Cricket round up (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Cricket round up

3:05pm Wednesday 25th August 2010 in

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A SWASHBUCKLING batting display and a ruthless bowling performance ensured Wanstead remain in the hunt for the Shepherd Neame Premier Division title after victory over local rivals Woodford Wells.

The Herons opened their shoulders from ball one of their match with Wells, skipper Arfan Akram (69) and Christian Burgess (72) putting on 143 for the first wicket. That laid the foundations for Merv Westfield (63) and Shahid Saeed (67 not out) to accelerate the innings up past the 300 mark.

Mohammed Fayyaz Khan (3-36), Saeed and Rehan Hassan, with two wickets each, then combined to dismantle the visitors’ innings with just 166 on the board. The result leaves Wanstead 37 points adrift of leaders Brentwood.

Elsewhere in the division, Loughton’s bowlers rallied to produce a devastating late spell to record a victory over Ilford.

With just 16 runs required for the win and four wickets still in hand, Ilford looked to be cruising home. But a super ball from Gareth James Junior and a run out from James Dalton to remove the hosts’ premier batsman proved the catalyst for a victory charge, Ilford finishing up nine runs shy.

Bilal Butt’s five wickets for Loughton had set the tone, while earlier on Gareth James (68) and Butt (42) had helped push the side up to a total of 241.

In Division One, meanwhile, South Woodford scraped home by one wicket against Fives & Heronians in the week’s derby.

Fives will point to a drastic batting collapse after a superb opening stand between Phillip Apps (57) and Gary Edwards (61) as the main reason behind the defeat. Only four other batsmen made double figures, as Simon Correya and Richard Browne – with three wickets apiece – took centre stage.

The target of 200 was far less than what it should have been for South Woodford, but the away side battled hard to stay in contention, Jonathan Kay and Terry Ballard taking three wickets each, only for Browne (23 not out) and Garry Neicho to see the team over the finish line.

Chingford slipped further into the relegation mire with a three-wicket defeat to Orsett.

James Hill (61 not out) and Shaun McMurray (43) boosted the team up to 209 but, despite three wickets from Ben MacGregor, Orsett reached the winning target.

Buckhurst Hill remain on course for back-to-back promotions after opening up a seven-point gap between themselves in second and Harlow in third in Division Two.

Gordon Whorlow blasted a half-century and the rest of the batting order all contributed as Hill racked up an imposing 333 against Leigh-on-Sea. And that proved to be way too much for their opponents, Leigh falling over 100 runs short.

In Division Three, top-dogs Walthamstow endured an uncharacteristically bad day with the bat, but their bowlers dug them out of trouble to skittle Southend-on-Sea for another victory. M Harris Junior, with four wickets, was the pick of the bowlers.

In the division’s first derby match of the weekend Woodford Green held on to overcome basement boys Epping by three wickets.

Epping made just 148 before they were bowled out, Mohammed Hassan recording an impressive five-wicket haul. But the visitors did not go down without a fight, as they managed to take seven wickets before Green stumbled to the win.

Meanwhile, a magnificent unbeaten century from Gareth Jenkins propelled West Essex to victory over Old Parkonians, who were restricted to just 210 in their innings. West Essex lost just three wickets in the chase.

Finally, Ongar defeated Old Brentwoods by a whopping 103 runs thanks in large to two half-centuries from Jamie Abbott and Aidan Wilkins, while the latter also claimed five victims with the ball.