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.

“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.”

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.