THETFORD A's first game in the Norfolk Alliance ended in a comfortable home victory over Mattishall A, thanks to a majestic 120 from Paul Mleczek and five wickets for Jason Peters.

THETFORD A's first game in the Norfolk Alliance ended in a comfortable home victory over Mattishall A, thanks to a majestic 120 from Paul Mleczek and five wickets for Jason Peters.

Thetford were asked to bat on what looked to be a good surface, but soon lost Nicky Shepherd. Keith Greyson and Scott Richardson then took advantage of some wayward bowling, but the wicket was already starting to misbehave and both fell to leave the innings in trouble at 43-3.

With shorter balls bouncing unpredictably, Mleczek and Andy Kerling managed to double the score before Kerling was lbw to J Spalding (2-10).

Mleczek continued to punish the bad ball and was driving beautifully, combining with Simon Lewis (40) to accelerate from 109-5 to a competitive 210-6 as Mattishall's heads dropped.

Mleczek was finally bowled by O Hubbard (3-61), who was the pick of the Mattishall attack, and new Thetford skipper Steve Conroy steered the innings to a formidable total of 249-7 without further losses.

Thetford needed to bowl very poorly to lose from this position, but they needed help from the opposition batsmen to finish the job. Lewis Greyson gave the home side a tight start, but the breakthrough did not come for ten overs, when Jason Peters took two wickets in two overs.

Gavin Siriwardena (3-40) then struck twice in two balls in his first over and Mattishall were reeling at 58-4. Aggressive hitting and too many loose balls then allowed K Bingham and S Thacker to lead a recovery before the first of two excellent catches in the deep from Steve Conroy removed Thacker and left the score on 99-5.

Bingham and R Gosling continued to take the fight to Thetford despite a demanding required run rate, putting doubts in Thetford minds as the bowling continued to be too erratic.

It took sharp fielding from Mleczek, adding to some tidy bowling, a sharp catch and his batting heroics, to run out Gosling and put Thetford back in to the ascendancy at 182-7. Peters (5-32) then returned to have Bingham caught by Conroy and to clean up the tail, with the aid of a suicidal run-out.

This result marks a great start to the season for Thetford A, but in truth they relied heavily on Mleczek and the inconsistent bowling would have been punished on a better wicket.

There is much room for improvement ahead of their next fixture away to Bradfield A, who also won on Saturday.