Following
the disappointment of their Saturday game against Sidbury being
rained off Kings finished their tour of Devon at Honiton. The
heavy rain from the day before had left the pitch damp but playable
but with further rain forecast it seemed unlikely the game would
be completed.
Batting first on a heavy pitch the batsmen found it hard work
but Dave Miller got 
the
scoreboard moving with a sweetly timed cover drive. There seemed
little from the attack to worry the experienced Kings batsmen.
But having just hit a fine boundary Dave Perry was then bowled
by Ingram (29-1) and when the same bowler trapped Evans on the
back foot Kings were two down with 35 on the board.
Worse
was to follow when Wheel struck in his first over having Miller
caught behind (38-3). Gordon Young and Simon Pipe added a further
10 runs before 
Young
was bowled by one that kept low (48-4). With scoring continuing
to be difficult Kings managed another ten runs before Rob Young
was bowled (58-5). Kings were looking unlikely to post anything
like a good score when rain forced the players from the field
for 20 minutes. When play resumed it was not easier and Pipe was
then bowled trying to pull a short ball that failed to get up
as high had the batsman had expected (67-6).
Some
fine shots from Mears soon had the scoreboard moving along at
a faster 
rate
as he scored 13 from just 17 balls, with Smith playing a good
support role they added 16 for the 7th wicket before Mears pushed
a ball from Baten to cover (83-7). Smith, with Bygrave supporting
saw the score to just short of three figures before Bygrave was
bowled by Baten and when Sones was caught second ball Baten had
taken 3 wickets for 1 run (92-9).
More heavy rain during the interval delayed the start of Horniton's
innings and when the rain had stopped the pitch was very damp
and despite plenty of sawdust Kings bowlers were restricted to
a couple of paces for fear of losing their footing. With Pipe
ruled out due to the conditions Bygrave and Gordon Young opened
the bowling. In difficult conditions both bowlers bowled superbly
in keeping the score well below the required rate. The game was
building into what looked to be a tight finish when after 15 overs
the rain returned and with the pitch unable to cope with any more
water the game was abandoned as a draw.
