With an odd number of teams in each division of the Anaco sponsored Norfolk SRA summer leagues it was Cromer's turn to sit out which meant that all attention centreed on the second team and their home fixture in Division Three against Broadland IV.

Having defeated Broadland III earlier in the summer Technical Director Barry Starling was confident of success against a supposedly weaker team but still selected a strong and experienced team, making just one change from the team who last week defeated Fakenham II.

After his disappointing straight game defeat at Fakenham it was Starling himself who dropped out as he recalled veteran Malcolm Crane to play the fourth string match for what was his first match of the summer. Crane was first on court but despite winning a closely contested first game he was unable to build on this good start and went down 3-1. But at the end of the evening the game he did win proved to be important in determining the overall result.

On the adjoining court team captain Martin Sanville was up against a player who beat him two weeks previously at Broadland but Sanville had obviously learnt from this defeat and, on his home courts he won in straight games, just taking the third game 10-9.

Pensioner John Chandler, playing at No 3, found himself in a no-win situation as he was up against the reigning Norfolk Under 13 champion Will Henden. Chandler has put in some impressive performances of late but this time he found that despite his vast experience he was not able to give 52 years to a talented youngster and he was beaten 3-1. This left the match finely poised and Stephen Watts went on court knowing that he needed to win his first string match 3-1 if Cromer were to win the match whereas a 3-2 win would mean a draw and defeat would give the bonus points to the visitors.

This turned out to be a cracking match which was thoroughly enjoyed on the balcony. The first two closely contested games were shared but Watts' speed around the court is becoming legendary and his exhausted opponent capitulated in the third game as Watts won it 9-0 and he then went on to clinch the match by taking the fourth game 9-5 to give the Cromer team a 12-7 victory.

Starling was delighted with his team's performance saying: 'The Broadland team were much stronger than I thought they would be. It is a good job I selected the team I did. Martin Sanville played exceptionally well to win 3-0 and Stephen Watts was exceptional. I did feel sorry for John Chandler who was up against a very very good young player.'

Results: Stephen Watts beat Justin Miller 10-8 8-9 9-0 9-5, Martin Sanville beat Philip Magem 9-4 9-4 10-9, John Chandler lost to William Henden 3-9 10-8 5-9 5-9, Malcolm Crane lost to Richard Hall 10-9 6-9 0-9 5-9.