Carl Rogers rolled back the years with a fine all-round performance as Norwich maintained their upward momentum in the top flight of the Cecil Amey Norfolk Alliance.
After a poor start following relegation from the East Anglian Premier League, Chris Borrett's side have now moved into a comfortable mid-table position, with the arrival of the former Norfolk captain having played a significant role in their revival.
Rogers shone with both bat and ball at Ingham on Saturday as Norwich saw off Downham for a third successive victory - after only winning two of their opening 10 fixtures.
The 48-year-old returned the impressive figures of 8-1-15-5 as the visitors were dismissed for just 150 and then top scored with 48 as his side got home for the loss of five wickets.
Defending champions Fakenham moved 14 points clear at the top following a devastating performance with the ball at Brooke in a match that was reduced to 30 overs a side because of rain.
The home side were skittled out for just 61 in testing overcast conditions, with Will Buckingham (5-8) polishing off the tail after Luke Caswell (3-20) and Lloyd Marshall (2-6) had made the early inroads. Fakenham went on to seal victory in the 21st over with four wickets down.
Second placed North Runcton lost ground after their game at Garboldisham was abandoned just beyond the halfway mark while in-form Cromer moved up to fourth after squeezing in a game against lowly Diss and winning it in emphatic fashion. They finished on 62-2 after bowling their visitors out for just 58.
Despite there being a lot of rain around there was only one call-off in the top two divisions, with Division One leaders Old Buckenham never getting started at Swaffham.
That provided an opportunity for closest rivals Thetford to close the gap, but they were unable to take it as Acle came away from Mundford Road with a third straight win. In an intriguing 30 over contest, Thetford finished on 178-7 chasing Acle's 185-7 (Tom Wilson 57, Jordan Betts 57).
Swardeston A moved up to second, having played a game more than most of their rivals, after inflicting another defeat on bottom team Beccles. Tyler Murphy's 40 helped them up 184-7 in 30 overs and that was enough for a 17 run win as their hosts put in a spirited performance to get up to 137.
Sprowston stayed in the thick of the promotion battle by seeing off a Lowestoft side who appear to be rapidly sliding out of contention. A total of 184-7 was enough for a 31 run success as Sri Tenjaria followed 38 with 3-29.
Read Brothers EAPL
It was a frustrating day for teams in the EAPL, with two games being abandoned without a ball being bowled and the other four being cut short by bad weather.
Leaders Frinton were inactive but second placed Swardeston were only able to move one point closer to them after their home clash against Cambridge was called off when delicately poised.
After being asked to bat first and slipping to 32-3 the visitors did well to reach 291, with a fourth wicket stand of 124 between Peter Younghusband (80) and Michael Turner (62) setting up the recovery. Swardeston were going along nicely on 72-1 in the 10th over when the weather closed in.
The derby match between Great Witchingham and Horsford got under way over two hours late because of bad light - and also ended early.
Horsford skipper Ryan Findlay won the toss and predictably asked Witchingham to bat first.
Sam Arthurton was adjudged lbw to Sadaf Hussain with the score on seven but Jack Boyle and James Hale then put together a good partnership of 95 before Hale was caught by Matt Plater off the bowling of Chris Brown.
New batsman Hudson De Lucchi was bowled second ball by Brown and the game had changed significantly when Boyle edged a Hussain delivery to keeper Jack Robertson after making 57.
Peter Trewick and Matt Long were both removed by Hussain without troubling the scorers, leaving the innings in disarray at 118-6. Brett Stolworthy played some nice shots in his 26 while Andy Hanby managed the tail to push the score up to 166 before becoming the third victim for impressive youngster Robertson behind the stumps off the penultimate delivery. There was a good contribution from all the Horsford bowlers, with professional Hussain leading the way with 4-37.
With just three overs of the Horsford innings completed the umpires deemed the light to be too poor to continue and the rain then descended.
There was no play at Saffron Walden, where Vauxhall Mallards were due to play.
Swardeston's bid to reach the national quarter-finals of the Vitality Blast Club Twenty20 competition was held up by the weather on Sunday.
The area finals due to take place at Bury St Edmunds were called off because of rain and will now take place at Swardeston next Sunday.
The schedule - which will be confirmed in due course - will see Swardeston take on Stanmore at the Common and Wanstead and Snarebrook play Radlett at Hilltops (both 11.30am), with the winners meeting later in the day at the Common (around 3.30pm).
The overall winner will move on to the national quarter-finals on August 18 when teams will be playing for a place in Finals Day on September 22.
Swardeston won the competition in 2010 and 2016 and were runners-up last season at Derby's County Ground.
Joe Gatting's side have already reached the last eight of the 40 over Royal London Club Championship, with a trip to Bexley in Kent coming up on August 11.
Meanwhile Norfolk's Over-60s were beaten in their opening match of the county finals on a hot day at North Runcton.
The hosts struggled to contain a Lancashire side containing three internationals from the recent series against Australia.
Captain Andy King rotated his bowlers to little avail and the final total of 255-5 was a difficult target. Andy Gregory with 2-39 was the most successful bowler.
In reply wickets fell regularly, with only Peter Coote with a fine unbeaten 75 able to offer much resistance as the innings closed on 127-6.
Yorkshire Ridings were Norfolk Over-60s seconds' opponents in the Vase competition at Hockwold. Norfolk won the toss and chose to bat and a first wicket partnership of 64 between Mark English (72) and Geoff Roper (20) gave them a solid start and with a number of further scores in the twenties a total of 200-6 was reached.
In reply Yorkshire struggled and star batsman Alan Hampshire was trapped leg before by Harold Van Zanten. This gave the Norfolk players confidence and tight bowling contained the visitors to 141-8, Van Zanten finishing with 3-26.
The tournament's management committee decided that all senior 70s matches scheduled for last Thursday would be cancelled due to the extreme heat that was forecast.
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