Walsham fall short of target

Walsham-le-Willows (168-7) slipped to a fifth Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship Division Three defeat in a row on Saturday, going down by 47 runs at home to Bury St Edmunds II (215-6).

Visiting skipper Simon Aldous won the toss and elected to bat first – a decision that was vindicated by the form of Bury opener Hugh Stanton.

The batsman was in fluent form and while a number of his partners came and went, Stanton remained unbeaten at the crease on 109 runs when Bury reached their allotted 45 overs.

A knock of 40 from Ian Plumb also proved to be useful for Bury before he was caught by Walsham’s Alastair Waugh off the bowling of Ben George.

Vivek Rajagopal (22) was the away team’s other main run scorer and was one of two Bury batsmen to fall to the bowling of Walsham captain Liam Bryant (2-41).

Bryant went on to open Walsham’s reply and scored 44 runs before Rajagopal gained revenge by claiming his wicket.

After that, several Walsham batsmen made good starts but none were able to go on and rack up a significant score as the Bury bowling attack kept them tied down.

Neil Bake (29) and Taylor Rothon (20) followed behind Bryant in the terms of individual scores, but Walsham were adrift of their victory after 45 overs, despite having three wickets in hand.

Rajagopal was the pick of the Bury bowlers as his seven overs returned impressive figures of 2-9, which included four maidens.

The result means that Walsham, who started the campaign in positive form, have now dropped down to seventh in the table with 11 fixtures gone.

Tomorrow they host a second-from-bottom Tuddenham side that are currently fighting for survival (12pm).

When the two sides met on the opening day of the season in April, Walsham ran out victors by a margin of eight wickets.