Although Winterton’s game against local rivals Halvergate was ultimately abandoned because of a torrential downpour it still proved to be a proud day for the club.

Winterton had gone into the penultimate game of the season knowing they needed a victory in one of their last two games to secure promotion from Division Five in their first season in the Norfolk Alliance.

Kevin Percival won the toss and not surprisingly asked Halvergate to bat first on a damp wicket.

Clarke and Howley batted solidly and looked rarely troubled in an opening stand of 35 in 12 overs until Howley (23) chipped Tom Roper to mid-off where Danny Snowling held the catch.

Clarke and Gilder continued in a similar vein adding another 38 runs at a similar pace until Clarke (32) made his first mistake and hit a short ball from Snowling straight to his namesake around the corner. Southam followed shortly afterwards when Snowling got some extra bounce to catch the glove to Geoff Roper at slip.

Hawley came in and played some big shots and with Gilder picking off the bowling at the other end. Halvergate looked set to score a challenging total.

The score quickly moved on to 130 until Hawley (30) hit Snowling high to deep long on where Clarke gratefully held on. At this point Charles Lockhart changed the complexion of the innings.

His first over yielded eight runs and from there on he delivered an excellent display of straight accurate fast bowling to rip out the middle and lower order.

His third over brought him three wickets for no runs and he took one more in each of his successive overs. In 16 balls he took five wickets for three runs.

At 145 for 9 Winterton were hoping they would be chasing a total that was a lot less than had previously looked likely.

However the rain that had threatened all afternoon and had driven the players off previously finally finished the game. Gilder remained 44 not out in a solid innings. Credit must also go to Halvergate who were always willing to try and get a game played.

However Winterton secured nine points from the game and this, coupled with other results, was sufficient to secure promotion.

This was reward for a lot of hard work on and off the field and if a win can be achieved in the final game of the season it may yield sufficient points to be able to claim the league title.