A wet wicket after a heavy rainstorm deprived Thetford A of a probable vital victory at home to an inexperienced Saxlingham A side.Nevertheless, the nine points gained were enough to take Thetford off the bottom of the table with a couple of winnable fixtures remaining.

A wet wicket after a heavy rainstorm deprived Thetford A of a probable vital victory at home to an inexperienced Saxlingham A side.

Nevertheless, the nine points gained were enough to take Thetford off the bottom of the table with a couple of winnable fixtures remaining.

With the pitch promising to assist the bowlers, Saxlingham wasted no time in asking their hosts to bat first and Thetford's top order helped them out by playing a string of poor shots.

After the in-form Andy Kerling edged behind and a frustrated Karl Harris slapped an easy catch to cover, Ashley Rex looked in good nick until he chased a wide one from Craig Neave (3-41).

When Mark Hudson was trapped lbw by John Brooks (2-22), Thetford were praying for rain at 32-5.

Gavin Siriwardena joined Simon Lewis, however, and these two stopped the rot.

With Siriwardena taking the anchor role, Lewis played a beautifully-paced innings, milking Saxlingham's weaker change bowlers.

He benefited from a couple of dropped catches but took full advantage to bat Thetford into a strong position.

The partnership had reached 103 when Siriwardena missed a full toss from the erratic Chris Hopkinson (2-47), which ushered in a second Thetford collapse that saw three wickets fall for six runs.

Then, after 35 overs, the heavens opened, with the score on 161-7.

After an extended break, overhead conditions were fine, but a dampened pitch made batting difficult. Thetford sensed they potentially had a winning total and pushed on for more batting points, but scoring was now tougher.

Matt Kerling's resistance gave way first, then Lewis drove straight to mid-off to fall an agonizing five runs short of a maiden ton.

Thetford's last-wicket stand offered little resistance, rewarding an accurate, short spell from C Benton with 3-4.

With Thetford having posted 181, Saxlingham were unhappy about the prospects of batting on a patchily damp strip offering variable bounce and the two captains were unable to agree that the pitch was fit to play.

This gave home skipper Siriwardena no choice but to call the game off under clear skies and with his side potentially in a winning position.

Thetford A (9 points): Harris c Neave b Brooks 5, A Kerling c R English b Neave 0, A Rex c R English b Neave 18, S Lewis c Pearce b Brooks 95, M Hudson lbw b Brooks 1, G Siriwardena b Hopkinson 16, A Sparkes c Pearce b Hopkinson 0, D Phelps c Pearce b Neave 0, M Kerling c Hopkinson b Benton 2, C Kidd not out 1, N Coleman b Benton 2; extras 41. Total 181. Bowling: C Neave 12-3-41-3, J Brooks 12-4-22-2, M Pearce 4-0-27-0, A Nichols 2-0-22-0,

C Hopkinson 7-0-47-2, C Benton 2.4-0-4-3, C Fleming 1-0-1-0

Saxlingham A (10 points): did not bat.