CRICKET: Tattingstone kept up their remarkable season with another victory as they look to close in on the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Division One title.

CRICKET

TATINGSTONE kept up their remarkable season with another victory as they look to close in on the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Division One title.

With only one defeat out of nine games played Tattingstone are in pole position to claim the championship and this week easily overcome last placed Bury St Edmunds seconds.

Bury batted first but struggled to 93 and with the strength of Tattingstone's batting line up it was no surprise they knocked off the required runs.

No Bury batsman reached 20 and the wickets were shared about with Steve Bell taking three of them while Gavin Driver, captain Chris Bell and Stuart Hammond all picked up two a piece.

Tattingstone reached their target thanks to 26 from Hammond and an unbeaten 25 from Adrian Stockton but it did take them 36 overs to score 97.

They extend their lead at the top as Sudbury, who had been in second, lost an exciting match against Braintree by one run. Braintree's Mel Fulgrabbe, who topped last season's batting averages, hit 106 before Dave and Steve Hale bowled them to victory after taking nine of the Sudbury wickets.

After Sudbury's defeat, Copdock and Old Ipswichian, who scraped a victory against Exning, now fill second place. Suffolk's Matt Catley hit 82 in Exning's 189 and his side seemed to be on their way to victory when they had Copdock at 32 for 3. However, a ninth wicket partnership of 38 between Andy Burch and James Druitt gave Copdock a win that had looked unlikely.

Copdock now find themselves in the reverse position to last year where they were leading for a large part of the season. They lost their last three games of the season to hand the title to Exning and it seems Tattingstone would have to have a similar kind of late collapse.

Tattingstone have an average over two points greater than Copdock and from this position it would be a big surprise if they fail to end up top at the end of the year.

Browns find themselves back in the bottom two following a five-wicket defeat against Mistley. Browns batted first but would not be pleased with their total of 112 and 49 not out from Paul Garwood condemned Browns to their seventh league defeat of the season.

In Division Two Easton against Ipswich and East Suffolk was cancelled while it was not a good weekend for local teams in Division Three. Woolpit lost their game at Brockley and in doing so moved off of the top where Harwich and Dovercourt have replaced them.

St Margaret's' Keith Wright took five wickets but it was not enough as his side still lost by 49 runs to Boxted in the tight Division Three. After a promising start to their season St Margaret's have had some bad results in recent weeks and instead of looking at promotion they could now be faced with a potential relegation battle.

Achilles stay top of Division four after a convincing 80-run home success against Little Bardfield largely thanks to 80 from Martin Langley and six wickets from Robert Harris.

The weekend saw the second round of the Senior Cup and Browns put their league form behind them and defeated third division Brightlingsea by 28 runs with Brendan Meagher scoring 57no and Charlie Sadler getting four wickets.

In the first round of the Senior Plate Division One side Halstead proved too strong for Ipswich and East Suffolk who are hoping to be in that division next season. Mike Pitman scored 101 for IES but there were no other real worthy contributions and Halstead comfortably won by six wickets.