Championship-chasing East Anglia II were without both five-times former Norfolk champion David Youngs, who was suffering from 'flu, and Tim Allenden for their Premier League match away to Barnham Broom but they still managed to record a highly creditable 17-8 victory to put them 13 points ahead of their first team who do have a game in hand.

Gary Snelling won the fifth string match against Vince Somers 3-1 and Mark Rolfe beat Jon Pearson in straight games but Barnham's Craig Aldred kept his team in contention as he beat Steve Mooney 3-0.

East Anglia, however, pulled out all the stops at the top of the order as Ian Douglass won a five game thriller against Simon Howling 13-11 9-13 13-9 7-13 13-6 and Ashley Briggs had another hugely impressive result as he beat the former Norfolk champion, Matthew Bolt 7-13 13-11 10-13 14-12 13-6 to round off a highly satisfactory evening for the championship hopefuls.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the table bottom club Diss went down 14-8 to Bannatyne's who have now moved up into third place. Paul Bradnock and Ali Dawson both won 3-1 for Bannatyne's and, after Jack Bell and Steve Maitland had won in straight games for Diss, Bannatyne's Chris Reeve made sure of the bonus points for his team as he beat Neil Cross 3-0.