North Elmham (25 pts) beat Felthorpe "A" (7 pts) by 38 runs in Norfolk League Division 7.

Highlights:
North Elmham

Iain Sinclair 40 not out, Rob Joplin 34 & 2 - 22, Andy Kay 4 - 29.

Felthorpe "A"

G. Robinson 4-35 & 26, J. Spicker  4 - 40, A. Hamilton 30.


Report

North Elmham came out on top in a close fought victory against second placed Felthorpe "A" on Saturday. Loosing the toss Elmham were asked to bat first on a drying wicket which was flooded during the heavy rain of Thursday. Openers Tony Garrod and Stephan Malherbe started cautiously before Garrod was bowled in the ninth over. Malherbe struggled to find his timing on the slow pitch and wickets tumbled at regular intervals.
Christo Slabbert decided to attack and hit 29 from 14 balls faced (2 sixes, 4 fours) but when he was bowled by Spicker, Elmham were 86 - 6 with 20 overs still to bat. Rob Joplin joined Iain Sinclair and the pair put together a match winning partnership of 67 from the next 15 overs. G. Robinson returned to the Felthorpe attack and caught Joplin off his own bowling for 34 made from 50 balls faced. Sinclair continued to bat sensibly and the fourth batting point was gained with the help of Phil Blackford, before the innings closed at 164 for 9 wickets.
Sinclair finished 40 not out from 95 balls faced. For Felthorpe, G.
Robinson took 4 - 35 and Spicker 4 - 40. Elmham skipper Chris Palmer was happy with the total and the fact that the lower order had batted so sensibly and not given their wickets away. Felthorpe openers Hamilton and Dismore set off in the pursuit of victory and soon had 50 on the board from 11 overs. Joplin replaced Keeble and Sinclair took a fine catch at slip to dismiss Hamilton for 30. Runs then started to dry up and only 20 runs came from the next 10 overs as Elmham applied pressure on the Felthorpe batting. When opener Dismore was lbw to Andy Kay for 27 Felthorpe needed 95 runs from 25 overs. Kay took out the Felthorpe middle order and bowled well in tandem with Joplin, the pair conceding only 51 runs from their 24 overs bowled as Elmham continued to squeeze the Felthorpe batting. Robinson was the only other Felthorpe batsmen who looked like threatening the Elmham total but when he was lbw to Kay the innings subsided and Felthorpe lost their last seven wickets for 17 runs. Next week away to Norwich Union "B"or should that be Aviva?


North Elmham

G. Robinson 12  -  2  -  35  -  4

A. Potter         10  -  4  -  22  -  0

J. Spicker      12  -  3  -  40  -  3

C. Collard        5  -  1  -  28  -  1

L. Grant            6  -  0  -  36  -  0.

I. Sinclair     9  -  2  -  27  -  1
A. Keeble    5  -  0  -  28  -  0
R. Joplin   12  -  3  -  22  -  2
A. Kay        12  -  3  -  29  -  4
C. Palmer  3.2  -  1  -  8  -  1