Tipton St John edged out in thrilling home encounter

Chris Tubbs batting for Tipton St John in the narrow defeat to Stokeinteignhead. Picture: OHIL WRIGHT (Image: Archant)

Only two overs of their meeting with the Met Office were possible before the rain won the day and washed out any chance of further play.

A midweek encounter with bakers saw a little more action, but he rains arrived to washout play midway through the game and so there was relief all round when the sun was shining brightly for the home encounter with Stokinteignhead and the contest that followed was certainly of the 'exciting' category.

The visitors batted first and made their way to a total of 197. Tipton took an early wicket when Dave Alford bowled Bushby for 10, but the Stokeinteignhead batsmen then took control!

David O'Higgins did bowl opener Hugo Longrigg for 34, but it was not until the closing overs that wickets started to fall in earnest.

A Phil Tolley catch off the bowling of Phil Wright removed Tom Wills for 52 before Kevin McMeeking chipped in with a three wicket haul including that of the visitors top scorer, Alex Heywood, for 61. It was left to David Birch to return to the attack to polish off the tail taking four wickets in nine balls.

In the reply, Tipton lost Chris Tubbs and David Thayre early, but a partnership of 70 between Phil Tolley and Dave Jessop put Tipton back on track.

Unusually, Tolley was dropped twice, but his luck ran out when he failed to make his ground going for a quick single and departed for 68.

A good partnership of 44 between Dave Alford (21) and Kevin McMeeking (25) took Tipton to the brink of victory before a Tipton tumble saw them lose five wickets for just six runs.

The final wicket was lost with four balls left, leaving Tipton just 10 runs short of victory.