North Elmham, led by their vice-captain Ant Keeble in the absence of Chris Palmer, beat a young Hethersett & Tas Valley B by 93 runs in Norfolk League Division Seven, where they are second.

North Elmham, led by their vice-captain Ant Keeble in the absence of Chris Palmer, beat a young Hethersett & Tas Valley B by 93 runs in Norfolk League Division Seven, where they are second.

They batted first on a pitch that was dry, true and fast - and they revelled in it. Stephan Malherbe and Grant King got away to a good start with boundaries coming in all directions with King preferring to score sixes before holing out to mid on for 33.

Chris Crane had a short cameo of 14 before being bowled by Chapple which was the cue for Richie Futter to join Malherbe. The pair proceeded to lay waste the Hethersett bowling with 12 fours each plus a six for Futter. Malherbe eventually put the ball straight down the throat of deep square leg off the bowling of O Hutt for 68 whilst Futter supported by Ian Sinclar and Andy Kay went on to make 71 before being bowled by Kemp.

Sinclair ended the day with 25 not out after an unusually slow start. The best of the Hethersett bowlers was G Chappel who took one for 36 and was the only bowler to bowl any maidens. The other bowler who impressed was Howard, although he took no wickets his economy of action was impressive for a 14-year-old and he consistently hit the ball on the seam to get movement. North Elmham finished the day on 235 for five off their 45 overs.

The misfortunes of Hethersett continued when they went into bat with Andy Kay's first over yielding just one run whilst Ian Sinclair opened his account with a wicket maiden to dismiss Ross Jones for one.

Miles Kemp took a liking to some of the North Elmham bowling, unfortunately the same was not happening at the other end as Boulderstone was out for four bowled by Kay. Burrett put up some resistance with an innings of 17 before being caught at deep mid off by Kay off Elmar Kemp was out shortly after for 41 caught by Tindall off Elmar.

Howard stayed around for a while for a very patient 13 whilst Chappel and Branstreet were dismissed very quickly. T Hutt put up a spirited rearguard of 14 but Hethersett were all out for 137 after 38.2 overs with extras being the second highest scorer at 26.

Andy Kay and Matt Elmar were the best of the North Elmham bowlers with three wickets each, followed by Ian Sinclair with two and an impressive little spell at the end by Grant King of 3-2-1-0.

A very successful afternoon for North Elmham, but you couldn't help feeling a little for the youngsters of Hethersett, they did try very hard.

Next, at home to Great Melton in the penultimate game of the season.