STOWMARKET..............................85 all out

BRAINTREE............................................86-2

(Braintree won by eight wickets)

(Jaygate Homes Championship Division Two)

Braintree bounced back from the disappointment of their first defeat of the season the previous week with a comprehensive eight wicket victory at third-in-the-table Stowmarket on Sunday.

After electing to bat, Stowmarket never recovered from being 18 for four, with Dave Hale clean bowling the first three batsmen.

Only the Stowmarket captain, Spreadbury, offered any resistance by scoring 45, as Dave Hale ripped through their brittle batting line-up.

Hale finished off the Suffolk side with a hat-trick to complete a devastating spell of seven for 32 from 13.5 overs.

Braintree comfortably reached their target with Marcus Fullgrabe scoring an undefeated 61 as the winning runs were reached in the 32nd over for only the loss of skipper Graham Gooday and Chris Warn.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.