KEITH PEEL Spinner Chris Brown has stepped up his quest for the Gibbs Denley East Anglian Premier Cricket League bowler of the season accolade. Leading wicket-taker Brown took his tally to 37 with a six for 27 haul which helped engineer a remarkable Fakenham batting collapse and set up a comfortable Horsford victory.

KEITH PEEL

Spinner Chris Brown has stepped up his quest for the Gibbs Denley East Anglian Premier Cricket League bowler of the season accolade. Leading wicket-taker Brown took his tally to 37 with a six for 27 haul which helped engineer a remarkable Fakenham batting collapse and set up a comfortable Horsford victory. That takes them up to second in the table behind Bury St Edmunds, whose nine-wicket defeat of Vauxhall Mallards leaves them effectively two wins clear and, with only seven games left, virtually unassailable in their bid for a second successive championship.

Fakenham are now seventh, while Norwich moved up to fifth when they beat fourth-placed Swardeston by just one run on Saturday in the season's closest encounter.

Mallards are eighth, just above Godmanchester, who beat bottom team Mildenhall by 49 runs.

Cambridge Granta drop a place to third after losing to sixth-placed Clacton by 81 runs.

Fakenham looked set to post a challenging total as skipper Michael Smith (59) and Paul Dunger (32) took them on to 99 with an 82-run second-wicket stand. But they then crumbled to 127 for nine as Norfolk star Brown and former Zimbabwe international Grant Flower (three for 38) exploited a pitch conducive to their slow bowling.

Graham Riddler and Ian Slegg added 33 for the last wicket, enabling Fakenham to reach 160, a total Horsford surpassed for the loss of two wickets.

Flower (70) and Craig Thyssen (55) were again their outstanding batsmen, putting on 104 in an unbroken third-wicket stand.

Flower, playing for Horsford when not required by Essex, has now scored 642 runs in seven EAPL innings, at an average of 214.

“It's not the first time this season that we've failed to build on a solid start by going on to make a big enough total,” reflected Norfolk fast bowler Slegg.

“Overall our bowling has been fairly good, our fielding's all right and we've had some good batting, but every now and then we've collapsed.”

Of his own campaign, he added: “So far it has been one of my best seasons and I've taken quite a few wickets They include three five-wicket hauls, which I haven't done in the past.”

Mallards mustered a mere 121 at the Victory Ground, where Tom Huggins hit 60 in Bury's 124 for one reply.

Norwich amassed 283 for seven at Postwick, where skipper Chris Borrett contributed 97, including three sixes and 11 fours, Mark Tipping 45 and Matthew Ede 43. Swardeston were then bowled out for 282, with Matt Kelly top scoring on 62 and Marlon Franklyn taking five for 60.

Godmanchester were all out for 240, of which Ghaffar Khasmi made 114 before becoming one of Joe Heather's five victims. Mildenhall managed 191 in response, John Heath top scoring with 47 runs. Cambridge Granta were dismissed for 178 after Clacton had made 259, with Ryan Ten Doeschate scoring 92 and Indika De Saram 57.