Topcroft made the long journey to North Runcton and earned 20 points from a good team effort.This will give the team confidence for the home match with Old Buckenham.

Topcroft made the long journey to North Runcton and earned 20 points from a good team effort.

This will give the team confidence for the home match with Old Buckenham.

Topcroft skipper Shipley elected to bowl first on what looked to be a hard, but two-paced wicket. His decision was vindicated as Topcroft got off to a dream start with Marshall knocking the off-stump of Brown out of the ground.

Gunawardene then removed Pipkin with the help of a heart-stopping catch by Warburton.

Gunawardene removed dangerman Kgamadi for 10. This brought Hemeter to the crease who, along with Harwood, set about rebuilding the innings. This partnership was ended when debutant wicket-keeper Ben Wright took an acrobatic catch off the bowling of Gunawardene to remove Hemeter for 16.

Harwood was then bowled by Marshall to leave Runcton struggling at 41-5. The introduction of Warburton and Baldwin into the attack built further pressure and this told when Baldwin had Corke caught by Gunawardene. Warburton then got in on the fun removing Crisp thanks to a well-judged catch by Batty and then Jefferson in the following over. Baldwin bowled Faivelowitz.

Cubitt and Bunting played sensibly to grind out as many runs as possible, before Ian Todd had Cubitt caught behind to end the Runcton innings at 96 in 33.5 overs.

In reply, Wright was caught for three in the second over. Gunawardene was caught at the wicket with the score at 14.

Hancock was trapped lbw after a couple of delightful strokes. After adding 17 runs to the total, both Warburton and Shipley fell in quick succession for 19 and 13 respectively to leave Topcroft in trouble at 47 for 5.

The introduction of Runcton skipper Cubitt bowling in tandem with Kgamadi made runs hard to come by for the Topcroft batsmen. Goodfellow was the next to fall to an interesting lbw decision off the bowling of Cubitt, and Batty followed him back to the pavilion for 5. Baldwin supported by D Todd got the total up to 72 before Todd was lbw. This left Topcroft 72 for 8, still requiring 25 runs with only two wickets remaining.

Marshall took the Topcroft total to 85, before disaster struck as Baldwin was caught off the bowling of Bunting for 10, with 12 runs required. Marshall struck 10 runs off the next four balls, before scampering a single to tie the scores, leaving Ian Todd to claim the winning run and a tense victory. Cunninghams Autos MoM: Rob Marshall.