Cromer A blew the chance to narrow the gap on the top two in Division Five with a demoralising defeat at league leaders Halvergate. The Crabs dominated the game for large periods but their batsmen failed to close out the match, leaving Cromer 33 points behind second-placed Bradenham – and promotion dreams hanging by a thread with just two games left.
Skipper Lithins won a crucial toss and put Halvergate in to bat on a green, hard wicket. With the wind at his back John Battrick was far too quick for the openers, and had Hannant caught behind for a duck, while Alex Craske saw Brister snaffled by Bond.
Cooke and Foreman produced a small stand which was ended when the impressive Taylor gave the returning Tom Davies another victim behind the stumps, and Cromer were well on top at the halfway point.
Wickets continued to tumble, Lithins picking up 2-51 and Kevin Neale, bowling with some pace, 2-31, but the Halvergate innings had a sting in the tail as Armstrong cut loose for a quick-fire 51 to take the home team to 189-8.
It seemed an easily reachable target, and Nick Bond set off to chase it down in the shortest possible time. With partner Graveling giving him the strike, the swashbuckling opener cast caution to the wind and got the Cromer innings off to a flier with some lusty hitting, the highlight of which was a huge straight six that soared out of the ground and landed with a thump on the bonnet of his partner’s car.
Halvergate realised that their opening attack was being decimated and switched gears. Brister and London were introduced, tossing the ball up as high and as slowly as possible, and unforgivably the Cromer batsmen fell right into the oldest trap in the book. Graveling, Bond, Davies and Craske were all out slogging, Andy Van Greuning – promoted up the order and responding with some big hits – was caught behind after a juggling act from Foreman, and Battrick and Green followed to leave the innings in disarray.
Lithins had pushed himself down the order in an attempt to steady any last-minute nerves, but he found himself with plenty of work to do as he strode to the crease at number 9. However, he found an obstinate partner in Neale, and the two gradually brought Cromer to the brink of victory with some excellent strokes in a superb stand of 75. But Neale top-edged a pull to be caught in the deep, Jack Van Greuning was bowled by Booth and, with just ten runs required for the win, Taylor saw his stumps uprooted to give Halvergate the points.
It was a real rabbit-in-the-headlights effort from Cromer with the bat, completely unable to keep their cool faced with the extreme slow lobs of Brister and London, who finished with 3-57 and 4-18 respectively.
Lithins ran out of partners to finish unbeaten on 36, and the chances are that this display is the final nail in the promotion coffin for 2009, with Cromer now relying on Bradenham slipping up in both their final fixtures - one of which is against whipping-boys Topcroft.