will always remind us of Hardy’s Seventeen’s – all fifteen tremendous young men who played to their best at all times, except perhaps their final two hours together! A season that will be difficult to be bettered for all the right reasons. An interesting return journey, with the mandotory road closure this time - the A31, with Hardy and Benton in charge of the music which at times made you wish DJDW was back in control. They did at least ensure that Robbie was in full voice on arrival at the services. The royal painted Twenty20 pads were distributed. You fully appreciated how fortunate the side had been to get in two full days as  on the homeward bound A38 there were terrific flash floods and the brown lawn we left was now green.  Scorecard | Home