ON a glorious afternoon at the Green, Troy Allan starred for Aldborough with a superb unbeaten century in a tense opening-day victory for the home side.

ON a glorious afternoon at the Green, Troy Allan starred for Aldborough with a superb unbeaten century in a tense opening-day victory for the home side.

Aldborough (25pts) beat Drayton (6) by 34 runs at The Green, Aldboroughin Lucas Fettes Norfolk League Divison One.

Batting first, Aldborough started slowly with only eight runs being registered in the first 10 overs.

Foreman and Mario-Ghae bowled well, however Reeve (18) and Cooper (2) exhibited the all-too-familiar early- season rustiness. After their departure Aldborough began to build a score.

Matt Saunders thumped a breezy 18 and was dismissed at the halfway stage when the score was at 64-3.

Perry-Warnes joined the impressive Troy Allan whereby both calmly and methodically built a partnership, the former rotating the strike well to help Allan to go past his century.

A partnership of 71 took the score to 135 with 10 overs to spare. From here on in Allan took control of the strike and punished clinically loose deliveries. Well supported by Bacon and Ben Plumb the team score reached 197, which was probably some 30 runs shy of what was expected, but was satisfactory with the start the team had. In this Allan notched his first century for the club in a chanceless 97 balls, including 12 fours and five sixes.

In reply, Drayton's start was very good. They took risks, attacked and rotated strike in a confident and aggressive manner. Perry-Warnes for Aldborough bowled well but Reeve and Allan were too short and wide.

Catches began to be missed and Drayton looked set for a shock victory on the opening day. However the home team drew on their experience and a double bowling change at 90-0 saw Mark Holroyd and Kevin Bacon slow the momentum train of Hawes and Wright for Drayton.

This bowling pair pinned back Drayton and over the next 14 overs the visitors added only a further 30 runs at the loss of four wickets. This opened the gate of opportunity and after a great spell of 9-1-19-1 Holroyd was replaced by Perry Warnes. The paceman struck early and was backed up by superb fielding by Bodymore, Gallager and particularly Plumb. At this stage Boro could smell victory. In amongst this Plumb ran out Denny and the game was beginning to rest on the shoulders of Breame for the visitors.

At 153-6 skipper Reeve came back into the attack and bowled Breame to all but win the game. Bacon finished with a superb 12-3-32-3, Reeve snapped up two more wickets and it was left fittingly

to the Knights Sporting Limited

man-of-the-match Allan to wrap up victory, having Dave caught with the last ball of the innings.

In a friendly Aldborough (206-3) beat Aylsham Legionnaires (71 all out) by 15 runs. For the second day running Troy Allan notched up a century and was man of the match for the North Norfolk side in this comprehensive win against neighbours and friends Aylsham Legionnaires.

In another friendly Arcadian Casuals (186-10) beat Aldborough (179-10) by seven runs in an exciting game.

MoM: Michael Board.