BRADENHAM entertained top-of-the table Sprowston on The Green on Saturday and, having welcomed Rob Thurley back from university they were hoping to improve on recent performances.

BRADENHAM entertained top-of-the table Sprowston on The Green on Saturday and, having welcomed Rob Thurley back from university they were hoping to improve on recent performances. However, they were soundly beaten by a good young Sprowston side who demonstrated why they are current Alliance Division One leaders.

Captain Blakey put the visitors into bat on a damp track and was looking for an early breakthrough. However, openers Glozier and Leverett really set about the Bradenham attack from the first ball, scoring 43 runs off the first five overs with Bates being treated particularly severely.

The introduction of Gates stemmed the tide however and he picked up the valuable wicket of Leverett, bowled for 24. The incoming Murrell continued the run fest before he was caught by Hillier off Thurley for 44. The Bradenham bowling had recovered somewhat and the partnership of Gates and Hillier made the going tough for Sprowston in the middle order.

The fielders were also backing up the bowling and Hanby was run out following a superb throw from the boundary by Denmark. Overall however, too many extras were being gifted to Sprowston who finished their innings on 188-9 with only 146 runs coming off the bat. Pick of the Bradenham bowlers were Rob Thurley (3-26), David Hillier (3-33) and Brett gates (1-36).

This was not a huge total however, and with their recent form of chasing much larger totals and getting close, Bradenham thought they were in with a good chance.

Opener Matthews however steered a ball straight to gully in the second over and was out for nought. Evans and Selowa moved the score on to 34 before Evans was out lbw to Rose for 12. Denmark came in to steady the ship and played well with a mixture of patience and lovely strokeplay.

Unfortunately Selowa was bowled by the experienced Roff by a ball which tucked him up and Thurley (who was lacking match practice) was caught soon after.

Blakey was disappointed to be also bowled by Roff going for a big hit when perhaps a more measured approach would have been a better at that stage of the innings.

Stolworthy was another Roff victim being lbw, and when Denmark was out it was left to Bates, Hillier, Gates and first team debutant Jordan Cantwell to contribute as best they could. Gates was unlucky to be adjudged run out to bring their innings to a close for a lowly 128.

This was a particularly disappointing performance from Bradenham, They had restricted the league leaders to 188 runs (even having conceded far too many extras) and recent batting performances suggested this was a total they could successfully chase.

But their batting let them down this week. There still seems work to do therefore for both batters and bowlers before we see the best from this team.

Bradenham CC's main sponsors are Blue Print Mortgages.

Match balls as sponsored by Trek Highway Services.