Wickets keep flowing for Norfolk captain Chris Brown during first day against Northumberland

Norfolk captain Chris Brown continued his memorable season with the ball in the Minor Counties Championship as Northumberland were made to battle for their runs at Manor Park yesterday.

Brown went into the first day of the final match of the Festival of Cricket with 27 wickets to his name -– and ended it with 32 as the leaders were dismissed for 250.

That may yet prove to be a more than useful total however, with Norfolk ending on the day on 16-1, with James Spelman back in the pavilion and opening partner Sam Arthurton having to retire hurt.

Earlier in the day Northumberland won the toss and decided to bat first but they may have been regretting that decision when they slipped to 31-3, with Ben France taking a couple of wickets and Brett Stolworthy also making his mark.

Jarvis Clay led the revival by scoring a half century while featuring in partnerships of 49 with Jacques du Toit (31) and Sameel Brar (38) which helped the visitors past the 150 mark.

Three quick wickets then changed the complexion of the match again, with Northumberland slipping to 160-7, but there was another twist as the final four batsmen added another 90 runs.

Michael Allan, Oliver McGee and Ben Whitehead all did their bit to frustrate Norfolk, although Brown had the last laugh by getting rid of two of them before Luke Caswell, one of three fresh faces in the side, wrapped things up with his first wicket of the game.

Brown ended up with excellent figures of 22-5-53-5 to slightly improve his average for the season, which was 13.22 at the start of play.

Norfolk's reply got off to a disappointing start when Spelman was caught off the bowling of Sean Tindale for two – and worse was to follow when Arthurton retired hurt after taking a blow to the chest. It was then left to James Hale and Matthew Warnes to see Norfolk safely through to the close, with bad light forcing an early finish to the day's proceedings.