East Anglian Premier League Fakenham (146) lost to Godmanchester (147-3) by seven wickets. MATT Pateman and Ollie Huggins registered Godmanchester s best second-wicket partnership for four years to see them to their first win of the season at the seventh

East Anglian Premier League

Fakenham (146) lost to Godmanchester (147-3) by seven wickets.

MATT Pateman and Ollie Huggins registered Godmanchester's best second-wicket partnership for four years to see them to their first win of the season at the seventh attempt.

Both recorded their best individual scores of the season with Huggins (60 not out) and Pateman (80) displaying controlled aggression for a second-wicket stand of 135.

Earlier, Godmanchester's Praneeth Jayasundera took his Premier Division wickets tally for the season to 19 with a four-wicket haul.

Godmanchester moved 27 points ahead of the hosts, who remain at the foot of the table.

Skipper Bevis Moynan said: "It was a must-win game and a big relief to get it. We saw that they had a weak bowling attack so capitalised on that with some aggressive batting.

"We've been bowling and fielding well from the start of the season and it was good to back that up with a good batting performance."

Fakenham batted first on a slow wicket that gave little help to the bowlers.

Moynan claimed the first two wickets in his first five overs and Paul Swannell took a wicket with his fourth ball to leave the home side at 33-3. Praneeth Jayasundera took the next four wickets and, with fellow spinner David McCallum bowling well at the other end, Fakenham struggled.

The hosts were at 65-5 at one stage but their lower-order batsmen gave Godmanchester a target to chase by adding a further 81 for the last five wickets.

Jayasundera finished with 4-31, Swannell with 3-33 and McCallum was the most economical of the bunch with 1-29 from 17 overs.

Goddy opener Adam Cousins was out off the third ball of the innings, bringing Pateman to the crease, and he and Huggins played sensibly against the varied home attack.

Pateman's 50 came in 75 balls with Huggins's following shortly afterwards. But Pateman was caught out when attempting his fifth six as the visitors were 12 runs short of their target and Paul Swannell played a lazy shot to give Fakenham a third wicket.

Home skipper Michael Smith was the most successful home bowler with 2-45 to add to his top batting score of 43 but they looked short of class.

The victory was never in doubt and Goddy must build on this confident performance in their forthcoming matches.

Tucker Gardener Premier

Division Two

Godmanchester II (183) beat Bluntisham (85) by 98 runs.

A TYPICALLY flamboyant display from Robert Howells saw him reach his half-century in just 28 balls and help Godmanchester's second team pick up maximum points for the fourth week in a row.

Bluntisham won the toss and elected to bowl. There was a lot of seam movement early on to make life difficult for the batsmen.

Opener James Howells scored a slow 32 and after the loss of two quick wickets Robert Howells and John Stoykovski came to the crease.

Robert Howells went on to reach 56 and his aggressive display was well supported well by Stoykovski, who made 39 runs, helping Godmanchester to a reasonable 183.

In reply, Bluntisham struggled with the aggressive length of Simon Rose, who also swung the ball around a great deal. Rose finished with impressive figures of 6-16.

Bluntisham's Darren Fordham reached 52, but was the only man in his team to reach double figures and James Sykes finished off the innings with his slow left arm.

CCA Division 1N

Needingworth (199-7) beat Willingham (125) by 74 runs.

A 90-run opening stand from Callum Mitcham and Mark Sirot-Smith put a young Needingworth side on their way to a comfortable win.

Needingworth opted to bat first on a rock-hard pitch and this decision was quickly proved to be a good one.

Mitcham fell for a fluent 50, Sean Bovington soon found his touch and compiled a classy 40, while useful contributions from Ian Armstrong (19) and Kyle Vallis (29), saw Needingworth post a strong score.

The home team's bowlers soon exploited the fast pitch to reduce Willingham to 74-6. Ben Carter led the way with 2-19, and was ably backed up by Stuart Carter (2-34) and Mitcham (1-16).

A late flurry of hard hitting from A Wilding (35) brought some respectability to Willingham's score but Daniel Sherlock's brace (2-16) wrapped up the innings in 25 overs.

Hunts League Division Five.

Huntingdon II (221) beat Hinchingbrooke (70) by 151 runs.

A SUPERB 85 from Jake Moore helped Huntingdon II to a fine win at Hinchingbrooke.

With only two players over 18, Huntingdon batted first.

Moore smashed one six and 11 fours, Rawl Hardial hit 49, Jonathan Brooks 25 and another youth player, Brandt Murombo, scored 17 not out in the total of 221 all out in 44.3 overs.

The pick of the Hinchingbrooke bowlers were C Atkin, with 4-51, A Pegrom, 2-29, and G Farmer-Wright, 2-58.

Hinchingbrooke struggled with the run chase, reaching only 70 all out in 14.4 overs with J Mutchon scoring 14.

All the Huntingdon bowlers contributed, with Chris Till, 3-17, Daniel Till, 3-15, Ben George, 3-12, and Brandt Murombo, 1-14.

East of England Under-25 competition.

Lincolnshire (274-7) beat Huntingdonshire (273-8) by three wickets.

"RESULTS don't come much closer than that," said Hunts skipper Paul Swannell after seeing his side beaten by hosts Lincolnshire on the last ball of the match.

The defeat was a big personal disappointment for the skipper after he had regenerated his side's batting with a magnificent 92 not out from just 67 balls, with the last 41 runs coming off just 11 deliveries.

A total of 273 off 50 overs is often enough to win these limited over matches but Lincolnshire had other ideas.

The home side won the toss and put Hunts in and despite the loss of Ollie Huggins for 12 they moved nicely on to 76-1 at almost a run a ball.

Michael Cafferkey misjudged a second run and was run out for 33 with his partner Alan Burton (34) following him back to the pavilion shortly afterwards. Adam Cousins (23) and Wayne Bradley (22) both batted sensibly but were out as their innings were starting to blossom, leaving skipper Swannell to take on the home attack.

In a display of raw attacking, he struck seven sixes and four fours, reaching his 50 in 51 balls and falling only eight runs short of a century with club colleague David McCallum (17) featuring in a quickfire eighth-wicket stand of 61.

The Lincolnshire bowlers shared the wickets with their best performance coming from Liam Andrews (2-30).

Linconshire's opener Pete Morgan dominated much of their reply. He and Neal Snell (16) put on 79 for the first wicket before he was joined by Conrad Louth. They then added 146 for the second wicket before Cousins bowled Morgan for an excellent 110, and in his next over Cousins saw Louth run out for 72.

At 240-3, Lincolnshire needed 34 to win from just six overs but four further wickets fell in the chase for victory until just six were required from the final over.

A wicket and two wides kept the result in doubt until the final ball when the batsmen scampered the single required for victory.

Cousins' late spell of three overs saw him finish with 2-24 but Hunts' best bowler was off-spinner David McCallum, who conceded just 27 runs in 10 overs, and collected the wicket of opener Neal Snell.