TIPTON St John had a disappointing weekend losing to both Mitres at home on Saturday and Harberton away on Sunday, writes Jeremy Gillham.

Tipton fielded first against Welsh tourists Mitres opening their attack with Steven Shaw and Mark Channon.

Although both bowled economically, Channon conceding only a dozen runs from his six overs, it was first change bowler Robin Pickering who made the breakthrough, deceiving Davis with a turning ball that just clipped the top of the stumps.

Sharp fielding helped wickets fall at regular intervals with Jim Bugler taking a well judged catch to dismiss Arter who top scored with 35 and Moore being stumped by a quick piece of work from Dave Dawson. Mitres closed their innings on 161 with Dave Alford the most successful of Tipton’s bowlers taking three wickets over the course of his four overs.

The less said about Tipton’s reply the better! Phil Tolley was out for a duck to the fourth ball of the innings and everything went downhill from there. The only innings of note were those of Shaw (26) and Dawson (15 not out), the rest of the side making only 30 runs between the - suffice to say Tipton were well beaten.

Sunday’s performance at Harberton was not much better. In conditions more akin to February than July, Tipton bowled first.

Father and son combination David and Joe Birch restricted Harberton to 20 runs from the first 10 overs, Joe taking the first wicket getting Harvey caught by wicket keeper Dawson. Harberton batsmen made the most of a couple of umpiring calls going their way with Alexander (43) and Pyke (70) guiding their side to 166 for the loss of 4 wickets.

Tipton’s innings, undertaken mainly in rain or drizzle, was built around an elegant 22 from Justin Quick and a brutal 35 from Phil Tolley who took a wholesome 22 from a single over!

The Birches – David with 12 not out and Joe with 10 - tried to add some respectability to the total but Tipton’s final score of 115 saw them defeated by 51 runs.