Feniton suffered further grief in their difficult D Division season when the weather intervened to wreck what looked a very handy maximum point’s victory opportunity against Countess Wear.

The Exeter side batted first and found the Feniton bowlers in great form.

Jon French served up a superb spell and finished with figures of 3-15 and there were three wicket hauls for both Brian Cann (3-27) and Kev Brandon (3-28).

Like most games across Devon on the penultimate Saturday of July the rain hit the match with the first rain break coming after the Acland Park side had bowled 27 overs. After the rain cleared and the ground dried the teams re-appeared and played six more overs to complete the 33 the umpires had reduced the contest to.

More rain arrived and the teams sat around hoping to get a start in before the 6pm cut-off time, but alas Feniton’s chance to have a real go at the 133 runs needed for victory was not to get off the ground which helped neither side as the pair ended the day still propping everybody else up in the section!

Feniton skipper Graham Tucker said: “It’s typical of our season that the day we deliver so well we are then denied the chance to bag a vital win by circumstances out of our control. To be fair to Countess Wear they were as keen as we were to try and get the game played to a finish. The table does not lie and we sit bottom with just five to go and probably need to win three of those last five to avoid slipping down another division. Given that we are without a win in seven suggests all hope is lost, but that is not the view of our dressing room. I do feel that this section is a lot closer than in recent years. There really is not much between top and bottom and I am confident we have the wherewithal to get out of this mess.”

On Saturday Feniton travel to Filleigh.

Tucker says: “We have it in us to go there, get a result and then see if we can’t begin what will be a wonderful end of season recovery act!”