Young Whitchurch Wayfarers cricketer Harry Witcher, selected for his district side West Devon U9s last season, has beens put forward by his district coach for Devon county trials.

Harry, aged nine and a pupil at St Peter’s Junior School in Tavistock, attended a trial at Blundell’s School in Tiverton attended by more than 80 boys from around the county. Of these, 24 were asked to attend a further trial at the Sir Christopher Ondaatje Devon Cricket Centre based at Exeter University.

From those 24 the selectors whittled it down to just 14 for the Devon U11s county cricket squad, Harry will still be an U10 this coming season, so is making the side a year early.

The squad will undertake their indoor winter training at the university from December through to April after which they will play home and away matches against other counties such as Kent, Nottinghamshire, Cornwall and two teams from the USA. They will end their season at Taunton in a tournament where county sides from all over the country come and test themselves against each other.

Harry has worked hard at his cricket over the last 12 months and owes a lot to the one-on-one sessions he has had with Peter Lever who has worked on his bowling with him. Peter is an ex Lancashire and England player who after his playing days went on to be head coach at Lancashire and bowling coach for England.

His dad Matt Witcher said: ‘We couldn’t be prouder of him as parents and hope he goes on to bigger and better things in the future. His dream would be to follow in his sporting idol Lewis Gregory’s footsteps and play for Somerset and one day represent England.’