Cromer Squash Club's season ended in something of an anti-climax when they travelled into Norwich to play East Anglia V in their Norfolk SRA League Division Two promotion play-off match and were soundly beaten 5-0 (20-2), a result which means that they will have to settle for Division Two squash.

Having already lost to the Lime Tree Road side twice this season, 17-10 at home and 18-4 away, the result was not particuarly unexpected but on a good day Cromer would probably have hoped for a better scoreline. Although neither former club champion John Baker nor reigning club veterans champion Alec Burrows were available team captain Henri Paul was able to name a strong line-up, especially with the availability of Alex Foster who has returned from Australia, but this cut little ice with their young and hungry opponents all of whom stormed to victory.

Cromer got off to the worst possible start when both Nick Dunnett, playing at No.5 and Paul himself, who found himself up against the newly crowned Norfolk Vintage champion, both lost their matches in straight games. Reigning club champion Ben Herrieven was only able to pick up one point from the opening two games of his third string match before recovering briefly to take the third game, only to go down 3-1.

With the match lost Foster, who, understandably, is still not fully match fit after his travels, became the third player to lose 3-0 and in the final first string match Richard Keeble turned in the best performance of the evening but was not able to stop his opponent winning 3-1.

Technical Director Barry Starling said: 'It has been a long season and this turned out to be a match too far. The team finished in third place i which was probably a fair reflection of the their overall performances throughout the season.'

Results: Richard Keeble lost to Nick Stringer 4-9 9-7 5-9 7-9, Alex Foster lost to Chris Butler 4-9 7-9 3-9, Ben Herrieven lost to Jonny Lawes 1-9 0-9 9-3 2-9, Henri Paul lost to Tim Lawes 2-9 3-9 5-9, Nick Dunnett lost to Paul Harvey 4-9 1-9 1-9