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THURSDAY, JULY 19

JON Lewis rescued his own benefit match from the danger of an early finish with a quickfire 64 in tonight's Twenty20 game between Devon and Gloucestershire at Paignton.

   Two early strikes apiece from Devon opening bowlers Scott Barlow and Tom Allin had Lewis's Glouncester side reeling at 31 for four.

   Allin produced a ball that was too good for former New Zealand Test star Hamish Marshall, it uprooted his middle stump, then trapped James Campbell lbw.

   Allin whipped out former England wicketkeeper Chris Read with a ball that straightened him up and swerved past the bat, and followed up by having Kadeer Ali caught at mid-wicket by David Lye.

   Read, an ex-Paignton and Devon player, started his professional career with Lewis at Gloucestershire. Although with Notttinghamshire these days, Read readily agreed to help his old team-mate out.

   The large crowd that turned up to watch the game hadn't come to see Devon take wickets: what they wanted was some big hitting and Lewis soon obliged.

   Lewis thwacked six sixes on his way to 50 off 27 balls - the slog-sweep proved a profitable shot – and with Ian Fisher and Carl Greenidge supporting the total raced to 100 for six.

   When Greenidge walked past a quicker ball from Devon spinner Seb Benton and was stumped, his contribution to a stand of 38 with Lewis was exactly one run!

   Alex Gidman blasted 21 off 13 balls at the end – all but one of them in the final over from David Lye – as Gloucestershire reached 142 for nine.

   Lye made 23 off 13 balls as Devon started promisingly, but the reply got bogged down against Lewis (2-24) and Paignton's Stephen George, who was guesting for Gloucestershire and bowled three overs for just nine runs.

   Devon skipper Bob Dawson upped the tempo late-on but his 48 off 39 balls couldn't alter the outcome. George, Lewis, Fisher and part-time bowler Read all had two wickets each as Devon were bowled out for 128 with a ball to go and lost by 14 runs.

   Gloucestershire 142-9 (J Lewis 64, I D Fisher 18, A P R Gidman 21no), Devon 128 (R I Dawson 38, D F Lye 23; C G Greenidge 2-17, J Lewis 2-24, I D Fisher 2-24, C M W Read 2-1). Gloucestershire bt Devon by 14 runs.