DAN Pyle and David Lye took three wickets each to speed Exmouth to a 100-run win over North Devon.
Sandy Allen and Callum French both knocked-up half-centuries as Exmouth totalled 203 for nine in 49 overs after a delayed start.
North Devon were 60 for two when Lye trapped Dan Bowser lbw for 35.
Seven North Devon wickets fell for 17 runs added as Exmouth turned the screw and despite some lower-order defiance the result was never in doubt.
Saturday’s headliner at the Maer Ground on his full-time return to the Premier Division was North Devon seamer Jack Popham and his seven-wicket haul.
Popham only played a handful of games for North Devon last year, either due to injuries or his obligations in Bristol with Gloucestershire.
Cracking a collarbone playing football during the winter meant Popham missed the start of Devon’s Unicorns Trophy campaign, but he proved his fitness by demolishing the Exmouth order.
Popham’s analysis of seven for 44 from 10 overs included five bowleds.
Before Popham started striking it seemed Exmouth’s batters were heading over the horizon.
Allen (67) and French (59) batted 29 overs for their second-wicket stand of 114 that Popham broke by bowling his former North Devon team-mate French
Five wickets went in 12 balls – three of them in the same over to Popham when he removed Chris Metters, Finlay Marks and Allen after a 149-minute stay.
Bits and pieces from Billy Rudolph and George Greenway got Exmouth past 200.
Matt Westaway, Josh King and Somerset’s Craig Overton all bowled tidy, but wicketless spells.
There was no sign of the carnage to come as North Devon opners Bowser and Tom Popham (16) scored at four an over early on.
Pyle, who has a remodelled delivery after a winter playing Grade cricket in Melbourne, made the breakthrough when he dispatched Tom Popham then Lye trapped Bowser.
After that it was downhill all the way until King hung in there for 23 after going in at 71 for six.
French (2-14) and Billy Rudolph (1-9) tied up the loose ends.
Matt Dart, North Devon’s vice-captain, said one defeat was not a disaster.
“It is nothing to worry about as we always tend to start slowly,” said Dart.
“Exmouth bowled a lot straighter than we did and ultimately that was the difference between the sides.
“A par score on a low slow pitch and slow outfield was probably 150. We did very well to keep them to 203 after the second wicket partnership they had.”
The plus point for North Devon was Popham’s emphatic return to the side.
“Jack was superb in his second spell,” said Dart.
“It won't be the only time this season he runs through a middle order.”
