BOVEY Tracey lost by one wicket to Exeter in a game decided under Duckworth Lewis rules

The question to come out of the game is whether Bovey Tracey can stay out of trouble as they are living dangerously down in the basement.

Brixham’s fate is already settled, but anyone of Cornwood (165pts), Plymouth (171), Bovey Tracey (172) or even Torquay (182) could go with them.

Bovey have Exmouth (4th) and Heathcoat (3rd) to finish and will be watching results involving Cornwood and Plymouth closely.

Cornwood finish with North Devon (A) and Torquay (H). Plymouth must play Heathcoat (H) and Brixham (A) on the last day.

Bovey were all out for 126 in the 37th over at a soggy County Ground – Aussie batter Rob Honeybul top scoring with 35 off 79 balls in 101 minutes.

Honeybul went in when Peter Bradley was dismissed by Dom Bess (2-27) in the second over and came out at 84 for seven – lbw to Bess in his second spell.

Along the way for Honeybul were stands of 35 with Malcolm Lake (21) and 23 with Toby Codd (16).

Blake Reed (2-31) and Bess kept the runs down while James Taylor (3-40) profited in the later overs.

Exeter started off chasing 127 to win in 49 overs, which came down via rain breaks of two, four and six overs to 116 in 37 using the Duckworth-Lewis calculator.

Scorers Geoff Coish and Peter Langford were kept busy reworking the target score after each of the three stoppages.

Exeter looked on course at 54 for none – Rob Holman (27) and Reed (21) the run getters – but 56 for four and 70 for five was a different story. Codd had two wickets, as did Hugo Whitlock.

The next crisis came when Alfonso Thomas (15), Miles Lenygon and Jon Tipper went in the space of 10 balls as Exeter wobbled from 95 for five to 98 for eight – Matt Golding (3-9) doing the damage.

The man of the moment for Exeter was Devon U15 batter Ben Sapiecha, whose 12 not out got Exeter over the line after a struggle.

Instead of being downcast at losing by such a tiny margin, Bovey captain Hickinbottom was encouraged.

He said: “We had chances to win it, and in games that close you can look back at nearly every ball and say ‘what if’.

“To run Exeter that close shows how good a side we are.

“I hope we can believe in ourselves for the last two games and get the results we need.”