COUNTIES CRICKET Western champions new-look Devon

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Created on Friday, 05 September 2025 06:00

Last Updated on Friday, 05 September 2025 12:00

Published on Friday, 05 September 2025 06:00

Written by PAUL BOLTON Cricket Correspondent

Devon’s route to Sunday’s NCCA Cluberly Championship final against Buckinghamshire has been an unconventional one.

The county began the season with a new coaching team, no professional, a team of mostly untried youngsters and with the sole aim of trying to avoid relegation from Western Division One.

They have ended it as Western Division champions and will head to West Bromwich Dartmouth for their second four-day final meeting with Buckinghamshire – the Eastern Division champions and national winners two years ago – in three seasons in good heart.

“When I got appointed my objectives for the county were very simple. They were to stay in the division and to improve somehow our white ball cricket because it was pretty poor,” said Devon’s Performance Director Tim Western.

“I thought staying in the division by hook or by crook would be a win because I knew it would be tough. There wasn’t an obvious professional player available and we thought: ‘let’s go for it, let’s put the onus on the players, let’s tell them that we aren’t going to have a professional player, you guys go and do it. You will have our full support and we will put the right environment in place’.

“So that was the plan. When we sat down at Sidmouth on Tuesday after we had won the Western Division, Matt Thompson said that normally teams that get to this position have been building up to it for three or four years. But most of our guys have only played four or five games.”

Western has formed a new coaching team with former Warwickshire wicketkeeper Sandy Allen, Devon’s pathway manager, and former Somerset and Kent all-rounder Calum Haggett, who has made a smooth transition into coaching after four years as Devon’s professional.

“Having Calum, Sandy and myself at games has really worked and having Calum leading that has been awesome,” Western said.

“It wasn’t that long ago he was playing. He doesn’t miss the warm-ups and the long days in the field but he has been brilliant.

“He is on part of his coaching journey. He works with Exeter University, he works with the age groups and academy at Somerset and he also does bits and bobs with their second team. This is a really good learning curve for him and for us as well.”

Devon will head to the West Midlands with a much-changed side to the one that suffered a record 550 runs defeat against Buckinghamshire in the 2023 final which should mean that they carry no historic baggage.

“We do owe Bucks one. They absolutely hammered us two years ago in a very strange game with injuries and illness and Matt Thompson’s unavailability. Having said that there are only three or four players from that team who will be in the 12 on Sunday. So, they don’t know anything about that final and they won’t go and search the match reports,” Western said.

“Those who did play in that final have moved on from that or have learned from that. There is no pressure we are probably going in as underdogs.

“We had a good game against Bucks in the Trophy earlier in the season and beat them at Instow in a tough game We were up against the ropes but we showed our resilience by fighting back well and it ended up being quite convincing in the end.”

The newcomers in Devon’s squad include batter Seb Linnitt, a product of their pathway programme who is now on Somerset’s academy, England Deaf international seamer George Greenway and his new ball partner Craig Penberthy, who has stepped up from Bridestowe & Belstone in the second tier of the Devon League.

“Wherever possible we have picked from within the Devon League. It’s always tempting either get players who were Devon players who are now playing out of county or have links with Exeter University,” Western said.

“But we have gone as a default back to the league. We have excellent links with Somerset and those links have strengthened and have been important and Somerset have helped us to get where we are.

“When you have the likes of Matt around with his experience who are prepared to help those lads out on the ground it’s great. But there is also a lot of youthful naivete. We have had lads like Craig Penberthy, who has not played any county age group cricket at all and who is playing Division Two league cricket.

“He made his debut down at Wagrave against Berkshire and he’s taken some big wickets for us, including Alex Blake against Cornwall. Because he’s new to National Counties cricket, he doesn’t know who these characters are.”

For Thompson, Devon’s wicketkeeper/batter, the Championship final will be a bonus as he made he thought the divisional match against Oxfordshire at Sidmouth would be his farewell appearance before he retires after 16 seasons as a regular in the side.

“Matt didn’t play in the final two years ago through holiday commitments,” Western said. “It would be really fitting if this is Matt’s last time that he wears the blue lion to come out with a win after the four days. But we know that there is a lot of hard work needed to do that.”

Even if Devon cannot send Thompson into retirement with their first Championship title since 2011, Western believes that there will be further opportunities for his young side to win silverware in the near future.

“Looking at the silverware is obviously important but I don’t think we have even reached the start line yet with where we want to take the team,” he said.

“We go in there over the weekend with no pressure at all. We have a young side but everyone seems to bond together. There is a good togetherness, there are no big stars in there, no pros who people can look to and say: ‘leave it to them’. Everybody just mucks in and they get on really well.

“It’s new a journey for them and we feel that we are just at the start which is really pleasing for me.

“There have been times in games this year when we haven’t quite hit top gear in certain aspects but in others we have dominated games.

“We are still very early on in my tenure in my role. With Calum and Sandy as a coaching unit it all feels very fresh.”

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