THETFORD A fought hard to pick up only their second Alliance Division Six win of the season at Garboldisham A on Saturday, by a two-wicket margin.With just four games to go, Thetford are still bottom of Division Six, but still have hope and their fate is in their own hands.

THETFORD A fought hard to pick up only their second Alliance Division Six win of the season at Garboldisham A on Saturday, by a two-wicket margin.

With just four games to go, Thetford are still bottom of Division Six, but still have hope and their fate is in their own hands.

This victory was far from comfortable and Thetford benefited from many shots avoiding fielders, while most of Garboldisham's seemed to go to hand, but they will take any result at this stage of the season.

Thetford A got 21 vital points for the victory with Garboldisham getting just five.

After not enjoying the rub of the green for a string of fixtures, Thetford's luck came back in spades, starting with winning the toss with moist air offering the potential for a lot of help for the

seam bowlers.

Matt Kerling and Gavin Siriwardena failed to make best use of the conditions to begin with, but Charlie Horn hit a Siriwardena long hop tamely to cover and Harry Youngson top-edged a pull to cover four overs later to leave Garboldisham 23-2.

Trevor Lee immediately went on the attack, but a switch of ends for Kerling saw him find considerable movement and, with the perfect

in-swinger to a left-hander, the top of Andy Freake's off-stump.

Lee and Tom Fidler then began to build, trying to punish the bad ball, but struggling somewhat with a damp outfield and tight Thetford outfielding.

The score had reached 64 when Fidler tried to hit debutant Nathan Coleman over the top, but only found mid-off.

Coleman (4-16) then found a rich seam of form as he took three more wickets in his next two overs, including the dangerous Lee, clean bowled for 38.

This left Garboldisham staring down the barrel at 89-7 and they were soon in more trouble as Siriwardena (4-26) found more bounce in a second spell and removed the next two tail-enders with the score still below 100.

Jack Peart and Andy Smith rallied a little for the last wicket, but Matt Kerling's (2-32) accuracy did for Peart and Garboldisham had mustered only 115.

Overhead conditions had offered some help to the bowlers, but the pitch was blameless, so Thetford were confident of getting to this modest target.

However, recent results had left many of the team short of batting confidence and form. Karl Harris and Andy Kerling started positively, but immediately enjoyed slices of fortune as three edges flew for four in the first two overs.

Harris then edged Rowan Freake tamely to slip, but Thetford had already scored 19 of the 112 runs needed from just three overs.

Ashley Rex and Kerling then took advantage of attacking Garboldisham fields to push the score on at nearly five-an-over, including a classic straight six off Andy Freake's first ball, before Rex (22) was trapped on the crease by Paul Feaveryear (3-30) and Simon Lewis hit his third ball straight to gully.

At 55-3, Garboldisham sensed an opportunity, but Kerling and Nick Shepherd rebuilt well, although tight bowling by Freake and Feaveryear slowed the scoring rate drastically.

The wheels came off Thetford's effort, however, when opener Rowan Freake returned to have Kerling (30) caught behind, cutting.

This started a mini-collapse as Freake (4-29) took 3-0 in four overs and Feaveryear helped to build the pressure at the other end.

A brilliant direct hit from Chris Jones at extra cover also saw Nick Shepherd run out and the game was back on a knife-edge at 88-7.

Debutant Chris Kidd joined Siriwardena at the crease with scoring still very tough and this pair were becalmed for a few overs before Kidd launched two sweetly-struck boundaries and Thetford were on the brink.

Sadly, Kidd hit straight to short cover with victory in sight, but Matt Kerling held his nerve to hit the winning runs and Thetford completed a two-wicket win.