CLACTON II.................210-5

MALDON II...................211-2

(Maldon won by eight wickets)

On a sunny afternoon, Maldon registered a fine win over Clacton, who in past years have proved to be a bogey side for the Dons.

With a flat dry pitch, to bat first would have been welcome.

However, skipper Martin White, managed once again to unfortunately make the wrong call (now just one correct call all season!) and Maldon were asked to field first.

He was rewarded though with a fine bowling performance from Paul Davis, bowling up the slope and into the breeze, who gave his best bowling display of the season.

Spurred on by an early wicket he put the ball in the right place consistently and, with his natural ability to swing the ball away from the right-handers, proved to be a real handful to the Clacton batsmen.

With some reasonably good fielding and a good spell by Brian Corderoy at the close, the Dons restricted boundaries in the final overs and Clacton could only manage 210 for five, a total thought to be some 30 runs short of what seemed possible.

M. Taylor top scored with 111.

In reply Maldon made an excellent start with Steve Rudd, 17, hitting 75 and Dave Randall, 14, stroking a lovely 76 to put the Dons so close to the finishing line that anything other than a win would have been a collapse of England proportions.

These two put on 117 for the first wicket in good time and will surely be pressing for first team places on a regular basis next season.

On this occasion though skipper Martin White ensured no prospect of a collapse with a flashy 43 not out to win the game in the final over by eight wickets.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.