Cromer laid down a marker to rest of the Norfolk Alliance Division Five with a emphatic victory over joint leaders Diss at the Norton Warnes.
The Cromer win featured a superb first-wicket stand of 243 between the pugnacious opener Pete Gascoyne and classy number three Gavin Neale. Gascoyne has now scored 291 runs in three league innings and, with his partner, took the match away from Diss and set the stage for the Cromer bowlers to seal the win, led by the excellent Paul Winterbone who finished with 4-20.
Inserted on a good-looking batting track, Cromer soon lost their skipper as Alan Lithins slapped a short ball to midwicket. But it was the last Diss celebration for forty overs as Gascoyne and Neale proceeded to completely dominate affairs. Gascoyne set about the slow bowlers and looked in control throughout, providing a magnifcent bedrock for Neale to demonstrate some high-quality strokes, piercing the field with some sumptuous boundaries.
It was a fantastic stand of 243, and it provided some fine entertainment for the bumper crowd enjoying the sunshine and the sublime display from the Cromer batsmen.
After the pair had eventually fallen - Gascoyne for a domineering 117 and Neale for a majestic 106 - for the second week running the remainder of the Cromer batting lineup struggled to make the most of the final couple of overs, although the tea-time score of 262 was an impressive effort from the home side.
Diss came out full of optimism, but Winterbone was soon in amongst the wickets. Bowling with canny cut and swing, he had Barker taken at slip and Allen snaffled in the covers.
Richard Keeble, back with Cromer after a two-year sabbatical, was bowling his leg-spinners with accuracy and turn and, though he remained wicketless, his performance was impressive and bodes well for the rest of the season.
Diss were regularly loosing wickets from one end, although their skipper Tim Courridge was proving a real thorn in the Cromer side with some top-class batting. He anchored the innings from number three as Williamson was run out by a great piece of work from Liam Davies, diving to stop a drive and throwing down the stumps from his knees, and a flat Winterbone throw saw off Blakely.
Courridge decided that he had nothing to lose and started to hit out. He savaged Graveling's last over - although the bowler snared Killian LBW with his final ball - and had completed an excellent hundred when the returning Billy Payne had him caught behind.
Diss's hopes of a shock win ended with Courridge's departure, and although Kev Neale struggled the stump-to-stump line, with Winterbone coming back into the attack the last two wickets fell to give the home side a clear victory by 62 runs.