Upottery suffer a second successive home defeat
Upottery Cricket Club players with Richard Ayres from Jewsons of Honiton at the official presentation to the club off training tops sponsored by the company. - Credit: Archant
Upottery, having been unbeaten since they moved into their Glebe Park home until their recent meeting with Chardstock, suffered a second successive home reversal and a third straight defeat when they went down by 17 runs to Exmouth 2nds.
The visiting side batted first and lost just four wickets as they posted a decent score of 242-4.
Upottery made a good fist of the run chase, but came up short, losing their last wicket with the reply on 225.
Rob Tasker led the run chase with a fine knock of 66 and there were supporting shifts from James Mitcham (34) and Rob Pullman (32).
Upottery skipper Mark Joyce said: “We have to be happy to have got as close as we did to a strong opposition. They [Exmouth] had some good players and it was great for our batsmen to face the sort of challenge that George Greenway presents.
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“It’s tough for us to have now lost successive home games, but we must not lose sight of the fact that, before a ball was bowled this season, avoiding the drop was our initial aim and that remains the case. We have proved in recent games – albeit losing games – that we are not far away and it is actually only small margins that are our undoing.”
He continued: “Typical of that was the way we set about this run chase – had Task [Rob Tasker] not got out when he was in full flow we might have seen a different result.”
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On Saturday (June 30), Upottery, who sit fifth in the D Division East table, 13 points above the bottom two and 46 points shy of the top two, visit table-topping Heathcoat II, who won their seventh game in eight outings last weekend with a 124-run win over Sandford 2nds.
Joyce says: “It’s another tough prospect for us, but we can not dwell on losing our last three and perhaps reflect on how close we have been. Playing at Knightshayes will be a real treat for us and I’d expect us to give it our all.”
James Mitcham is the only player missing for the trip to Mid Devon.