Promotion to the East Anglian Premier League is the aim for Downham Stow

Downham Stow skipper Pat Yates has heaped praise on his players after securing the club’s first Norfolk Alliance Premier Division title for three years.A brilliant all-round team display saw them defeat nearest rivals Fakenham by 45 runs to lift the league crown.Three years ago, both sides finished level on points after Downham Stow won at Premier Division bottom club Acle and Fakenham lost a thriller by just three runs at local rivals North Runcton.Covid protocols complicated matters before Fakenham eventually conceded the league to their West Norfolk rivals.This time, Downham Stow triumphed in a winner-takes-all clash at Stow Bardolph and afterwards Yates said: “It’s fantastic.”We’ve been off it the last couple of years but this year we’ve played some really good cricket and everyone has contributed to it at some point in the year which is what you want.”Yes it doesn’t happen very often when it comes down to the last day and you’re playing each other, so to perform under that pressure is brilliant and it was well deserved. “We batted sensibly to post a decent score with Fin Wilcox and Freddie Fairey both outstanding. The bowlers backed it up nicely under pressure.” Comparing the team to the one which tasted success back in the summer of 2021, Yates said: “I think we’re a much more complete side than we were then, a lot of the boys have matured into really good cricketers and have shown that every week virtually.”You can’t do much about the weather but we knew if we played the cricket we can we’d be alright. The belief in the group is really strong.”Downham will now try to go one step further by winning promotion to the East Anglian Premier League through the play-offs. The aim is to make amends for their East Anglian Premier League promotion play-off semi-final defeat to Essex outfit Witham last time around.”It’s our ambition to get promoted so we will be doing our best to go out there and put in some good performances,” admitted Yates. “I don’t think the two-week wait will be a problem, we’ve all played enough cricket to know how to prepare and it will be nice to come in fresh.”We weren’t ready for it three years ago and we didn’t show up on the day. I think we’re closer now so hopefully we can get there.”We will just train as we normally would over the next couple of weeks and get ourselves ready for the game which we’re looking forward to.”