Southend on Sea 153-6
Walthamstow 246-9
(Division Three)

WALTHAMSTOW'S search for a first league win of the season continues after Southend on Sea held out for a draw at Southchurch Park on Saturday.

After finding themselves put into bat first, the E17 boys made good progress with all the top order - Ashley Leat (40), Rob Oram (45), Asif Bala (35) and Menno Gazendam (37) all getting among the runs.

And while Stow lost a couple of cheap wickets after that, useful knocks from Matt Guest (23), Alex Everitt and an undefeated 17 by skipper Greg Harris, pushed the visitors onto a very useful 246-9 from their allotted 52 overs.

Fahad Massood (3-85) and John Horne (3-87) were the pick of the home bowlers.

Dave Burnage ripped through the Seasiders top order with M Khan (0), P Abbott (3) and Chris Chambers (5) all sent packing by the fast bowler without really troubling the scoreboard.

Massood proved much harder to dismiss as he put together an innings-saving 59, before becoming Burnage's fourth victim of the day that would eventually see him finish with excellent figures of 4-47 from his 19 overs.

In the end S. Johnson and Horne played out the remaining overs with undefeated knocks of 50 and 19 respectively that saw the hosts grab a share of the points.