Upottery skipper Mark Joyce had a very good reason for sitting out his teams Tier Three East One match at Glebe Park against Sidmouth II.

Just 24 hours before Joyce had been saying hello to his daughter who was born on Friday morning.

Joyce handed the reins over to James Mitcham and then sat back to take in the early afternoon action from the Glebe Park boundary.

He saw Matthew Button-Stephens, stand-in skipper Mitcham and debut making Ollie Cave all hitting centuries as his side racked up a huge 393-5.

Joyce said: “The most pleasing thing for me is that all this has not happened by accident. We have slowly been adding to our side in the hope that this sort of thing might take place and, on the day, the lads batted so well. OK, you could rightly argue that Sidmouth II were a weakened XI, but you still have to despatch the bowling and we did that quite ruthlessly.”

So which of the three tons was the best? The Upottery captain said: Matthew Button-Stephens did what I have been looking for him to do, occupy an end while others bat around him and, to be fair, he did just that and got his rewards when he also clocked up a three figure score.”

Sidmouth were then bowled out in 25 overs for just 95 and Joyce said: “The bowlers were clearly determined not to let the batsmen take all the headlines! Bradley [Winsley] joined us at the start of this shortened season and the fact that all the new lads are keen to play and, indeed, have indicated they all have excellent availability, it all augers well for the future of the club.

“Of course, like everyone else, we are using this season as a ‘warm-up’ for bigger and better things next season when we will hopefully get a full campaign in, but that does not mean we are not ‘playing to win’. We go to Ottery on Saturday and then face Sidmouth again before taking on Kilmington at our place in what could turn out to be a ‘winner-takes-all’ game so there is so much left to play for and I get the impression that the lads are bang up for the challenge.”