Upottery skipper Mark Joyce was left with mixed feelings after his side had beaten hosts Ottery St Mary by one wicket in a Tier Three East East One meeting.

Ottery batted first and made their way to a close of 222-4 with Alex Clements top scoring with 79 and Joe Henkus scoring 76.

Harry Wright, who has joined Upottery from Honiton, claimed 2-48 and Rob Tasker returned figures of 1-32.

The key Upottery partnership in the successful run chase, was the 92 that Ryan Pulman (44) and James Mitcham (39) put on for the sixth wicket.

The Upottery cause was also helped by a whopping 59 extras charitably handed over by the Otters and it was left to last pair Ben Kidson (25no) and Harry Wright (5no) to see their side over the winning line.

Joyce said: “Without any shadow of doubt that was the poorest collective bowling and fielding show we have dished up in a long, long while!

“We spilled at least five catches and our line and length with the ball left a lot to be desired.”

However, despite his concerns about the first half of the contest in terms of his team’s performance, the Upottery skipper was pleased they ‘got the job done’.

He said: “Taking aside my concerns about our performance, to keep them to that 222 was a decent effort as I thought that splendid track and rapid outfield made it a 250 plus surface.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s Glebe Park meeting with Sidmouth II, the Upottery skipper says: “It’s hard to gauge what sort of strength they will be. We do owe them one after they knocked us out of the Corinthian Cup last year at the quarter--final stage and I am delighted to be able to say we are going to be at full strength – certainly in terms of availability.”

There will be one new face in the Glebe Park ranks on Saturday and that is Oli Cave who has joined Upottery from Honiton.

Mark Joyce says: “Oli will debut on Saturday and we look forward to having him in the team.”