CCA SENIOR DIVISION 2 Camden II 222-7 Ely/Haddenham 217 Camden II won by five runs ELY/HADDENHAM were painfuly close to coming away with a precious win at second-placed Camden on Saturday. Camden batted first and they were solid throughout the team. Op

CCA SENIOR DIVISION 2

Camden II 222-7

Ely/Haddenham 217

Camden II won by five runs

ELY/HADDENHAM were painfuly close to coming away with a precious win at second-placed Camden on Saturday.

Camden batted first and they were solid throughout the team.

Opening batsman Critoph was the highest scorer with 40 before he was caught out by Bruce King off a Mike Grady delivery.

Critoph would have been disappointed to not have gone on to at least make a half-century as he looked to be confident and in control throughout his innings.

Decent scores also came from Brown (34 not out) and Illife (26) but this was an unremarkable but steady and consistent innings with the majority of the Camden batsmen making significant contributions.

Yet it was Ely/Haddenham who were the happier of the two teams at the half way stage, particularly after their spectacular batting performance last week in which they scored 257-5 to beat Cherry Hinton.

Grady put in what Ely/Haddenham captain Ben Travers described as: "his best bowling performance of the season" and took three wickets.

And Mark Deas also performed well, taking two wickets. A major frustration for the visitors was that they gave away 56 runs from extras.

Ely/Haddenham got off to a reasonably bright start in their innings with opener Peacock making 24 and Travers 36 before Grady went out for a duck.

Middle order batsmen Mark Abbott (51) and King (28) then came in to take control of the situation.

Abbott has been in superb form and this was his second consecutive half-century.

It looked like Abbott and King would then on to dominate the innings and comfortably put the game beyond Camden.

Then, when Abbott was bowled out by Dixon, and King went for lbw, the visitors started to struggle and they were eventually all out for 217, an exasperating six runs short of their target.

Travers said: "Camden are the best side we've played against this year.

"We were in a commanding position for quite a while and up until the last 10 overs I was confident that we would take victory.

"The league is still very open and I still believe that we can gain promotion or even go on and win it.