Ilford Catholic defeated Farnham by five wickets to move second in Herts and Essex Division One.

Farnham batted first and their opener was trapped LBW in the first over by Vince Mulholland. However Sellers (38) and McCraith (33) put together a strong partnership of 76 scoring at nearly five an over before the latter was dismissed by a brilliant catch from Abbas Saleem.

Cattell joined Sellers and scored a quick 17 before he was stumped from a great piece of glovework from Catholic wicket-keeper Sulosan Thiru.

Thiru then featured again with a great catch behind to dismiss Sellers which sparked a Farnham collapse as Catholic bowlers Wahab, Qureshi and Ramanuja picked up wickets.

Mulholland rejoined the attack to clean bowl skipper Richard Thorogood (3) and Ryan Naylor then took three wickets in two overs for no runs to skittle Farnham out for 133.

In reply, Catholic got off to a terrible start with openers Tooth and Mulholland departing early followed by Naylor and Suleman Saleem which left them reeling at 22 for four. However Abbas Saleem got the scoreboard moving with some excellent shots and started to find the boundary.

Saleem was well supported by Sulosan Thiru who applied himself well and found the gaps. When Saleem was out for 28, Saravana Subramani joined Thiru and they steadily built a partnership of 62 to secure a five-wicket win. Thiru finished on 47 not out just missing out on an excellent half-century.

Ilford Catholic 3rd XI lost a low-scoring friendly at Barkingside against Royal Sovereign.

On batting first, the Sovereign openers set the tone for the innings by attacking from the off before Mitch before was bowled by John Rogers.

With excellent Catholic bowling, Sovereign were reduced to 36 for five, mainly through the bowling of debutant Vasitharan (four for eight) who tore through the early order. However, the late order rallied and Royal Sovereign finally reached a final total of 105.

Catholic got off to a difficult start with wickets falling at regular intervals leaving the home side tottering on 12 for five.

However, the innings was rebuilt in an excellent stand between Raj Najagaran (27) and Mayur Bodhake who with difficult bowling, played sensibly and pulled the Catholics above 50. Despite this, any hopes of a Catholic win were lost as a lower order collapse left the side 40 runs short at the finish as the opening bowlers came back into the attack.