Clacton avoid relegation on final day

CLACTON avoided relegation on the final day of the Gibbs Denley East Anglian Premier League season with a comfortable victory over rock-bottom Fakenham.

The Essex side had languished at the foot of the table for lengthy periods of the 2007 season, but an end-of-season purple patch, which included wins over champions Swardeston as well as Bury St Edmunds, meant Clacton only had to avoid a comprehensive defeat at Fakenham.

Martin Smith's young side not only avoided defeat, they dispatched the Norfolk side by 100 runs.

Maroof Khan hit 62 as the coastal outfit set a target of 175 for the loss of eight wickets, before three wickets apiece for Smith and Gary Kirk helped bowl the hosts out for 75.

The result meant that Clacton finished the season one off the bottom in ninth place with 193 points, a poor return compared with the 2006 season in which they finished third with 254 points.

This year has also seen a spectacular fall from grace for reigning champions Bury St Edmunds.

The Suffolk side, who had also won the league in 2005, unsurprisingly started the season as one of the favourites yet again, however, a dreadful end-of-season run of results has seen them finish sixth.

Having started the season with five wins, a draw and a cancellation, Bury had taken up a seemingly inevitable place at the top of the table.

However, Justin Bishop's side then went the rest of the season without a victory, losing three games, drawing five and seeing three cancelled.

Their final match of the season against Great Witchingham was cancelled last weekend, the result meaning they finished on 228 points - over 100 points less than they accumulated last year.

Elsewhere, founder members of the league Swardeston wrapped up their first-ever title with a thrashing of Norwich.

Three wickets each for Michael Eccles and Mark Thomas saw Norwich all out for just 60, a target which the champions knocked off for the loss of four wickets.

Godmanchester finished second in the table following a six-wicket win over eighth-placed Cambridge Granta, while Horsford finished seventh following a good 41-run win over third-placed Vauxhall Mallards.