LITTLEPORT II signed a difficult season off with a narrow 31-run loss against fellow strugglers Wimblington at the weekend.

LITTLEPORT II signed a difficult season off with a narrow 31-run loss against fellow strugglers Wimblington at the weekend.

The fledgling side conspired to lose 14 of their 18 fixtures in a testing 2010 season but they showed some improvement on Saturday with a battling performance.

A strong start by Wimblington with the bat boded ill for Port as they struggled to make inroads but a persistent effort from the five-prong attack eventually began to tell as the visiting batsmen fell.

Connor Logon picked up 3-1 in a blistering spell that lasted less than two overs and Luke Peskett also impressed as he took 2-30. The visitors were eventually dismissed for 132 in the 34th over.

Port’s run chase got off to a difficult start as the opening four batsmen fell with less than 10 runs on the board but the arrival of Simon Jennings (40*) at the crease raised hopes of an unlikely win.

Despite an excellent effort from Jennings and some admirable support from Dan Jones (17), Port were unable to hold out and were dismissed some 31 runs short for 101.