Thetford A emerged triumphant from a tight encounter with The Creakes at Mundford Road on Saturday. Although tighter than it might have been, this was an excellent win for Thetford A against an established Division Two side, featuring several good performances and a great fielding performance.

Thetford A emerged triumphant from a tight encounter with The Creakes at Mundford Road on Saturday.

Although tighter than it might have been, this was an excellent win for Thetford A against an established Division Two side, featuring several good performances and a great fielding performance.

They travel to another such team, Springwood, for their next fixture safe in the knowledge that they can compete well at his level.

After surprisingly opting to bat first on a damp, soft wicket, The Creakes initially made good progress, with N Woodhouse (28) hitting with power.

It took some accurate bowling from 16-year-old first-change bowlers Jason Peters and Sam Turner to make a breakthrough and soon the visitors were 58-3.

Turner (2-14) in particular, bowled a hostile and frugal spell. M Dewson, R Tuck and P Matthews nevertheless all took advantage of too-frequent loose deliveries from the Thetford attack to keep the score ticking over.

However, Peters, Turner and Lewis Greyson (2-22) took wickets at regular intervals to stop the scoring rate getting out of control, aided by a sharp run-out engineered by veteran Pat Sparkes. When Peters took two wickets in the last over for figures of 4-46, The Creakes' innings finished at 146-9.

This seemed like a very defendable total in a game reduced to 40 overs per side on a difficult pitch, and Thetford's reply got off to a bad start with the previously in-form Keith Greyson out for a duck.

Scott Richardson and Pat Sparkes steadied the ship, although the scoring rate

was restricted by accurate bowling by K Heyhoe, K White and M Dewson, who made good use of the bowler-friendly conditions.

Thetford had reached 50 by the halfway point in their innings, needing five runs per over for victory, and Sparkes and Richardson stepped up the scoring rate expertly with good running and clinical dispatches off poor deliveries.

The Creakes then got back on top by dismissing Richardson (34) and Mick Cusack in successive balls, but 14-year-old Usmaan Iqbal supported Sparkes brilliantly as Thetford pressed on towards victory.

The game then turned again as Iqbal (14) fell with the score on 132.

Needing less than four runs per over, Thetford were made to battle by tight bowling and fielding and the game was still in the balance in the last over when Sparkes was caught for a superb 85, trying to hit the winning runs in the last over.

A nail-biting conclusion saw Thetford finally creep over the line with four byes off the penultimate ball.