Tipton St John had a disappointing weekend losing to both Hammonds Walleys and Tedburn St Mary, writes Jeremy Gillham.

On Saturday, Walleys score of 253 was built around partnerships of 73 for the first wicket and 100 for the third, the mainstay of both was opener Norris who carried his bat for an unbeaten 124.

David Birch with two wickets was the most successful of the seven bowlers used by Tipton with Jim Bugler being the most economical. Tipton were always going to find chasing a required rate of over six runs an over a problem and fell short by some 78 runs, despite 48 from Phil Tolley and an entertaining 37 from Dave Dawson.

Pick of the Walleys bowlers was Norris with three overs, two maidens, two wickets for two runs!

Sunday saw Tipton take on Tedburn St Mary for the Mark Giles cup. Openers Dave Dawson and Phil Tolley put on 65 for the first wicket before Dawson was stumped for 26.

Skipper David Birch was inventive with the batting order, cleverly moving players up and down the order to suit the scoring rate which saw Tipton finish on a creditable 183 for 4 after 40 overs.

After a couple of lean games (by his standard) Phil Tolley was back to his best ending up with 112 not out off 128 balls.

Taking the field after tea, Tedburn were 5 down for 61 after 17 overs and Tipton thought they were in with a serious chance of regaining the Mark Giles cup.

However, helped by some shocking fielding –there were around a dozen dropped catches – Tedburn got home with two overs to spare. Barr (62 not out) was the top scorer with Williams (43) and Allison (41) also making useful contributions.

David Birch, with three wickets for 31 runs from his allotment of eight overs was the pick of Tipton’s bowlers.