Great Yarmouth v Drayton 2th May 2008

Drayton 175-5 Great Yarmouth 132-7 If there is one place you do not want to have to play cricket on a day when a veritable gale is blowing it is the coast - and sure enough Drayton visited Great Yarmouth's Beaconsfield Rec home ground - within a Michael Mario-Ghae six hit of the beach - with a howling wind blowing directly down the ground. For the second week running, Phil Soanes won the toss and opted to bat first on what appeared to be a good surface.

Once the action started it became clear that the pitch was, if anything, too dry and as a result there was variable bounce for the bowlers to exploit. After a steady start, Philip Wright and Andy Denny got into their stride with some powerful boundaries before Denny was bowled by White for 12 with the score on 36 in the 9th over. This brought Tim Woods to the crease - playing for the 1st team for the first time since August 1998. Time has not diminished Woods' class as he quickly got into his running with a couple of sweetly struck boundaries. The home bowlers managed to claw their way back into the game by bowling tight lines, and having reached 50 in the 14th over, Drayton would have hoped to have reached the 100 sooner than the 29th over. Shortly after the 100 mark was reached, Drayton lost Woods for 25 and Paul Eggett for a duck. Wright, who had by now reached his first 50 in the league since the last game of the 2006 season, was joined at the wicket by Lee Cornfield - and the pair engaged in some smart running between the wicket before Cornfield's dismissal with the score at 127.

Yet again the stage was set for some lusty hitting by Michael Mario-Ghae and he did not disappoint - smashing R. Ruddick for two powerful sixes, before pulling a third off the opening bowler White. With Wright manipulating the ball into gaps to rotate the strike, the pair added a crucial 48 in the last seven overs, before Mario-Ghae was run out off the last ball of the innings for 27 - Wright ending on an unbeaten 89, including 10 fours and 1 six, to help post a final total of 175-5.

The hosts reply was steady in the face of some tidy new ball bowling from Cornfield (surprised to be bowling with the win at his back), and Mario-Ghae (cutting through the gale at the other end). The Yarmouth openers Sole and Ruddick had reached 44 in the 18th over before Sole ran himself out taking a suicidal run to Cornfield. The new batsman, Kapila, quickly set about the Drayton bowling - playing some powerful shots before being bowled by Gary Foreman for 23. Captain S. Ruddick soon followed - well caught by Phil Soanes at mid on for 40, to leave Yarmouth at 84-3. Some penetrating bowling by Foreman and Soanes, then cut through the Yarmouth middle order as the home side found themselves in deep trouble at 107-7. Soanes finished with figures of 3-48 and Foreman with 3-31. Robert Reeve and Mario-Ghae were unable to get an extra bowling bonus point as the home side eventually finished 43 runs short of Drayton at 132-7. Next week, Drayton entertain Shipdham.