Hayley 1st (164-9) lost to Long Sutton 1st (165-3) by seven wickets: SUTTON got back to winning ways in West Norfolk League Division One with a convincing win over mid-table Hayley on Saturday.
Having won the toss, Sutton chose to bowl – only to see a strong partnership from the Hayley openers Adam Burch (61) and Dave Lambourne (21) to put their opponents into the driving seat.
James Wright finally made the breakthrough after trapping Lambourne LBW, while good bowling all-round from Sutton kept the wickets tumbling. Burch did give his team an increasingly good chance to post a good a score, but there was little help from elsewhere as Hayley closed on 164-9.
Paul Edgeller (3-26), Ian Morris (3-46) and Gary Burton (1-24) all picked up wickets.
In reply, Chris Booth and Burton opened the batting and started to form a solid opening stand.
Burton was finally dismissed for 19, but by now Booth was starting to look increasingly fluent. He was joined by Adam Wright, who also found the boundary with ease. With the hard work done Wright fell with only 15 required and Hayley managed to pick up the wicket of Edgeller.
But Booth, who finished unbeaten on 67, pulverised the ball to rope to take Sutton to their target in the 37th over.
Vice skipper James Wright said: “The win gives us good momentum going into next week’s game at second-placed Terrington. After having extra training sessions in the week the boys certainly looked sharper and showed the importance of being prepared right the way through the season.”
Sutton go into that clash at Terrington in fourth place, just 29 points off top spot.
RUTLAND LEAGUE
Division Four
Long Sutton Sunday 1st (148-8) lost to Werrington Sunday (157-9) by nine runs
SUTTON’S title hopes took a hit as they fell agonisingly short of victory against mid-table Werrington on Sunday.
Werrington won the toss on an interesting pitch and accelerated quickly, but did lose two wickets to James Wright (1-29) and Paul Edgeller (1-42) before rain intervened on two separate occasions.
With the game reduced to 35 overs, Ian Morris (3-37) and Jake Burton (4-27) bowled effectively and managed to restrict the home side to 148-8 with Ali Khalid (56 not out) top scoring.
In reply, Sutton got off to a brisk start thanks to Tim Norris (41) and Adam Wright (38).
When Norris fell, a flurry of wickets left Sutton in trouble before Matt Bull (37 not out) moved them onwards their target.
However, when Wright fell, Sutton relied heavily on Bull – but a blow to the lip in the penultimate over, unsettled him. With 16 needed off the last over, they fell nine runs short and stay second in the table.