Mildenhall hosted local rivals Bury St. Edmunds in the most important EAPL match of the season so far. Bury St. Edmunds won the toss and unsurprisingly elected to field first. Morrison was the first to go when he was LBW to Nunn for 3. Reed started well and was particularly severe on anything short of a length. Unfortunately Reed couldn’t push on and became another victim of Nunn’s. Pete Worthington showed all his experience and proven class when he became the rock of the Mildenhall innings. Peter hit just 4 fours in his innings of 65 but he was batting in very difficult conditions. Matt Allen batted well in partnership with Worthington with a valuable contribution of 24. Skipper Ben Shepperson added impetuous to the innings with a quick fire 28 off 28 balls. There were valuable wicket contributions for Bury St. Edmunds from Nunn with 4 and Park with 3. Mildenhall’s final innings total of 186 for 9 off their 50 overs was short of what they would have hoped for at one stage but was still a challenge in the circumstances.

Best and Morrison opened the bowling and it was Morrison who struck the early blows for the home side removing Ben Curren and Luke Du Plooy. Bury provided some resistance in the middle order through Skipper Park (33), Nunn (22) and Cooper (36). Best produced his finest display so far with 3 wickets for 14 runs. Hussein took 2 valuable wickets and there was wickets a piece for Reed and Matt Allen. Bury St. Edmunds finished all out for 147. An excellent win for the Wamil Way side and should give them much needed confidence going into the next stage of the EAPL season.

So that was the good, please assume the brace position because from here on in the rest of Saturday’s cricketing report is going to be a bumpy ride. Knee’s tucked in? Are your hands over your head? Let’s continue…

Mildenhall 2XI travelled to Copdock and OI’s. Mildenhall and came back home with five points for their efforts. The home side batted first and reached 190-9 off their 45 overs. Steve Graham and Jack Loveday bowled tight to begin with. The returning Duncan Fraser was able to capture two Copdock wickets but it was leg spinner Matt Heywood that did the most damage for the visitors with his 9 overs four wickets for 44 runs.

Mildenhall 2XI didn’t look like they were going to chase down the total and were eventually all out for 105. Mildenhall 2Xi started well enough with contributions from Squire (20), Rich Thurston (17 ) and Skipper Graham (33)but the rest of the 2XI batting just couldn’t cope with the bowling of the East brothers (James and Jo).

Mildenhall 3XI travelled to Walsham Le Willows and…well if you really want to know what happened please go to www.twocounties.com Alastair Waugh took 8-9. On the plus side I did get to see the new King Arthur film at the cinema and I thought Jude Law was terrific in the movie. Guy Ritchie’s new film provided some light relief to a cricketing day that I would like to vaporize from history.

And the hits just keep on coming…Mildenhall 4XI entertained East Bergholt 2XI at Wamil Way. Batting first the home side amassed 158-8 on a damp MCC second square. Renouf opened the batting and looked in devastating form. Renouf marched his way to a commanding 66 before running himself out. He was the only batsman that looked in control on the damp pitch. Mick Saunders and Craig Warren chipped in with 19 runs each. It was Spinner (was he?) that did most of the damage with the ball with four wickets.  The 4XI started well with the ball Chipchase and Renouf keeping a tight control on the Bergholt batsman. But Bergholt stayed patient and when the second string bowlers came on the batsman made them pay. Two wickets for Renouf and one for Chipcase and Reuben Handy. The away side claiming the win with 2 overs to spare.

As in victory…