Woolpit suffer their first defeat of the season going down by 8 runs to Maldon

Woolpit suffered their first defeat of the season losing a tight encounter by just 8 runs at home to Maldon in their latest Two Counties Championship Division 1 clash.

Batting first, the visitors made slow but steady progress making 45 for the first wicket before Harris was caught off the bowling of skipper Will Parker.

Collins accounted for the other opener Bryant and at 83-2 at the halfway stage of their innings, it was really unclear what a par score would be.

With wickets in hand, Maldon were able to accelerate their scoring.

A partnership of 85 in particular between Anderson and Elliott started to move the score towards the 200 mark and a few large strikes at the end by Coppen ensured that a testing target of 217 for 6 for their 50 overs.

Pick of the Woolpit bowlers was Northcote with 1 for 23 from his 10 overs.

In reply, Parker was trapped lbw by Wild for just 8 and when Northcote was bowled by Renton for 14 Woolpit were struggling at 35-2.

However, the youth of Kian Flanagan and Alex Routledge made sure that no more immediate wickets fell and also kept the scoring rate ticking over.

Flanagan impressed in particular finishing with an impressive 65 on his first team debut.

It looked like they had fallen behind the run rate but a 50 partnership between big hitters James Holmes and Alex Jackson brought them back into the game.

However, when these were both out, unfortunately the batsmen at the tail couldn’t quite see them home, and they finished 8 runs short.