CRICKET: One wedding, five players missing and just ten runs on the scoreboard – the numbers added up to a record-breaking defeat for a Suffolk cricket team.

CRICKET

ONE wedding, five players missing and just ten runs on the scoreboard – the numbers added up to a record-breaking defeat for a Suffolk cricket team.

Kedington Cricket Club's visit to Suffolk Intermediate League rivals Kesgrave on Saturday turned into a game to forget as they slumped to defeat in just 65 balls of the 90-over contest.

Arriving with just nine players, the side from near Haverhill could only muster ten runs – and it took Kesgrave just 11 balls to score the 11 runs to win by the largest margin of ten wickets.

The score is thought to be a record low in the Suffolk League and came after Kedington captain Terry Pinckney won the toss and decided to bat at the Twelve Acre Approach ground.

The dejected skipper insisted there were "no sour grapes" and said the defeat was taken in good spirits, but he admitted it had been the most disastrous match in the club's history.

"Five of our first team players were at a wedding so we had to draft in some second teamers, but in the end we could only get nine," said Pinckney.

He admitted: "We couldn't afford to call the game off because we would have had points docked and we are trying to avoid relegation. I decided to bat first because it looked a good track."

That decision backfired when the home side's opening bowlers James Holland and Andrew Cook tore through the depleted batting line-up.

Holland had opening batsman Peter Driscoll caught in the covers by former Ipswich Town goal-keeper Clive Baker in the third over and went on to claim five wickets for just six runs.

To make matters worse for the visitors, 13-year-old batsman Martin Farrant finished the match in hospital after taking a blow on the hand.

The demolition job took just nine overs and victory was secured by Kesgrave openers David Worne and Austin Mills, with the match lasting less than an hour.

The win, which was worth 20 points, saw Kesgrave leapfrog Kedington in the Suffolk Intermediate League table and set a new record.

Rick Langford, the league's match secretary, said he could not remember a score as low. The

previous lowest is thought to be 24.

The teams played a beer match afterwards – the tradition if a game finishes very early – and Kedington regained some pride by beating their hosts.

But they have the chance to wreak revenge on August 17 in the return match.