Dereham recorded their eighth win in nine Norfolk Alliance Division One matches to set up a showdown to savour.

Duncan Hewitt's side should be in good heart for their home match with leaders Diss after comfortably seeing off Norwich A at Ingham at the weekend.

Their 48-run success kept them 41 points behind the front-runners with a game in hand - so a win on Saturday (1pm start) really would put them in a strong position to mount a promotion charge over their final five fixtures.

After Dereham had been put into bat Hewitt and Ryan Fitt (25) gave their side a solid start with an opening partnership of 40.

The skipper then took centre stage by top scoring with 72 while there were useful contributions from James Harbour (35), David Lake (32) and Dan Lake (29) as the visitors got up to 225 in the 49th over.

In reply the vastly expeienced Mark Tipping made 52 and tailenders Harvey Lake and George Bowman 34 apiece in a ninth wicket partnership of 67, but Norwich fell short on 177.

Hewitt completed an excellent match by taking 4-53 while Jake Anema weighed in with 4-33.

Rivals Diss were given a decent test by relegation threatened Mattishall before edging home by three wickets when chasing 177-9.

Kristien Fletcher top scored for Mattishall with 47 while Jason Cole finished unbeaten on 35 in a game that was reduced to 35 overs by rain.

Diss were given plenty to think about before closing out the game in their 34th over, with Cole returning the figures of 3-34. Chris Cooper's 63 was the key knock for the leaders.

With Lowestoft winning at Thetford Mattishall returned to the bottom of the table as a result of the defeat and are now 47 points adrift of the safety mark.

They will be attempting to do something about that on Saturday when they play host to mid-table Bradfield.

Mattishall A were well beaten by leaders Snettisham in Division Five after being bowled out for 120 chasing 241-5. In Division Six Dereham lost by five wickets to second placed Denver after making 176. Mattishall visit Cromer A on Saturday while Dereham are at Diss A.