Cromer continued their fine start to the season with a 71-run Norfolk Alliance Premier Division victory at Barton Turf against Norwich and Coltishall Wanderers.

Cromer continued their fine start to the season with a 71-run Norfolk Alliance Premier Division victory at Barton Turf against Norwich and Coltishall Wanderers. It consolidated their position at the top of the table.

The home side won the toss and put Tom Davies' side into bat. Cromer openers Arendse and Charlwood again went to the middle on what seemed a difficult batting track. Early runs were hard to come by and Charlwood was dismissed for a duck with the visitors on 15.

Elliott, T Davies and Brown all made just single-figure contributions and Cromer were 65-4 from 24 overs. Hayes was doing the damage, taking three of the four wickets.

Rayno Arendse made his 50 off 83 balls. Arendse was now accompanied by Warnes and together they put on a very valuable fifth-wicket partnership of 42, before Warnes (14) was bowled by Young.

With 15 overs remaining Cromer were on 107-5 and looked to progress beyond 150, which would have been a competitive score on this wicket. Arendse, supported by Wright (5), Gascoyne (13) and L Davies (6 not out) added 70 more runs to the Cromer score.

In the final over Arendse made his second straight century off 139 balls with a quick single.

It was another fine display of batting from the professional and Cromer posted a score of 177-7 from their 50 overs.

Hayes finished with figures of 4-37 from his 13 overs.

In reply, Wanderers lost Littlehales (1) in the first over, bowled by Warnes. Jackson came in at No 3 and got a quick-fire 17 including four fours, but he was caught by Charlwood off Arendse's bowling. This saw the start of a small collapse as the home side went from 29-2 to 42-5.

Nos 6 and 7, Vehvilainen and Elliott in 13 overs added 45 runs to halt the Wanderers' collapse. But when J Elliott was caught by D Elliott off Wright's bowling for 28, it was then a matter of time before Cromer cleaned up the tail.

Mortham was the last man out as Wanderers were all out for 106 in 38.5 overs.

Fantastic bowling from Michael Warnes saw him finish with figures of 4-23. And Jez Wright took 37 in his short five-over spell.

Wright came on in the 30th over and took a wicket with his first ball and his first two overs were wicket maidens.

He sent both Vehvilainen and Elliott back to the pavilion after they had moved Wanderers into a good position with their partnership.