One of the Norfolk Alliance pacesetters, Vauxhall Mallards came to the Norton Warnes with former Cromer player South African Rayno Arendse in their team.

One of the Norfolk Alliance pacesetters, Vauxhall Mallards came to the Norton Warnes with former Cromer player South African Rayno Arendse in their team. He saw a priceless victory for Cromer, who moved off the bottom of the table.

The reaction at the fall of the last wicket showed just how much it meant to the Cromer team. Hopefully they can carry the momentum into Saturday's trip to Brooke.

Cromer were put into bat by Mallards' captain Steve Goldsmith. The openers made a steady start, moving to 35 from the first 10 overs.

In the next over, Arendse trapped Turner leg before. This was the first of seven wickets to

fall in the next 13 overs, as the visitors

gained control and Cromer were struggling on 92 for seven.

An excellent eighth-wicket stand between skipper Tom Davies and vice-captain Colin Brown steadied the Cromer innings with a partnership of 48.

This was broken when Arendse got Brown for a very valuable 28.

Davies followed Brown back to the pavilion when his superb innings of 44 came to an end when he was bowled by Young.

Mallards had nine overs remaining to take the last Cromer wicket but a final stand by Kristian Regis (10no) and James Craske (13no) helped Cromer make it to 170 from their 50 overs. .

Vauxhall skipper Goldsmith finished with figures of three for 24, whilst Arendse took three for 37.

The Mallards' openers, Arendse and Seager, got their side off to a rapid start and it seemed they would make light work of the target set, as they were 70 for no loss from just 13 overs.

Then Richard Charlwood got the first wicket, dismissing Seager for 16. Michael Warnes got Arendse for 37. He and Charlwood then took one more wicket apiece and the match was evenly balanced after Mallards slipped to 76 for four.

A couple more wickets fell, including that of the experienced Goldsmith, but despite the continuing fall of wickets Angus Barton seemed to be taking his side towards victory until Charlwood got his wicket in the 37th over, for 42.

Suddenly a Cromer win was on the cards. Mallards needed only 19 runs for victory with three wickets in hand, but the momentum was with Cromer.

The visitors slowly edged toward their target, but at the same time Cromer were taking wickets. Craske got the 10th and final wicket in the 46th over, when Ing was caught by the diving Warnes, and the North Norfolk side sealed a narrow six-run win.

Charlwood finished with four for 37 after two brilliant spells of bowling. Michael Warnes and Dean Elliott also took two wickets each.