Leicester Tigers lost 26-13 at Nottingham in front of a 2,756-strong crowd on Bank Holiday Monday afternoon.Tigers' visit commemorated the opening game of Nottingham's temporary residence at Notts County's Meadow Lane stadium, and the hosts rose to the occasion with a determined and enthusiastic performance.

Replacement centre Greig Tonks, a Nottingham High School product, scored Tigers'only try, in the 80th minute, racing 30 metres to touch down. Ian Humphreys added the conversion.

Humphreys added the side's other points with two first-half penalties.

The Irish fly-half opened the scoring in the third minute, after a bright start from a Nottingham side awash with Leicester links. Tim Stimpson is on the coaching staff there and the team included a number of players who have come through the ranks at Welford Road, including Alex Dodge, Rob Springall and captain Lee Morley.

Host fly-half Tom Barlow made the score 3-3 with a 19th-minute penalty, but Humphreys responded with one of his own just minutes later.

The score was 6-6 just before half-time after a Barlow penalty.

Seru Rabeni looked to be Tigers' best bet in attack in the opening half as he saw plenty of the ball, and Matt Smith made a couple of good breaks, though Nottingham's defence stood firm and they did enough with ball in hand too to worry their Premiership visitors.

The first try of the game came from Nottingham centre Tim Molenaar who took a pass inside from David Jackson after the winger had burst free down the left. Barlow converted to make it 13-6.

Tigers gave a late run-out to Scott Bemand and Tom Croft but Nottingham stretched the lead in the dying minutes when Alex Dodge raced clear before being tackled right on the line and referee Ashley Rowden awarded a penalty try. Barlow converted to make it 23-6.

There was still time for Tonks to get his name on the scoresheet, but it was the home crowd who could celebrate loudly at the final whistle.

Nottingham:

15 Ben Thompson

14 Josh Kay

13 Alex Dodge

12 Tim Molenaar

11 David Jackson

10 Tom Barlow

9 Rob Springall

1 Matt Parr

2 Alex Loney

3 Ryan Hopkins

4 Nic Rouse

5 Lee Morley (capt)

6 Sam Raven

7 David Wilks

8 Adam Corcoran

Reps: Ron Green, Joe Duffey, Mark Siddons, Ali Burgess, Neil Stenhouse, Warren Coles, Rohaan Nirmalendran.

Leicester Tigers:

15 John Murphy

14 Ryan Owen

13 Matt Smith

12 Seru Rabeni

11 Mitchell Culpin

10 Ian Humphreys

9 Frank Murphy

1 Michael Holford

2 Gavin Hickie

3 Dave Young

4 Ian Nimmo

5 Gregor Gillanders

6 Alex Shaw

7 Luke Abraham (capt)

8 Ben Peinaar

Reps (all used): Adam Bray, Dan Cole, Tom Croft, Chris Mundy, Scott Bemand, Tom Youngs, Jack Cobden, Ollie Dodge.