Unfortunately Saturday didn't start well. Two players were still missing as the firsts elected to bat away at league leaders Mildenhall, and although the full 11 eventually turned up they could muster only 116.

It was always going to be hard defending that total against one of the league's best batting sides. Sudbury opened their defence of the score with Jon Kent and Andy Simmons, bowling his accurate spin, and at 70-5 Mildenhall were wobbling.

However, some lucky strokes and basic fielding errors saw Mildenhall safely home.

Kent picked up three wickets but it wasn't quite enough to save Sudbury's blushes as they dropped two places to fifth in league.

However, they got back in time to see a thrilling win by the seconds who, after having five games this season go to the last wicket or last over, finally won one of them, captain Guy Robins hitting a huge six in the 44th over with nine wickets down to seal victory against a loud Clacton team.

It was a real see-saw game, both teams looking in control at various stages. Sudbury's bowlers again did a sterling job to put us in control before, with the exception of Louis Brooks, the top order gave Clacton another bite at victory.

The middle order, under the guidance of Charlie Phillips, then swung the game back towards Sudbury, only for four wickets fall in four overs, handing the momentum back to Clacton. But not known to them was Sudbury's strength in depth.

Robins and the ever-reliable Charlie Thomas, undoubtedly Suffolk's best number 11, added 20 runs for the last wicket to win the game. The team moved from second-bottom to joint-fifth with that win. Victory the previous week, when we lost by one wicket, would have made us third, showing just how tight division four is.

The third team had a super victory on the promenade at Maldon, now fitted with a changing-room like facility. Jack Backler started his good weekend with four wickets, restricting the home side to 196 on a perfect day for batting.

In reply, captain Andy Holness and Kenny Moulton-Day both scored 30s, but Harry Wright, an up and coming all-rounder, scored a classy 59, hitting the ball to all parts of the ground, allowing Ollie Mills the job of wrapping up the game with a quickfire 22.

Chasing totals is not easy and requires a certain amount of patience and intelligence, but Andy's hot shots seem to show both qualities and are chasing scores very well this year.

Sunday was disappointing in many ways. The division C team travelled to Kelvedon but could manage only 102, and were never going to be able to defend such a score. The application of the youngsters shown when batting on a Saturday needs to be shown in Sunday batting to help bolster the scores.

The Sunday firsts fared no batter as some poor fielding and sloppy bowling allowed Mildenhall to race out of the traps.