Mattishall tightened their grip at the top of Norfolk Alliance Division Two and stretched their unbeaten run to 13 matches with a convincing eight-wicket win at Garboldisham.

Mattishall tightened their grip at the top of Norfolk Alliance Division Two and stretched their unbeaten run to 13 matches with a convincing eight-wicket win at Garboldisham. Jay Eastoe-Smith and Neil Lockwood starred with the bat to ensure a comfortable victory.

Mattishall skipper Gordon Chetwood chose to field first on what looked like an excellent batting pitch. Garboldisham raced to 89-1 in the 18th over despite some excellent early bowling from Dan Beaumont (3-42).

The Garboldisham innings took a turn however when Ben Bourke (5-56) was introduced. He struggled to find his usual consistency and rhythm but took wickets.

From 187-9 a spirited fightback by the Garboldisham tailenders took the total to 228 all out.

That seemed a below-par score and so it proved to be as Cameron Brown (44) and Eastoe-Smith (88) set about their task professionally. Surprisingly, Eastoe-Smith was caught at slip and narrowly missed out on his maiden Mattishall century.

Neil Lockwood brutally showed the fallibilities of the Garboldisham attack. Disappointingly Brown was dismissed with just 18 more runs needed. Fittingly, Lockwood smashed the winning boundary to finish with 79 from just 35 balls as Mattishall won with 16 overs to spare.