Bury St Edmunds have endured a woeful start to the season, and there troubles deepened with another heavy defeat at the hands of a Nuwan Jayasena-inspired Clacton on Saturday.
Bury stay stuck on the basement of the Gibbs Denley East Anglian Premier League, with six defeats and one draw from their first seven fixtures.
Visiting Clacton, who were inserted by Bury skipper Tom Huggins, accumulated 223 for eight in their innings, although they were indebted to some good contributions from late order batsmen Sritharan Nitoshan (41) and Ian Barrie (47 not out).
Opening bowler Tom Rowbotham returned figures of four for 47 from 16 overs, but it was all to no avail as Bury’s batting once again let them down badly in the reply.
The hosts were dismissed for just 84, despite at one stage being 49 for one with Huggins (24) and Toby Adams (22) at the crease. But they lost their last nine wickets for just 35 runs, with Jayasena claiming eight of them.
In fact, the Sri Lankan’s superb spell of eight for just 14 runs, from 12.1 overs, was an East Anglian Premier League record.
Jayasena’s terrific effort surpassed the previous league record of eight for 16, achieved by Horsford’s Luke Caswell last year.
While Bury’s batting has been a weak spot all campaign, the same could not be said of fellow West Suffolk club Woolpit’s top order, against Burwell on Saturday.
Craig Rutherford scored 120 in Woolpit’s huge total of 300 for seven declared, off 64.2 overs. Rutterford and opener Andrew Northcote (96) shared a stand of 153 for the second wicket, so ensuring that defeat was never an option.
Rutterford struck 13 fours and a six in his innings, while Northcote took just 107 deliveries to reach 96, including a dozen fours and a six.
However, Woolpit were left frustrated at the end, as Burwell recovered from 24 for two to reach 220 for eight at stumps, thanks to 60s by Vibhor Yadav and Kiran Adhav. Northcote was the pick of Woolpit’s bowlers with four for 53.
Despite being held to a draw, and so are still left waiting to record their first league win of the season, Woolpit at least collected 17 points.
Suffolk’s other two league clubs, Copdock & Old Ipswichian, and Sudbury, both suffered defeats.
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