By CONRAD SUTCLIFFE

DEVON are sending a side to take part in a 10-over tournament at Wimborne CC on Bank Holiday Monday.

Dorset are hosting the one-day festival and have invited Devon and Wiltshire to take part. There is a trophy – the Hendy Cup – for the winning team.

Senior players Matt Thompson and Calum Haggett have been excused duty at Wimborne, but otherwise the 12-man travelling party is a strong one. Ten of the players in it have featured regularly in Devon sides either this season or last. The odd ones out are Plympton pair Justin Wubbeling and Jonty Walliker.

Dave Tall, Devon’s director of cricket, said South African Wubbeling and Walliker are in the squad as he is already planning for the return of short-form Twenty20 cricket in 2022.

“Justin is qualified to play for Devon now and the way he plays has to be a consideration for T20 cricket in future,” said Tall.

“Jonty has had a good season for Plympton and this is a fact-finding exercise to see how he goes at the next level up.”

Ten10 cricket may be a novelty seldom seen unless bad weather strikes 50 or 20-over games, but Tall sees the chance to play it as a learning exercise for his young squad.

“For batters it is good experience of how to up the pace in the final 10 overs of a game.

“And for bowlers it is a death-bowling scenario and how you approach it.”

The format for the day is a three-match round-robin – everyone plays everyone else – with the two teams with the best records playing off in a final for the Hendy Trophy.

The Devon squad is: J Wubbeling (Plympton), J H G Degg (Plymouth), S O Read (Exeter), B A Beaumont (Cornwood), D J Goodey (Plymouth), E H Hamilton (Plympton), J D Horler (Exmouth), K B Szymanski (Swansea), T J R Codd (Bovey Tracey), E W O Middleton (Exeter), J E B Walliker (Plympton) and A J Small (Sandford).