Bury St Edmunds made the most of the best conditions to take the honours in the West Suffolk derby, away at neighbours Mildenhall in the East Anglian Premier League on Saturday.

East Anglian Daily Times: Mildenhall captain, Tom Rash, who pulled no punches following his side's home defeat to Bury St Edmunds on Saturday. Picture: ANDY ABBOTTMildenhall captain, Tom Rash, who pulled no punches following his side's home defeat to Bury St Edmunds on Saturday. Picture: ANDY ABBOTT (Image: Archant)

However, home captain Tom Rash refused to blame the loss of the toss for his side's below-par display.

Rash insisted that his side "must do better," and "must turn performances around quickly," following a disappointing five-wicket defeat to impressive Bury.

Of course, having lost a crucial toss, Mildenhall were always likely to struggle for runs on an awkward early afternoon for batting, after all the recent rain, the overcast conditions and a delayed start until around 1pm, with the game initially reduced to 36 overs per side (and in the end 35 overs per side).

And so it proved, as the Wamil Way club slipped to their fourth successive defeat at the start of a disappointing season, Bury St Edmunds holding their nerve to win by five wickets in a low-scoring encounter and so celebrate their second win of the summer.

East Anglian Daily Times: Sean Cooper, who had excellent figures of 7-3-6-3 to help Bury St Edmunds to victory at Wamil Way. Picture: ANDY ABBOTTSean Cooper, who had excellent figures of 7-3-6-3 to help Bury St Edmunds to victory at Wamil Way. Picture: ANDY ABBOTT (Image: Archant)

Mildenhall were skittled out for just 93 in 19.2 overs, with only openers Joe Reed and Danny Wilson managing to make double figures, in addition to 16 extras.

In reply, Bury, set a revised target of 95 from 35 overs, breezed home with five wickets and 4.1 overs in hand, thanks to useful contributions from Alfie Marston and Justin Broad.

Mildenhall had begun their innings in encouraging fashion, with Reed and Wilson posting a rapid 39 for the first wicket inside six overs, despite a short stoppage for rain.

But once George Loyd had bowled Wilson (18), the floodgates opened with the hosts losing their last nine wickets for the addition of just 39 runs, prompted by Reed's dismissal for 29, caught behind by Marston off Loyd. The hard-hitting Reed had hit a six and four fours in his 33-ball stay.

From 54 for one, just seven balls later and Mildenhall had slumped to 55 for four as Alastair Allchin claimed the scalps of Ben Shepperson (1) and Ankit Sharma (0).

The home side never recovered, due to some good bowling from the experienced Sean Cooper (7-3-6-3) and summer signing Daniel Moriarty (7-2-9-2).

In reply, the youthful Bury opening pair of Marston and Max Whittaker put on 40 for the first wicket, to ensure a sound platform for victory, making the most of the improved batting conditions in some afternoon sunshine.

Whittaker (11) was run out by Tristan Blackledge, while Marston was stumped by Ollie Lovejoy off Hugo Douglas for a well-made 32 off 54 balls. Young Jon Allen did intervene with a fine spell of bowling (5.5-0-24-3), but Broad's 29 from 50 balls and Josh Cantrell's quickfire 15 not out ensured Bury got home without a scare.

Bury's fine start to the season sees them up to the heady heights of third in the table, while Mildenhall remain rock bottom. Vauxhall Mallards are the only other team still waiting for their first win of the season.

"We have not been good enough, either individually or as a team," admitted skipper Rash.

"We have not gelled as a team yet, and we need to turn it around, and turn it around quickly.

"I will do everything that I can, and hopefully the squad will do everything that they can, to make this happen, because we have not been good enough yet.

"Good players are able to react to the conditions, and at the moment we have been too slow to react to the conditions, like on Saturday.

"We have a young and inexperienced side, but we need to do better, and as yet we have not batted well enough as a team.

"You could say that the toss was instrumental, and I did lose yet another toss (three out of four this season). It was a greasy surface after all the overnight rain, we started late, and there was another quick burst of rain after three or four overs which did not help the batting side.

"However, I am not going to hide behind losing the toss for how we performed. There are no excuses. We shouldn't be getting out for a total of 93. That's the second week running we have batted like that, and we are not learning from our mistakes.

"You have to give credit to Bury. They played well, especially their young openers Alfie Marston and Max Whittaker, who got them off to a solid start in their reply," added Rash.

All-rounder Rash, the former Copdock & Old Ipswichian skipper, will lead out his Mildenhall team against his former club at Old London Road this Saturday.

Copdock & OI's scheduled match at league leaders Frinton-on-Sea was abandoned without a ball being bowled on Saturday, so both sides were awarded seven points.

Defending champions, Sudbury, did escape the worst of the weather, but they suffered their first defeat of the summer, losing by 31 runs at Burwell & Exning.

The hosts won the toss and elected to bat, and they totalled 168 all out off 47.5 overs, boosted by 44 from Tim Catley in the middle order, and an earlier 30 by Andrew Bramley at No. 3.

The biggest partnership of the innings was the fifth wicket stand of 73 between Catley and Paul Summerskill (29). Ben Reece took four for 34 off 7.5 overs, while spinner Thomas Huggins bowled tightly for figures of 10-3-24-2.

Huggins then made 29 at the top of the order, but Sudbury slithered to a disappointing 52 for seven to leave themselves with a mountain to climb.

James Poulson (59) and Alex Quinn (18) put on 80 for the eighth wicket, but Sudbury were bowled out for 137 in the 46th over.