Bury St Edmunds shock East Anglian Premier League leaders to climb off basement

Bury St Edmunds produced one of the shock results of the cricket season to beat leaders Swardeston, the defending champions, in the Gibbs Denley East Anglian Premier League on Saturday.

In the process, Bury clambered off the bottom spot, a position they have occupied for the majority of this season.

Michael Comber’s men won by 39 runs, at the Victory Ground, to give themselves a terrific chance of escaping relegation during the final three games of the summer.

Put into bat by Swardeston, the hosts reached 225 for seven off their 64 overs, a fine effort when considered that they were wobbling on 38 for four following the dismissal of overseas player Tyler Lortan. However, skipper Comber (85) and Sean Park (57) put Bury in the driving seat with a match-winning partnership of 124 for the fifth wicket.

The Norfolk visitors were then bowled out for 186, inside 52 overs, to suffer only their fifth defeat of the season.

There were three wickets each for Mark Nunn, Comber and Tom Robotham, as Swardeston subsided from a promising 126 for three, losing their last seven wickets for just 60 runs.

Nunn did the early damage, ending with figures of 14-4-48-3, while Robotham (three for 18) and Comber (three for 37) helped notch a fourth win of the season.