Feniton suffered another disappointing day as they went down by 48 runs at Halberton and Sampford Peverell.

A season that looked to have great promises for a good side at Acland Park looks set to be one of struggle as they have now lost five of their seven D Division games this term and go into this Saturday’s home meeting with Seaton sitting joint second bottom just four points better off than basement side Honiton!

The Mid Devon side batted first and closed on 216-8. John Pyle continued his fine form with the ball taking 3-34 and Mark Kingdon bagged a brace.

The total might not have looked too many for another strong Feniton batting line-up. However, wickets tumbled at regular intervals with only Chris Palfrey (32), Mark Kingdon (26) and skipper Graham Tucker (20) making any impression with the final wicket falling on 168.

Skipper Tucker said: “We really are not getting the rub of the green right now. That said we cannot look for excuses for we have the nucleus of the side that Mark (Kingdon) got to finish in the top four the last couple of seasons. I don’t think we are a bottom three side, certainly not on paper. We’ll keep working hard and look to try and turn what are consistent decent starts by individuals to get the 20’s and 30’s, but we need to then maximise those opportunities and turn those knocks into 70’s and 80’s, that’s what you need to chase down 200 plus scores and indeed set decent targets when batting first.”

Mark Kingdon misses Saturday’s game with Seaton and Tucker says: “There’s no panic here as there’s plenty of cricket left. Seaton are heading into Saturday’s game after a defeat and so it’s now a bigger game than it might have been owing to the situations at opposite end of the D Division table.”

Feniton II were 75-run home winners over Axminster II. Kev Brandon (65) and Dave Cousins (44) led them to 205-8 and then Danny Lewis took five wickets for 22 runs as Axminster were bundled out for 130.