Drayton v Topcroft 'A' 12th July 2008

Topcroft 'A' 161-7 Drayton 124 Saturday's performance by Drayton's first team confirmed there is only one consistent thing about them - their inconsistency. Able to name 10 of the players who played in the previous weeks fine win at Caister, this defeat was therefore bitterly disappointing. Topcroft batted steadily throughout their 45 overs - anchored well by Goodfellow (57) and Reeder (46), however they didn't look to seriously accelerate until the last five or six overs, which resulted in a clatter of wickets. Gary Foreman was the main beneficiary of this, finishing with 4-34 - the other highlight of Drayton's performance in the field was some good catching, with Nigel Armitage, Robert Reeve and Gary Smith all excelling in this regard.

Once Drayton batted it all went horribly wrong, despite feeling that 162 was eminently achievable. A succession of batsmen gave their wickets away with poor shots, to leave Drayton in deep trouble at 53-5. James Kay and Andy Denny batted sensibly to put together the one notable partnership of the innings - however with the score at 113, Kay was clean bowled by the first ball he received from Topcroft's opening bowler Todd, having made 34. Nigel Armitage was then clean bowled by a "beauty", and resultantly Denny was left with too much work to do, batting with the lower order, and Drayton fell 38 runs short - Denny making a seasons best 30 not out.