A  defibrillator on site almost certainly saved the life of a Devon player in a recent over-60s championship match against Hampshire at Warnford.

Nick Rogers, 61, the Devon captain, felt unwell as he returned to the Hampshire Hogs CC pavilion after being dismissed and he suffered cardiac arrest near the boundary edge. A defibrillator was used before air ambulance paramedics  arrived to give further emergency treatment.

Rogers, chairman of Hatherleigh CC, started his recovery after successful  heart surgery at Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth.  The 45-over match was abandoned.

A Devon team mate Nigel Mountford told The Herald newspaper that all the players had been shaken by the incident. "It was an awful day," he said.  "In my 50 years playing cricket I have never seen anything like it. The incident shook us rigid. Nick had been given out lbw and as he walked off he began to stagger. Players from both teams rushed to help, and the club had their own defibrillator, which was vital."

In 2014 two players from Hertfordshire died on the field at club grounds.  Dave Allen, the Preston CC seamer,  bowling for Herts Over-50s second team at Maori CC in Oxshott, Surrey, and Dave Percy, 50, bowlng  in a club league game at Kings Langley, might have been saved if a defribillator had been available before the arrival of emergency service.

On a lighter note, during a recent Home Counties League Division Two game, Hugh Jackson dislocated a finger in the field for Amersham and was able to hop immediately into an ambulance, which had already arrived for his team-mate Stuart Rogers's dislocated elbow.  Such speedy hospital attention must have shortened Jackson's recovery time, though Rogers, a key all-rounder, looked likely to miss the rest of the season. Opponents Oxford won by three wickets, leaving Amersham still without a win.

As often with the way of cricket, Amersham broke their winless sequence the very next Saturday with an eight-wicket success at Gerrards Cross, thanks to an outstanding show by Maduka Liyanapathiranage. The Sri Lankan took 4-47 off 21 overs and hit a rapid 89 not out to seal victory.