FRINTON rightfully felt aggrieved at narrowly losing to champions Sudbury by Duckworth Lewis Stern calculations in a hard-fought Gibbs Denley East Anglian Premier League game at Friars Street.

Having won the toss, visiting skipper Kyran Young made the bold decision to open with spin in an attempt to unsettle prolific batsman Tom Huggins, who was looking for a fifth consecutive Premier League century.

Two overs of spin from Sri Lankan Puli Tharanga failed to produce a wicket but when Mervyn Westfield joined the attack he quickly removed Huggins for only six.

Fellow opener Adam Mansfield dug in with Darren Batch until removed for 33 by Westfield.

With Batch scoring 78, the champions regrouped and looked well set at 231 for four.

Westfield and Young then combined to remove the remaining six wickets for 24 runs.

The hosts ended up all out for 255 in a rain-shortened 40-over innings.

Westfield was the pick of the Frinton attack, taking four wickets for 26 runs, with Young taking four for 32.

The revised DLS target was 271 and Frinton started briskly, with opener Joe Fowler hitting a quickfire 45.

With useful contributions from Westfield (38) and a well-worked 58 from Mike Comber, the visitors were on target until the quick loss of the wickets of Tharanga (eight) and Migs Machado (six).

The arrival of Dom Stockdale and John Hambrook then turned the game with Stockdale's 25 off 14 balls and Hambrook's 17 off 11 balls.

Frinton were now only nine runs behind on DLS and with six overs left when the umpires decided to walk off due to the persistent rain, ending the match to the hosts' relief.

Frinton ended with eight points and Sudbury with 25 points.

However, the visitors were left wondering how the match would have ended had the game continued.

Frinton will be looking for a swift turnaround in fortune in their next game against Great Witchingham at Ashlyns Road on Saturday, commencing at 11am.