Mellis suffered a 19-run defeat at Brockley in Hunts County Bats Suffolk Cricket League Division two.

Mellis won the toss and decided to field.

Barry Austin quickly bowled both openers and went on to take five for 33 off 10 overs.

The other bowlers did well: Keith Greenwood gave away only 30 runs off 10 overs; Will Dawson took 2 for 37 and Liam Fairweather 2 for 54.

In one impeccable over, Fairweather teased P Kearney, Brockley's top-scoring batsmen (43), for five balls, before clean bowling him.

Owing to illness, Mellis had only 10 players and Brockley exploited the gaps in the field and ran well between the wickets, reaching 180 for 9 off their 40 overs.

Mellis also lost their opening batsmen quickly, but Chris Farrant (41) and Will Dawson (80) built a solid partnership before Farrant was bowled by D Meekings (3 for 27).

Only Liam Fairweather (13) managed to stay with Dawson for any length of time, but when both were out, Mellis's last men, Keith Arnold and Austin, ran out of overs to make up the run deficit.

After 40 overs Mellis had scored 161 for 8, taking seven points from the match.

Mellis II suffered a heavy defeat against Elmswell in Hunts County Bats Suffolk League, Division Five.

It was groundhog day as once again a good performance in the field was let down by poor batting.

Elmswell were put in and made steady progress, despite Martin Thompson claiming an early wicket.

In contrast, the last 10 overs of the Elmswell innings were very lively as amidst aggressive batting Tim Courridge claimed five wickets, helping to restrict the score to 178-9.

In reply the Mellis batting showed its familiar frailty with wickets being lost in each of the first three overs.

Fortunately Rob Tilly cracked an impressive 27 not out to save some face, but he rapidly ran out of partners as the home side were dismissed for 55.