Dereham A (4pts) lost to Bradfield A (23) by 83 runs

Ian Battelley took a six-wicket haul with a perfect display of line and length bowling, but it could not stop an under-strength Dereham A going down to a heavy away defeat.

Battelley finished with 6-19 as he ripped through the home side's middle and lower order. They had no answer to his accuracy.

Bradfield A had been 99-1 at the halfway stage in a reduced 40-overs game but were pegged back to 155-9.

He was backed up by good catching and excellent wicket-keeping by John West, who donned the gloves for the first time for many years and got a catch and a stumping.

James Harbour got three catches, while Kristian Fletcher, Ian Clarke and George Pledger all got one each.

Fletcher. Andrew Guida and Tom Clarke all got a wicket each.

With conditions improving after a damp start, batting should have been easier for Dereham A.

But after losing Harbour for just two in the fifth over, wickets fell regularly and Dereham A collapsed to 72 all out.

Only West reached double figures with a hard-fought 19, and Josh Barber and Ian Clarke second top scoring on eight each was an indictment of the poor batting display.

Dereham A have slipped to sixth in the Alliance Division Six but entertain bottom side Vauxhall Mallards B on Saturday and will be looking to return to winning ways.

Dereham B's promotion hopes suffered a major blow as they lost by five wickets against Downham C.

Dereham were missing several key players due to unavailability, and that showed with the bat as they lost two early wickets. Paul Taylor and Liam Cameron steadied the ship with a partnership of 39, before Cameron was caught for 18.

Taylor anchored the innings with a patient 41 as Dereham found it hard going on a difficult pitch, as they were bowled out for 109.

In reply, Dereham's opening bowlers made early breakthroughs and when Taylor, stand-in captain Tom Simpson and Neal Widdows picked up further victims, Downham found themselves struggling on 55-5.

That was to be their final breakthrough as Downham reached the target with over 13 overs to spare.

Dereham's Sunday side played out a thrilling tie against Mundford.

Ten-man Dereham batted first and recovered well after losing Max Cheetham and Kristien Fletcher early on.

David Lake and Duncan Hewitt compiled a partnership of 130 for the third wicket as with runs relatively easy to come by.

Hewitt fell for 71 and Lake for 65 shortly after as Dereham then proceeded to lose their six remaining wickets for 36 runs, with captain Jake Anema the only other batsmen to reach double figures.

In reply, Mundford found runs difficult to come by early on thanks to an excellent spell from George Pledger. Dereham found wickets hard to come by early on before spinner Jon Crisp took two wickets in two balls to put Dereham in charge.

Neal Widdows (3-44) applied more pressure initially but despite needing 30 from only two overs, some big hitting enabled Mundford to level the scores on the final ball of the innings.