MORE consistency is the plea from Bovey Tracey captain Toby Codd as a new Tolchards Devon Premier Division season beckons.

Bovey, champions in 2017, were never far from the relegation places last season and glad to steer clear of trouble in the last couple of rounds.

Codd said an imperative this season is to build on the limited number of highlights last season.

“The trouble is we were up and down on a weekly basis,” said Codd.

“On our best days we were good enough to win at Plymouth (4th) and Heathcoat (3rd), which showed what we could do on our day.

"On our bad days we could not beat the sides at the bottom and two of them (Bradninch and Hatherleigh) we lost to twice.

“We aren’t likely to win it this year but I would hope we can be mid-table and avoid the relegation scrap.”

Sidmouth, who lifted the Premier title last season, are Bovey’s first day opponents this Saturday in what is going to be a test.

Sidmouth have strengthened appreciably during the winter while Bovey are largely as they were.

The late arrival of Zimbabwean batsman Brian Chari – he misses round one due to domestic commitments - is a complication Codd could have done without as he already has enough to worry about.

Opening batsman Josh Mailling is out for a month at least after breaking a hand while fielding in the Devon T20 trial game at Seaton two weeks ago.

Keeper Lewis Hammett has patchy availability for the first month of the season and batsman Andy Fairbairn has retired.

“Andy has two children now and feels he can’t devote the time to train as he would like to play Premier cricket,” said Codd.

Youngsters will get a chance, starting with a likely batting one-two-three of Freddie Ford, Will Christophers and Abraham Kopparambil against Sidmouth.

Some good news for Codd is the reappearance of seamer pair Ryan Bougourd and Hugo Whitlock.