SOMERSET’S Peter Trego inked himself into the Devon record books on his Unicorns Championship debut against Wales at Pontarddulais.
When rain stopped play shortly after lunch, Trego was unbeaten on 105 in Devon’s total of 186 for two.
Devon recruited Trego as their match professional this season to add some batting steel to a relatively young side. The county needs a top-five finish in the Western Division to avoid being relegated into the new second division planned for 2020.
The Devon team management were hoping for runs in the scorebook from Trego. A place in the record books is a bonus.
In the 118 seasons since Devon joined what was then the Minor Counties Championship, only eight batsmen have previously scored a maiden century in their debuts.
The roll of honour is: Seven debut hundreds Devon’s previous debut centurions were: Gerald Harrison (1905), Ernest Burdett (1911), Gerry French (1924), George Looms (1951), Kevin Barrett (1997), Chris Mole (2003), James Toms (2013) and Jack Dart (2015).
Trego has so far faced 108 balls and dispatched 17 of them to the boundary.
The other not-out batsman is Max Curtis, who had reached 60 when the rain came in.
“Tregs made it look so simple – absolutely chanceless – and put us in a good position before it started to rain,” said team chief Dave Tall.
“After we lost a couple of early wickets, Trego and Max Cutris batted really well.”
Trego was one of two debutants in the Devon side for the opening game of the three-day season. The other batsman Abraham Kopparambil, who plays for Bovey Tracey and has playing for Somerset 2ndXI around his studies at Mount Kelly this summer.
Play was abandoned for the day following a 5pm pitch inspection by umpires Paul Evans and Dean Price. Weather permitting, play will resume half an hour early on day two to claw back some of the lost time.
Devon 186-2 (P D Trego 105no, M H Curtis 60no). Rain stopped play.
