Although bottom of the table Cromer were beaten again – their 10th successive defeat in a hugely unprofitable season – they did at least turn in a much more competitive performance as they made promotion hopefuls East Anglia III work hard for their 19-6 victory in the second division of the Norfolk SRA League.

Captain Henri Paul made just one change from the team who were soundly beaten in their last match away to North Norfolk, with former club champion John Baker coming back to play the fifth string match in place of Michael Holdom. Baker as always worked hard and his undoubted racket skills enabled him to take the second game of his match but his lack of court time took its toll and he went down to a 3-1 defeat.

Playing at No.4 Alec Burrows found himself up against Norfolk Ladies champion Suzanne Scarlett but was unable to dominate the match as he would have liked and went down to a straight game defeat. Meanwhile captain Paul, who was playing at No.3, gave himself a fighting chance when he opened up a 2-1 lead before losing the next two games.

For Ben Herrieven the end of the season cannot come quickly enough. Through no fault of his own he has had a torrid time and has not won a game, let alone a match for the past six matches.

This week was no exception as he lost his second string match in straight games which was his ninth defeat of the season. In the final first string match club champion Richard Keeble was determined to end a run of five successive defeats and he turned in a brilliant performance to come back from 1-2 down to win his match 3-2 and give Cromer some pride.

Results: Richard Keeble beat Hadleigh Farrer 9-5 9-10 2-9 9-5 9-2, Ben Herrieven lost to Matt Johnson 3-9 0-9 2-9, Henri Paul lost to Nick Ross 7-9 9-3 9-5 1-9 3-9, Alec Burrows lost to Suzanne Scarlett 5-9 4-9 4-9, John Baker lost to Anthony Raywood 2-9 9-6 5-9 4-9

The second team's match at Fakenham was postponed for a second time due to adverse weather.