Cromer’s Second XI somehow contrived to lose a match they had controlled from the start at Beccles on Saturday.  In a dramatic climax the hosts squeezed home with four balls to spare, and left Cromer kicking themselves at their second failure in three games to defend a 200-plus total.

With Beccles 85-6 and staring a massive defeat in the face, it seemed hard to imagine that they would score another 146 runs for the loss of only two more wickets.  But Andy Harber set about the Cromer bowling to finish with a hard-hitting 69* to which a lacklustre fielding and inconsistent bowling effort had no reply.  Only John Battrick with 1-17 off eight overs and Paul Winterbone with 3-61 from 13 gained control, although there were a couple of hard-to-believe LBW decisions and Cromer lost count of the amount of chances that flew agonisingly wide of the fielders.  But as the forty-ninth over ticked round, and Harber hit the winning runs, reality set in for the visitors that another display like this could well cost them their chance of second successive promotion attempt.