It was a mixed week for Cromer's two teams in the Anaco Norfolk SRA Summer Squash League.

The first team suffered their third successive defeat as they went down 13-5 at home to Barnham Broom II.

However, the second team, visiting Oasis III in Norwich, returned home with a 16-1 victory which was their third maximum of the summer.

For the first time this summer first team captain Henri Paul had a full squad of players to choose from which meant that Alec Burrows was the unlucky player to miss out on selection.

It was Paul himself who got his team off to the best possible start as he won the opening fourth string match in straight games, taking both the second and third games without dropping a point.

Unfortunately for Cromer his young team-mates were not able back up his fine victory as Ben Herrieven, after a closely contested first game, was well off the pace in the next two as he went down to a 3-0 defeat at number two.

In the third-string match Alex Foster was never in contention against his experienced opponent, also going down to a straight game defeat in which he was only able to pick up five points in his three games.

In the final first-string match club champion Richard Keeble, who was playing at number one for the first time, needed to win 3-0 to give his team a share of the points but he was up against another young opponent who was just as fit and probably a bit more skilful than him.

After a fine match, which was thoroughly enjoyed by the large and supportive crowd on the balcony, he had to settle for a 3-2 defeat.

In his new role as technical director Barry Starling watched the match.

He said afterwards: 'It is unfair to be too critical as the Barnham players were better than ours, but our two players in the middle of the order would be the first to admit that they didn't play as well as we know they can.

'Rather than hitting the ball hard all the time they have got to use the two side walls more, and I will be devising some innovative training routines for the team to work on.'

Results: Richard Keeble lost to Luke Plumridge 7-9, 9-7, 2-9, 9-4, 0-9; Ben Herrieven lost to Adam Goodson 8-10, 0-9, 3-9; Alex Foster lost to Adie Martin 2-9, 3-9, 0-9; Henri Paul beat Craig Matless 10-8, 9-0, 9-0.

With the exception of the unavailable Steve Watts, Starling had a full squad to call on for the second team's match away to league new boys Oasis III and as expected the Cromer team was too strong.

Veteran John Chandler was the only player to drop a game as he lost the opening game of the fourth string match before going on to win 3-1.

Captain on the night Martin Sanville, former club champion John Baker and number one Matt Copeman all won their matches in straight games.

Starling was full of praise for his team saying: 'It would have been easy to switch off but all four of the players kept focused throughout and I couldn't have asked for anything more.

'That's 53 points we have taken from our first four matches so we are well placed to do better than last year when we only scored 97 in total from our twelve matches.'

Results: Matt Copeman beat John Milton 9-2, 9-4, 9-3; John Baker beat Elliott Barker 9-7, 9-6, 9-7; Martin Sanville beat Ben Serruys 9-3, 9-6, 9-2; John Chandler beat Matt Hill 1-9, 9-5, 9-5, 9-1.

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