CRICKET: Clacton kept the East Anglian Premier League season alive with an eight-wicket win at Swardeston on Saturday.The Essex side took advantage of the fact that all four other scheduled matches were cancelled due to the wet weather to close the gap on leaders Vauxhall Mallards.

CRICKET

CLACTON kept the East Anglian Premier League season alive with an eight-wicket win at Swardeston on Saturday.

The Essex side took advantage of the fact that all four other scheduled matches were cancelled due to the wet weather to close the gap on leaders Vauxhall Mallards.

Clacton picked up 23 points to leapfrog Cambridge Granta and narrow the gap on Mallards to 38 points with four games to play.

Gary Kirk's 16.5-3-43-5 saw Swardeston bowled out for 208 – a target that presented no problem to Clacton's batsmen.

Trevor Moulton and Ben France put on exactly 50 before Moulton fell and although Mark Jones was dismissed cheaply, that was the extent of the home team's success.

France was joined by Sean McKiernan in an unbroken stand that yielded 145 runs. France finished just three short of a century and McKiernan was 62 not out as Clacton required just 37.3 overs to knock off the runs.

Tattingstone virtually wrapped up the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship Division One title thanks to a nine-run win at Mistley.

The home team's run of four consecutive victories was brought to an end when they were bowled out for 167.

Matt Bibby's 14-0-41-6 – his first six-wicket haul since the opening game of the season – had restricted Tattingstone to 176 for nine, Stuart Hammond top-scoring with 52 and Adrian Stockton (34) and Ian Connell (26) all making some handy contributions.

Opener Simon Barlow's 45 put Mistley in with a chance of making it five wins out of five, but they suffered a middle-order slump from 107 for three to 113 for seven.

John Douvlos gave Mistley a glimmer of hope with a half-century before becoming one of Darshan Shivalkar's six victims when 16 were needed from the final two overs.

One more winfrom the final three games - against Copdock (home), Browns (away) and Exning (home) will win Tattingstone the title.

Also in Division One Copdock & Old Ipswichians beat a depleted Braintree side by 19 runs.

Tristan Jervis (57) and James East (48) put on 85 for Copdock's third wicket, but from 150 for three the innings subsided to 179 all out, Keith Rojas claiming five wickets.

Braintree skipper and wicket-keeper Graham Gooday had to be taken to hospital after suffering a fractured nose when a delivery deflected off his pads and into his face in the penultimate over.

From the depths of 18 for four in reply Steve Hale found his best batting form of the season to score 82 before falling to a catch at deep mid-wicket.

Gooday, having returned from hospital, came out to bat but was run out by a direct hit with 12 balls remaining and Braintree 20 runs shy of victory.

Halstead enjoyed an easy seven-wicket success at Browns, after bowling out their hosts for just 95 in the only other Division One fixture.

Tim Catley's undefeated 124 steered Exning to a seven-run victory over Bury St Edmunds in the DFDS Seaways Cup semi-final.

No other player scored more than 20 in Exning's 205 for seven, but the target provied just beyond Bury, despite 59 from opener Simon Aldous.

Exning will meet Mildenhall in the final.

A fine all-round display by Doug Frame earned him the man-of-the-match award and East Bergholt a place in the Plate final.

Frame returned figures of 9-3-14-4 in Ipswich and East Suffolk's 99 all out and then scored 47 not out in an eight-wicket win.

East Bergholt will meet Easton in the Plate final.