WINNING the toss on a wicket affected by the heavy overnight rain, Beccles A skipper Clarke decided to bowl first in a match against Topcroft A his team had to win.

WINNING the toss on a wicket affected by the heavy overnight rain, Beccles A skipper Clarke decided to bowl first in a match against Topcroft A his team had to win.

The win was achieved and fixture is reversed this week when Beccles must go all out for victory as the points margin in the lower half of Alliance Division Five gets ever more closer.

Aldridge and Wright opened the bowling, with Wright in particular bowling good lines and with good pace.

Most of the runs were being scored behind the wicket, and there were slight concerns when the score rattled to 25 after the initial five overs.

Harber was introduced to bring control to the scoring and in conjunction with the impressive Cable, who made the first breakthrough in the 10th over, the pair put the brakes on the runs and after 19 overs Topcroft were 48-1.

With the game finely balanced, Clarke decided to play his trump card and gave the ball to Ruddock.

A combination of strategic field placements and tight bowling from Ruddock and Harber saw the game turn on its head as wickets started to tumble.

Only 10 runs were scored as the next six wickets fell and Beccles assumed full control of the game.

When Harber finished his spell in the 30th over the score was 58-7, his return 3-16, while at the other end Ruddock had taken three wickets in his first six overs, conceding

four runs.

Returning from a lengthy injury lay-off, Young was given a chance to finish the innings off and was unlucky to concede 19 runs as at last the batsmen looked to attack.

It was apt that Ruddock should take the last wicket thanks to a fantastic reaction catch by Warnes behind the stumps, and finish the innings with figures of 5-7 from nine overs.

The Beccles opening pairing of Puxley and Hunter set about the modest chase carefully and studiously.

Hunter dug himself in early and left the scoring to Puxley, who used his recently-acquired MCC raffle prize bat to great effect.

The score had reached 22 in the ninth over when Hunter loosely played his first attacking shot and was caught at short cover for one run.

With Ruddock not fully padded up Clarke had to quickly go in at No 3 and opened his account with a straight six before watching in awe as Puxley showed him how to play some glorious textbook shots.

Clarke then played some shots not found in the manual but to equal effect and the pair saw Beccles to victory in the 20th over.

Bob Knights Family Butchers man-of-the-match: Ian Ruddock.