Cromer ‘A’ seem to be specialising in close finishes this season. Having won with two balls to spare at Norwich Union with a dramatic dive from Dave Green, tied at Cringleford - thanks to the marvellous bowling of John Battrick - this week Charlie Webster tried his hardest to make a game of it, and Cromer won on the last ball of ninety dramatic overs in a top-of-the-table clash with league leaders Brooke.
Yet another winning toss, and Cromer chose to bat –partly hoping to post a winning total and take maximum points, but also as Jez Wright was not due to arrive until at least half an hour after the start thanks to work commitments.
Opener Alan Lithins looked dangerous from the off, hitting three successive boundaries, but partner Richard Graveling, batting with a broken finger sustained in the fielding drills, seemed out of sorts and struggling to find his recent form after the previous two weeks rained off matches.
In the seventh over Graveling was pinned leg before and Colin Brown came to the crease; three overs later Lithins played at a wide ball and dragged it into his stumps.
If 24 for 2 from 10 overs was not in the script, what followed was not in skipper Van Greuning’s worst nightmares. Webster, Battrick and Craske all came and went without troubling the scorers, and at 24 for 5 from 16 overs Cromer were in dire straits.
Van Greuning came to the wicket and helped Brown to steady the ship, taking the score to 70 with some lusty blows in a stand of 46 before falling clean bowled by the pick of Brooke’s attack, Douglas. The stage was clear for Dave Green to join Brown with the strict instructions to “keep the dog company and make sure we’re still batting by time Jez gets here.”
Green’s naval training certainly taught him how to take orders. With Brown, he put on a stand of 89, of which Green contributed 20, as the pair took the score to 159 before Brown fell going for quick runs as the innings approached its close.
Brown had batted superbly. Faced with a desperate situation early on, he shepherded Van Greuning and then Green while still keeping the scoreboard moving, and that he failed to register a first-ever ton was entirely due to his putting the team first in the quest for a defendable first innings total.
Faced with the need to hit out from the word go Wright was inevitably dismissed for just a single, before Nathan Taylor joined Green and the pair put on 26 in an crucial unbeaten last wicket stand, the highlight of which was Green’s enthusiastic running and Taylor’s six over the cover boundary. Green can never have batted so long nor as enthusiastically as for the 22 overs he faced on Saturday, and his part in the innings was as valuable as Brown’s runs.
After the interval Cromer were keen to get on the field and take the game to Brooke, now that the pendulum seemed to have swung in their favour. Battrick clean bowled opener Williams in the first over, and Cromer sniffed victory.
They really should have known better, and it was a long 29 overs before another wicket would fall - by which time Brooke had amassed 96, needing just 91 from the last 16 to win.
Van Greuning had tried everything, all his bowlers - with the exception of the excellent Battrick and the marvellous Brown - had struggled to either take a wicket or stem the runs. Craske & Webster gave way to jez Wright - two balls later Van Greuning had to finish Wright’s over after his back gave way. Lithins swapped keeping duties with Wright and took the ball; one over for fifteen runs later and that plan was forgotten.
Enter Graveling and his little-used off-breaks, and within 2 overs the wicket of the ominous Clive Baker, in 5 overs another victim, in 7 overs another, and by the end of his spell Graveling had taken 3 for 38.
Plan B had been to starve the Brooke batsmen of any pace, and Graveling was just the tonic to partner Brown, whose 12 overs cost just 16 runs. Even more remarkably, slow bowler Brown conceded just one boundary in 12 overs - despite being in a run chase - as he used his vast experience to good effect, in particular in snaring the opposition’s dangerous captain Daynes, caught and bowled for a duck.
As Brown completed his overs, Battrick returned to close out an end, and with the finish line in sight, the run rate climbed. However Brooke staged a mini revival as the excellent Douglas, Spooner and Hayman went after the bowling. The final over arrived, and the league leaders needed 13 to win.
Graveling was rested, his job done, and Webster was entrusted with the final over.
It did not start promisingly. A first ball full-toss was despatched for six by the excellent Hayman, and Webster looked crestfallen along with his teammates. Bracing himself, Webster got it together and went for two singles, a two and took a wicket as Spooner was caught on the boundary by Wright.
Brooke needed two to tie and three to win from the last ball. A scrambled single and Cromer took the match.
Man of the match by a long shot was Colin Brown, with notable mention of the batting of Green, the bowling of Graveling, and, as usual, of Battrick’s parsimonious seamers. Skipper Van Greuning weighed in with 25 vital runs as Cromer stared down the barrel, and never gave up in the field, even as the game seemed to be ebbing away. His bowling hunches paid off handsomely, and he was always a step ahead of the Brooke reply.
Amid the excitement, Brooke achieved the eight points they needed to guarantee their deserved promotion to Division 2 next year, whilst Cromer now need 14 points over the last two matches to clinch their own promotion.