Last Tuesday evening saw the annual Jack Constance Memorial Cup match between Beccles Town and Norwich City U18, which is always a keenly fought game with a chance to view some of Norwich's aspiring young players as well as the probable line-up for Beccles Town first team for the coming league season.

Last Tuesday evening saw the annual Jack Constance Memorial Cup match between Beccles Town and Norwich City U18, which is always a keenly fought game with a chance to view some of Norwich's aspiring young players as well as the probable line-up for Beccles Town first team for the coming league season.

The City squad were finishing their pre-season friendlies having beaten Leyton Orient, Osaka (a touring side form Japan) and xdrawing 1-1 with Southend United. They then took part in the Roda Kerkade tournament with wins against the host club and a Danish touring side with defeats by Hertha Berlin and FC Twente.

The opening 10 minutes were frantic with both sides attacking with gusto but no end result, the final ball not reaching the strikers.

A corner from the right for Beccles was swung in by Andy Woods and found Neil McMorran, who in his surprise, shot wide. The remainder of the half returned to a midfield battle that contained no real threat from either side.

At half-time Beccles manager Mick Broxup made several changes while retaining the same basic team structure. They made very little difference to the overall pattern of play, even changing the Beccles goalkeeper and three of the defenders did not give the Norwich youngsters any chances and the game continued to be a midfield battle with no real chances for either side.

The game changed in the 75th minute when a goalmouth scramble saw the ball pop out to Anthony Martin, who quickly turned it into the net to give Beccles Town a 1-0 lead.

This breakthrough led to some exciting attacking play from both sides. In the 80th minute Alan Remblance was put through, and after evading two tackles, drove a shot low into the bottom corner to increase the Beccles lead to 2-0. Further frantic attacking from Norwich was easily soaked up by the Beccles defence.

Beccles captain Sam Barham was presented with the Jack Constance Memorial Cup by David Stead on behalf of match sponsors Sunningdale Associates of Lowestoft who are direct mail specialists.

The next game at College Meadow will be the first home league game, against Hempnall on Tuesday August 26 (ko 6.30). The following evening the Reserves open their league fixtures with a visit to Caister Reserves, again 6.30 ko.