Grimston (19 pts) beat Swanton Morley (6 pts) by 100 runs in the NCC West Norfolk League Division One.Swanton Morley turned up on a grim day in Grimston, the weather was cold and cloudy and the wicket wet.

Grimston (19 pts) beat Swanton Morley (6 pts) by 100 runs in the NCC West Norfolk League Division One.

Swanton Morley turned up on a grim day in Grimston, the weather was cold and cloudy and the wicket wet.

Captain N Raines won the toss chose to bowl, even though he was missing his opening bowlers from the previous week.

D Ryan and Raines opened the bowling for Morley and were faced with an opening pair from Grimston who can only be described as having wildly different styles.

At one end there was technique and skill, at the other a swing and a prayer.

Unfortunately, for Morley both had the same effective result and with Morley struggling for bowling the opening stand quickly reached 100.

When the partnership was finally broken in the 120's and another followed quickly there was encouragement for Morley

Not so. Instead the ball kept disappearing into the trees and then A Graham pulled his calf muscles.

The Morley boys were desperate, 200 rapidly approaching, only two wickets down and overs left.

Desperate times, desperate measures. D Lake and S Whitney were thrown the ball.

With Lake's most popular delivery the half-tracker and Whitney not even having a popular delivery, the Grimston team checked they had spare balls.

However, to their credit, Lake clean bowled both set batsmen and Whitney was on a hat-trick. No balls were lost.

Grimston ended on 249-7 and that included plenty of sixes.

It was a big ask of the Morley team chasing such a large target, but as always there was a happy, positive atmosphere about the team.

R Forder and D Ryan made a good start, and when Ryan was out for 16 S Whitney joined Forder and the score reached 75-1.

But when Whitney smashed a full toss straight into mid-offs hands, J Bidewell supplied gully with catching practice and D Lake was bowled over his head, the run chase was effectively over.

Morley finally finished on 149-8 with R Forder making 48.

It's fair to say the better team won on the day, and unfortunately on this occasion that team was Grimston.

Meanwhile, Swanton Morley had a surprise start to the match against The Creakes and won the toss.

The Creakes were put into bat and made a slow but steady start.

It wasn't until the 11th over C Nelson made the breakthrough for Swanton Morley clean bowling P Matthews for five with the score on 23. The Creakes innings continued to creep on as the precise bowling of C Nelson, 12-3-36-3 and the clever Wayne McKinney 12-2-22-1, limited their scoring opportunities.

The Creakes finally managing a total of 132-6 thanks mainly to C Humphries who made 32.

R Forder and D Ryan made a great start to Swanton Morley's innings and after 10 overs they were handily place on 44-0.

With the score on 66, Ryan was caught behind and for the second week in a row sloped off without waiting for an umpire's decision.

Another good partnership developed between Forder and S Whitney and at the end of the 27th over Swanton Morley were comfortably sat on 105-1 with victory in sight.

However, when P Matthews bowled Forder for 31 and then had Whitney caught for 20 four balls later Creakes heads raised in the hope that they could force a victory.

With J Bidewell being bowled for one the very next over Swanton Morley looked like they were trying to make a game of it.

The experience of S Shoesmith and D Appleby in Swanton Morley's middle order was in the end what it required to see the game to the finish, with Swanton Morley winning by six wickets with nine overs to spare.