Swaffham continued their recent good run of form with a convincing eight-wicket win over basement side Kirkley & Lowestoft Railway to consolidate fourth position in Alliance Division Three.

Swaffham continued their recent good run of form with a convincing eight-wicket win over basement side Kirkley & Lowestoft Railway to consolidate fourth position in Alliance Division Three.

Following this impressive batting performance, Swaffham take on table-toppers Great Witchingham A on Saturday and a win would keep Swaffham interested in the race for promotion.

For the second week in succession Swaffham's opening bowlers Smith and Annakin had the opposition four wickets down after their opening spells.

The introduction of young leg spinner Carl Oxborough ensured Swaffham continued to take wickets as Kirkley were looking in trouble at 90-7.

However Kirkley's number six Chris Lambert had other ideas, he managed to score 91 and push the home side up to 196.

The second top scorer was 16 and it took a fantastic caught and bowled from Williams-Ward in the final over to end Lambert's exceptional knock and ensure Swaffham received maximum bowling points.

Oxborough picked up very respectable figures of 12-3-48-4 and was unlucky not to claim five wickets.

Even though Kirkley had gained momentum going into the second innings, Swaffham were still confident having chased successfully in recent weeks.

Williams-Ward and Hardy opened and gave Swaffham a scintillating start as they raced to 60 in seven overs before the change in pace accounted for Williams-Ward (39 off 33 balls).

Eagle quickly followed him after gifting a return catch to Lambert and with Swaffham on 72-2 a few doubts were beginning to creep in before the in-form Reeve entered the fray and dispatched the bowling to all parts of the ground to see his side home.

Reeve scored 98 out of the 125 needed while Hardy (34) just watched from the other end as Swaffham chased down the total with 16 overs to spare.

The only downside was that Reeve was unable to reach a deserved century as the game was decided with five wides.

His 98 was scored from only 50 balls and included 12 fours and five maximums.

Swaffham gained 24 points to Railway's five.

Kirkley and Lowestoft Railway: B Willgoss c Eagle b Annakin 8, C Guy b Smith 16, P Hunter c Dale b Annakin 8, R Moore b Annakin 4, S Clabburn b Oxborough 7, C Lambert c-b Williams-Ward 91, J Ayers b Oxborough 7, S Howes b Oxborough 8, M Lowe lbw Oxborough 11, C Meadows c Dale b Williams-Ward 7, K Barnard not out 7; extras 22. Total (45.4 overs) 196. Bowling: M Annakin 12-4-39-3, M Smith 12-3-35-1, C Oxborough 12-3-48-4, C Yates 5-0-32-0, C Williams-Ward 4.4-0-32-2.

Swaffham: C Williams-Ward c Ayers b Guy 39, W Hardy not out 34, M Eagle c-b Lambert 10, A Reeve not out 98; extras 18. Total (29.2 overs) 199-2

Bowling: S Howes 4-0-26-0, C Meadows 3-0-26-0, C Guy 9-4-35-1, C Lambert 7.2-0-62-1, P Hunter 6-0-50-0.