 In the 1981 season, Tunnicliffe scored the winning run, which tied the scores with Derbyshire having lost fewer wickets, on the last ball of the NatWest Trophy final against Northamptonshire.In his final season in 1983 Tunnicliffe made his top score of 91 against Hampshire.Tunnicliffe was a left-arm medium-fast bowler and took 319 first-class wickets with an average of 32.17 and a best performance of 7-36.