Seaton slipped to a second D Division defeat of the season, beaten at home by 34-runs by Shaldon Optimists.

A score of 147 is the magical number sought by all snooker players; for that is the total for a complete clean-up, but 147 was not the score Seaton wanted when they began their run chase to try and defeat the visitors who had earlier been restricted to a total of 181-9 with James Berry (4-42) and Mike Wheeler (2-33) taking the majority of the wickets.

Only Steven Pritchard with 35 and skipper Ben Morgan with 23 were able to last any length of time at the wicket as the first time visitors to Seaton left with the victory as the final home wicket fell with the score board showing that 147.

Skipper Ben Morgan said: “We got what we deserved, absolutely nothing. I am afraid that, on the day, we were outplayed in all departments. Any side that puts down as many as seven catches, two of them real dollies, will be beaten. We did not bowl particularly well and our batting was certainly not good enough. It’s a case of us all needing to buck our ideas up to get us back on track. There’s no serious damage down with a defeat like this at this stage of the season. However, we don’t want to be slipping into bad habits and I’ll be looking for a response from all against Feniton on Saturday.”

There were defeats also for both the second and third elevens. The 2nd went down by 18 run at Upottery where they replied to the hosts 187-5 with 169-7, Andy Carter unbeaten on 33 with the top score and the third eleven were well beaten, losing by 80 runs at home to Halberton and Sampford Peverell II. Ollie Aplin and James Thomas both took three wickets as the Mid Devon side were bowled out for 145, but that proved more than enough with Seaton bundled out for 65 in the reply with Sam Goodier top scoring with 15.