DISS kept their title hopes alive with an emphatic six wicket victory over a lacklustre Stow side. Losing the toss was exactly what inspirational skipper David Tooke would have wished.

DISS kept their title hopes alive with an emphatic six wicket victory over a lacklustre Stow side.

Losing the toss was exactly what inspirational skipper David Tooke would have wished. The Stow openers found runs hard to come by against the Diss attack. The final total was 147-8.

If Diss had any aspirations for the title, this is a total which should be well within their reach and thus it proved, mainly due to man of the match James Wilby with a magnificent 93.

Such was his domination that the next highest score, Chris Cooper, was 14.

In the form of his life he gave a master class on how to play an innings, by waiting for the bad ball and invariably putting it away and not forcing the pace on a slow pitch. His balance at the crease coupled with his powers of concentration must have made Stow think they were running into a brick wall.

Twelve glorious fours flashed from his bat and when Diss needed to reach 150 for an extra batting point. He finished the match with a breathtaking six over mid wicket, just seven short of what would have been a well-deserved century for the youngster.

Only 17, and captain of Norfolk U17s this season, James Wilby has the cricketing world at his feet.

Scores: Stow 147-8, Cutworth 35, S Cooper 3-29, C Cooper 3-37. Diss 151-4, J Wilby 93 not out.

THE defeat which Diss A suffered at lowly Loddon in their third division league match was a typical example of how the season has gone.

After losing the toss, Diss were asked to bat on a slow but good wicket. They lost an early wicket but then Craig Barker and Ben Spinks put together a partnership of 55. Once again, Diss allowed the home bowlers to dictate and scoring showed dramatically. Barker was just finding his feet and starting to middle the ball when he was bowled for an excellent 49.

Steve Crane arrived at the wicket in the 20th over and after a slow start he drove and pulled his way to 72 not out. No other Diss batsman reached double figures and they finished on a below par total of 163-8.

The Loddon openers seemed in a hurry to finish the match but both fell quite cheaply and at 56-4, Diss looked to be in charge. Jack Bell 3-54, Karl Gooderham 1-25, Ollie Marriot 1-34 and Robbie Gwillim 1-32 all bowled well in patches but nobody took total control and Loddon gradually clawed their way to victory by four wickets with three overs to spare.