Norfolk let a decent position slip through their grasp on the first day of their opening Minor Counties Championship clash against Cambridgeshire at Wisbech.

Having reduced the hosts to 115-7 in their first innings Chris Brown's side allowed them to get over the 200 mark and then slid to 27-4 before they too recovered to finish on 84-4.

After winning the toss and opting to bat first Cambridgeshire made a solid enough start before a rush of wickets changed the complexion of the match. Adam Todd started the ball rolling by bowling Nesan Jetarathnum for 10 and the hosts then went from 39-1 to 68-5 as Todd and Ben France got to work.

France took three wickets, his colleague struck for a second time and when Garry Park also got into the act with two more an early turnaround looked on the cards.

Sadly for Norfolk that didn't turn out to be the case, with Lewis Bruce and Joe Dawborn then knuckling down to get their side back in the game. By the time France returned to the attack to bowl Bruce for 41 a further 88 runs had been added, and Cambridgeshire would have been reasonably pleased with an all out total of 209, with Dawborn unbeaten on 56. France was the pick of the Norfolk bowlers, returning figures of 5-68 in 25.4 overs, while Park took 2-27 and Todd 2-49.

Norfolk made a poor start in reply, with opener James Spelman being bowled by Dawborn for a duck, and it wasn't long before it got a whole lot worse for the visitors. Fellow opener Sam Arthurton was caught off the bowling of Sam Rippington for 11 and when Dawborn bowled Jordan Taylor for six and Rippington had France caught for four the visitors were struggling badly. Lewis Denmark and Park then got their side back on track with a watchful fifth wicket partnership that was worth 57 by the time stumps were drawn.