Lovewell Blake Norfolk Alliance Premier Division
Downham Town 173-5 (22 pts) beat
North Runcton 170-10 (4 pts) by 5 wickets

Alex Stuart, bowling a lively opening spell, soon had them in trouble, firstly having Peter Coote caught behind by Rob King, then clean bowling Jack Hastings. Another smart catch by King gave Stuart his third wicket.

Berkinshaw and Forder put together a productive stand of 35 before Peter Barnard trapped Berkinshaw in front for a hard-hit 36.

Barnard and Greg Tulett restricted the home side's runs through the middle part of the innings and in the 28th over Tulett removed skipper Jefferson, well caught by Ash Corbett at short third man.

Barnard then had Forder caught at mid-off by Duncan Lanchester as the wickets started to tumble. Tulett bowled Rawlings and a Pat Yates short ball was hit straight to deep square leg by Keiron Bunting only to be safely caught by Ian Simmons.

The home side were on the rack at 128-8.

However the innings was rescued by Mark Bunting and Darron Faivelowitz who played with some much-needed aggression, and Bunting in particular hit some much-needed boundaries.

Bunting was run out by Corbett for 32 and Faivelowitz was also run out, this time by Barnard going for a single off the last ball of the innings. The innings closed on a respectable 170 all out.

Jefferson bowled Dom Tulett in the second over but a few Alex Stuart boundaries soon upped the run rate. Stuart was then also bowled by Jefferson, but Kiwi pro Steve Murdoch was now getting set.

Runcton's bowlers worked hard but anything loose was put away by Murdoch, as the score reached 80 in the 18th over.

Pat Yates was nicked out by Mark Bunting and skipper Lanchester soon followed, yorked by Berkinshaw.

Addam Todd then joined Murdoch as the away team looked for a partnership to get the game heading back their way.

The pair put on 51 for the 5th wicket, with Murdoch going past 50 for the 7th time in 9 league innings.

Todd was well caught by Berkinshaw off Keiron Bunting leaving Barnard to finish the job with Murdoch with a conclusive 17.5 overs left in the innings.

Murdoch finished on 90 not out to bring his league runs to 703 at an average of over 117 as Town's unbeaten start to its league campaign continues.

Downham Tandoori MoM: Steve Murdoch.