Wicket-keeper Adam Mansfield is celebrating a second Minor Counties record for Suffolk in successive championship matches, writes Nick Garnham.

Skipper Mansfield equalled the 40-year-old record for the most number of dismissals in a season by a Suffolk wicket-keeper in the drawn match against Lincolnshire.

Mansfield marked his 27th birthday on Tuesday by drawing level with former Suffolk stumper Stuart Westley, who was responsible for 37 dismissals in the 1978 season.

After taking three catches in the visitors’ first innings at Ipswich School, Mansfield claimed a catch and a stumping before catching Nick Keast off Tom Rash to equal the record.

The feat came just a fortnight after Mansfield had broken Westley’s record of ten catches in a match when he took 12 in the innings-and-eight-runs victory over Hertfordshire at North Mymms CC.

Mansfield, who plays for Sudbury made his Minor Counties debut in 2011, said: “It is always nice to break records – I believe it was my 100th championship dismissal as well which made it extra special.

“When I came into the team we had Simon Guy, who was our pro, keeping wicket, so I had to earn my spot as wicket-keeper, and when you have earned something you want to make the most of it which I am currently trying to do.”

Mansfield will have the chance to pull clear of Westley and claim the record for himself in Suffolk’s final Unicorns Championship match of the season, against Cambridgeshire at Saffron Walden, starting on September 2.

He added: “As I said after breaking the other record, a lot of credit has to go to our bowlers. Hopefully I can claim the record outright against Cambridgeshire.

“We have potentially two innings for me to do it, and with how well our bowlers have been performing hopefully I will get the chance to do so.”

Suffolk go into that match with a chance of still winning the Eastern Division, after their backs-to-the-wall display saw them earn an unlikely draw against table-topping Lincolnshire.

The visitors, who play Cumberland at Carlisle in their final fixture, extended their lead over second-placed Suffolk to six points.