The reverse fixtures in the Anaco sponsored Norfolk SRA summer leagues got under way this week with Cromer entertaining Fakenham in Division One and the second team travelling to Fleggburgh to take on Broadland III in Division Three.

In the first matches of the summer season there was defeat for the first team and victory for the seconds and this was again the case as the first team went down 14-7 to Fakenham while the second team won their match 16-6.

After his previous week's fishing expedition captain Richard Keeble was once again available to take his place in the first string position along with fit again Ben Herrieven and Henri Paul at Nos 2 and 3 while at No.4 Michael Holdom, who has had an impressive series of internal league results, came into the team for his first match of the summer.

Holdom, in fact, carried on his run of good form as he got the team off to a winning start with a hard fought and closely contested 3-1 victory over Ian Raisbury.

Sadly for Cromer neither Paul nor Herrieven were able to build on their previous week's victories and both went down to 3-1 defeats against Martin Jolley and Liam Brett respectively which left Keeble needing to win his match 3-1 to ensure Cromer shared the bonus points. He was up against one of the leading junior players in the county but when he won the opening game and went on to lead 2-1 and then 5-0 in the fourth game it looked as though he would achieve his objective.

However he has been short of competitive match play in recent weeks and as mistakes crept into his game his young opponent, Adam Sinkins, recovered to draw level by taking the fourth game 9-5 and went on to clinch victory by winning the decisive fifth game 9-4 to give his team a well deserved victory.

Technical Director Barry Starling said: 'I thought the team would be good enough to beat Fakenham but they weren't.

'Michael Holdom played well to get a result but I think the team need more court time and this is something we have got to work on.'

Even though team captain Martin Sanville was unavailable Starling was still able to select a strong second team for the visit to Broadland, with Matt Copeman, Stephen Watts and John Chandler all available. They were joined by Nick Dunnett who played the fourth string match and was much happier than when he was thrust into first team action last week. He got the team off to a winning start when he won his match 3-2 while on the adjoining court the veteran Chandler recovered from the loss of the first two games to also record a 3-2 victory.

These two wins set the team up nicely and both Watts and Copeman went on to record relatively comfortable 3-1 victories which gave the Cromer team a welcome maximum.

Starling was full of praise for the team saying: 'A tough five game match which ended in victory was just what Dunnett needed and John Chandler agaian belied his years as he came back from 0-2 down. Watts and Copeman both did what was needed and I was happy to take a back seat on this occasion.'