Tipton St John were 10 wicket winners when they entertained Marldon in their latest match, writes Phil Wright.

A heavy lunchtime downpour nearly put paid to the match, but the sun re-appeared and , at the toss of the coin, home skipper Dave Alford crucially called correctly and the visitors were inserted on a drying pitch.

Smith and Reilly opened, facing David’s Thayre and Birch. Thayre’s first five overs cost just two runs and also saw the departure of an opener for just one run – the wicket falling in the third over. At the opposite end, Birch was just as miserly matching Thayre with runs conceded.

The bowlers were backed up by some good fielding which kept up the pressure. Smith had been joined by Tim Barker who found scoring difficult and fell leg before wicket to Birch. Clark tried to hit out, but top edged a ball from Thayre high above Phil Tolley at slip who managed to hold onto the catch

After 13 overs, Marldon were 11-3, but briefly removed the shackles by taking nine runs off Thayre’s last over, having conceded just four in his previous seven. However, Thayre’s figures of 2-13 from eight overs was still superb, as were the Birch figures of 1-10 from his eight!

Once the openers had finished their spells they were replaced by David O’Higgins and Mark Channon who kept up the pressure. The score had inched to 48 in the 27th over when Smith (35) was stumped by Dawson off O’Higgins trying to break free. Three balls later, John Roberts was bowled by O’Higgins for a duck.

Having conceded just seven runs in five overs Mark Channon then took the first hat-trick of his Tipton career spanning 351 matches. Harman had supported Smith well, but he got a top edge to a pull shot and the ball loped to Kevin McMeeking at square leg who took the catch.

Both John Penny and Wilf Williams were bowled first ball and both aided by deflections off their bats. Marldon had lost five wickets for two runs and were put out of their misery when Chris Lancaster was bowled by O’Higgins in the next over. O’Higgins finished with figures of 3-20 from seven overs and Channon closed with 3-9 from six.

The task of knocking off the runs was in the hands of Phil Tolley and Keith Collins. They managed this in the 12th over with Tolley scoring 26 and Collins 17.