Cromer's hopes of winning the Norfolk Alliance Premier Division title were finally extinguished on Saturday afternoon when they suffered a surprise home defeat.

Under pressure after losing at Acle the previous week, Cromer lost by four wickets to a Garboldisham side battling desperately against relegation.

The result saw Michael Warnes' side drop down to third place in the table behind an in-form North Runcton outfit, with Downham Town now odds on to take the silverware.

Cromer only have second place to play for, but that would be still be a highly respectable finish so there is plenty to play for ahead of their penultimate fixture of the campaign at relegated Sprowston on Saturday (12.30pm start).

After being put into bat at the Norton Warnes Ground on Saturday the home slid to 31-4 before David Turner's 47 help repair some of the damage.

Garboldisham's bowlers kept chipping away however and it took an unbroken ninth wicket stand of 51 between overseas player Devon Singh Parhar (36 not out) and Warnes (33 not out) to get Cromer up to a defendable total of 205-8 from their 50 overs.

Sadly for the hosts it wasn't enough, with Garboldisham getting home off the first ball of the 48th over thanks largely to knocks of 58 from Jonny Leech and 52 not out from Tom Davey, who had earlier taken 3-40.

Michael Warnes was the pick of the home bowlers, taking 4-31 in his 10 overs.

Cromer A maintained their promising campaign in Division Five as they made the long journey to the Denes Oval and recorded an exciting six run win over Lowestoft A.

Darren Payne (48), James Sutton (44 not out) and Tom Jackson (41) all made useful contributions to a Cromer total of 231-7, which proved just enough to seal the points.

Lowestoft finished on 225-9 with Peter Sims making 88 and Henry George 72 but no-one else even reaching double figures.

It was a memorable afternoon for Payne who followed his good knock by returning the outstanding figures of 9-3-16-6 while Jackson took 3-44 from nine.

Cromer A, who are at home to Bradenham A on Saturday. are now fourth in the table - and could finish as high as third with a good finish, with Snettisham and Hockwold having already sealed promotion.