KEVIN Brooks could not conceal his delight after seeing Suffolk maintain their lead at the top of the Minor Counties Championship Eastern Division yesterday

Suffolk completed a nine-wicket win with more than two sessions to spare against Buckinghamshire at Gerrards Cross despite entering the game with no less than eight players unavailable.

Brooks, Suffolk’s director of cricket and coach, was made aware of criticism of the county’s selection policy for this match, but chose instead to talk about his team’s performance.

He said: “We are delighted with the result. There has been outstanding performances with both bat and ball which have given us the edge in this game.

“Whilst we were stretched in terms of our resources I still felt we had put together a side capable of getting a result and we have been proved right.

“Tony Palladino took nine wickets in the match, which is an excellent contribution, and he has been well supported by all the other bowlers.

“Whilst James Finch didn’t pick up as many wickets as he would have liked in the first innings, he gave us control by keeping the run rate under control on a wicket you would expect to score at more than three runs an over.

“After doing well to bowl them out for 273 on a decent wicket we still needed to bat well and after the start Tom Huggins gave us we managed to do that with contributions right the way down the order.

“Pete Turnbull, one of our younger players, made a very good contribution in partnership with Hassan Adnan after going into bat at a difficult time, and that gave us the platform to go on and build a big first-innings total, with Chris Warn and Tony Palladino batting well down the order,” he added.

Bucks, resuming on 122 for seven – a lead of just 17 – offered only token resistance, losing their final three second-innings wickets inside 15 overs for the addition of 24 runs.

Simon Rees took a straightforward catch at second slip in the 51st over to dismiss Sam Cherry, before wrapping up the innings with the aid of two catches by wicket-keeper Chris Warn.

Suffolk, requiring 42 to win, saw Huggins dropped at slip by Paul Sawyer after hitting a four in the first over before Swayer made amends by bowling him with the fifth ball of the second over.

However, there were no further alarms as Andrew Mawson and Martyn Cull knocked off the runs in only 8.1 overs to cement Suffolk’s position as leaders ahead of their final home match against Northumberland at Mildenhall, starting on August 1.