Tipton welcomed new visitors to their riverside ground on Sunday.

Plymouth Civil Service and Roborough were the latest new team to visit and all at Tipton hope this will become a regular fixture, given the excellent spirit in which this match was played.

Tipton fielded first, which was just as well, as one of their five bowlers had to leave at tea; on the other hand, the sweltering heat of the afternoon was always going to be challenging for the side fielding first. Nevertheless, Joe Birch and Steve Shaw began well in a tight and searching opening spell which saw Shaw bowl opener J Winsor with only six on the board.

So, when David Birch had number three bat Vickery well caught at mid-off by debutant Barry Alcock with the score on 26, Tipton felt that they were well in the game.

What happened next was a superb partnership of 150, which Tipton showed few signs of breaking, until Winsor retired on 100. At that point a score of around 250 seemed likely, but Tipton’s bowlers managed to apply the brakes and restricted the visitors to a mere 20 from the last 10 overs, thanks to tight closing spells from both Birches and Ollie Coates.

The visitor’s total of 189 ought to have been within reach of Tipton’s batting line-up but, once again, only Phil Tolley came to terms with the demands of the chase with a patient 95, while other batsmen got in and proceeded to get out, with only Coates, Shaw and Dave Dawson reaching double figures in a total of 170 all out. So Tipton came up just 20 runs short, a gap easily closable if their batsmen could apply themselves a little more early in the innings.