LAKENHEATH.................................210 all out

BRAINTREE..............................................211-3

(Braintree won by seven wickets)

(Jaygate Homes Championship Division Two)

Braintree collected a further maximum 20 points haul on Sunday when they comfortably overcame a target of 210 against Lakenheath.

On a flat wicket and fast outfield, the Suffolk side won the toss and elected to bat the opening pair of G. Palmer and Leech raced to 72 from no overs before Palmer mistimed a drive and gave a simple catch to Steve Blyth from the bowling of Shaun Gould.

In soaring temperatures, the Braintree bowling attack appeared to be missing Andy Cook, who suffered a finger injury in their tour match at Bath, on Thursday, as their opponents cruised to 178 for three with eight overs remaining.

When S Palmer was the sixth Lakenheath batsman out for 67 off the bowling of Dave Hale, Braintree could little imagine that they would still bowl out their opponents, to give them the opportunity of gaining the maximum 20 points.

However, four wickets fell in the 45th over, with Shaun Gould taking three to finish with figures of five for 36 from 18 overs.

In reply, Braintree got off an excellent start with openers Dave Denny and Chris Warn putting on 75 for the first wicket before Denny was dismissed in the 19th over.

Following Neil Williams' departure for 11, when the score was 101 in the 25th over, Chris Warn began to dominate the Lakenheath bowling with the offside boundary being peppered with regularity.

Together with Nigel Sheldrake (29), Warn added 82 in 13 overs before Sheldrake was stumped with just 28 runs required for victory.

Steve Blyth thumped 23 of the remaining required runs to leave Warn undefeated on 92, an innings which included two sixes and 12 fours.

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