Bradenham's game against Downham A in Division Two of the Norfolk Alliance was a little like déjà vu.

Like last week, they won the toss, bowled first, didn't take early chances, made a comeback, saw the opposition score around 220 and came up against a side who had an opener called Porter.

And like last week, it was also a bit chilly!

Wickets may have been hard to come by at the start for Bradenham, but then so were runs off off the ever accurate Martin Fox, who bowled his nine overs for just 16 runs. Unfortunately runs flowed from the other end a bit too freely and although a couple of wickets were picked up by Ollie Mowles and Iain Brown they were at a cost.

Downham scored freely, with both Porter and Brand reaching 50 before skipper Al Bates brought himself back into the attack. Downham were looking like a score of 250 plus at this stage but Bates removed them both and this started a collapse.

As Rob Ellis employed his spin bowling from the Village Hall End wickets fell quickly. Two excellent caught and bowled efforts added to three other wickets meant Ellis finished with superb figures of 5-30. Tom Donnelly, who had bowled very well for little reward, picked up the last man to leave Downham all out for 218. It was an excellent fightback from the home team and a target that was definitely chaseable on a quick outfield.

Patrick Dewing and Ian Moody opened up and progress was steady with no real alarms until Moody was bowled for 12. All the top five got themselves in but failed to go on with their scores being 12, 21, 23, 9 and 17. To chase this total needed someone to hang around and make a big score.

The arrival of Ian Gibb and Al Bates at the crease was the catalyst for upping the run rate as both men took bat to ball and ran well between the wickets. Again though neither would go on to make the big score needed as they perished for 27 and 33 respectively. When last man Brown came in to join Fox eight more runs were needed to grab and extra batting point with the win well out of reach. This was achieved with a number of steady singles and Downham were left frustrated to not take the final wicket as Bradenham finished on 175-9.

It's not the start to the season Bradenham were hoping for and they will be hoping for third time lucky at Hethersett on Saturday.