THETFORD A recorded a vital second victory of the season at home to Bradfield A in Norfolk Alliance Division Six. This result leaves Thetford comfortably clear of bottom spot in the division and very much in the mix with three or four other sides for a mid-table finish.

THETFORD A recorded a vital second victory of the season at home to Bradfield A in Norfolk Alliance Division Six.

This result leaves Thetford comfortably clear of bottom spot in the division and very much in the mix with three or four other sides for a mid-table finish.

Two more victories like this one should see them cement their Alliance status for next season, but there is still room for improvement in all aspects of the game in 2009 and they will look to become more consistent in their remaining fixtures.

Bradfield were much weakened from the side that won the reverse fixture in May comfortably, but they began strongly on winning the toss and opting to bowl.

Thetford openers Keith Greyson and Gavin Siriwardena resisted for 11 overs, but found scoring difficult, especially against the accurate inswing of Carl Wiseman.

When Greyson failed to pick up a slow full toss from Sam Kimber (2-38) and both Siriwardena and Andy Kerling had misjudged drives to be bowled by Wiseman, the latter had the remarkable figures of 2-1 from eight overs and Thetford were in trouble at 28-3.

This brought Alex Dennis and Ryan Conroy together, however, and, mixing sound defence with attack, they took full advantage of a few loose balls from a tiring Wiseman (2-28) and the Bradfield change bowlers.

When Dennis (38) mis-timed a full toss to give a simple catch to cover, Thetford were looking healthier on 94-3 and Simon Lewis joined Conroy to continue their progress.

Conroy (37) missed a straight one from left-arm spinner A Robertson (1-36), but a few trademark blows from Lewis (29) took the score to 145-6.

With runs needed to make a challenging total and over running out, Matt Lord, Steve Conroy, David Anderson and Matt Kerling accelerated well, mostly via good running between the wickets, and took the total to 182-8 from 46 overs.

Alex Kimber bowled a mixture of good and bad balls and finished with 3-65.

Thetford had a reasonably strong side for this game and were confident of defending their total, especially given the youthful look to Bradfield's lower order.

Although David Anderson and Robbie Chamberlain started with some wayward deliveries, this confidence was strengthened when Sam Kimber sliced straight to point in Chamberlain's first over.

Anderson (1-42) then tightened up his line and length and bowled A Robertson to reduce Bradfield to 17-2.

J Amies and Carl Wiseman held firm for eight overs, but it took Matt Kerling's introduction to induce an edge to slip from Amies, where Keith Greyson took a difficult, low catch, atoning for an earlier drop.

Three balls later, Kerling (2-21) had a second wicket and a double-wicket maiden as Alex Kimber hit straight to square leg.

When Gavin Siriwardena had Keith Register caught off a top-edged pull in the next over, Bradfield were 45-5 and the match looked all over.

Thetford were further in control when J Carter fell to the same shot and T Wiseman was bowled in Siriwardena's next two overs.

Inconsistent bowling was allowing Bradfield too many scoring opportunities, however, and Wiseman was still there, picking off boundaries regularly.

With J Hewittson holding up the other end, he managed to put on 81 for the eighth wicket, leaving Thetford glancing nervously at the scoreboard as an improbable victory began to look possible.

However, Hewittson top-edged an attempted pull off Siriwardena and Wiseman did the same off Chamberlain

(2-31), leaving Bradfield well short of their target at 146-9.

The young last-wicket pair did not look capable of putting up much resistance and Siriwardena duly took the 10th wicket to hand victory to Thetford and to bag a rather fortunate haul of 5-42.