Stradbroke win close encounter

Stradbroke (152) made it back-to-back victories in the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship Division Nine West with a nine-run victory away at Elveden (143-8).

It was the type of match in which 12 months ago Stradbroke would almost certainly have been beaten.

They set a relatively low target for their hosts, but Stradbroke’s seven frontline bowlers all contributed instead of leaving it to each other.

Batting first, all of the away team’s top five made starts but no-one reached 30 – Fergus Morgan’s 29 the most eye-catching.

Most felt that Stradbroke’s total was at least 20 runs light, so taking a couple of early wickets was crucial.

Clearly, an Elveden victory depended upon the batting of Reece Kent.

Cleverly, skipper Matt Wise often allowed a single to bowl at the other batsman.

The fact Kent scored 60 off 105 balls proved his ability with the bat, but as successive partners were snared, mostly by some good catching, he went to the well once too often, holing out to Brett Cotton in the covers off George Fredric, one of her four valuable wickets for 36.

Stradbroke will search for a third straight win when they play host to Nowton II tomorrow (1pm).