LOUGHTON won their first game in the Premier League of Essex cricket when they demolished Upminster at Uplands last week.

A mammoth 169-run partnership between openers Faisal Shah and Ritchie Bann laid the foundations for an imposing first innings total that was ultimately too much for Upminster to hunt down.

Bann fell nine short of his century and Shah made 77. Some steady lower-order knocks boosted Loughton up to 280 from their 50 overs, and they never looked in danger from that point.

When Stuart Greenhill accounted for the visitors’ linchpin Michael Rath, the game was up, Bilal Butt starring with four wickets.

Elsewhere, Woodford Wells were firing on all cylinders as they bulldozed their way past Colchester & East Essex.

Strong half-centuries from Robert Marshall, Robert Leiper and Maruf Chowdhury propelled Wells up past the 300 mark.

Nathan Price picked up where he left off last week with three wickets, while he was matched by Chowdhury as Colchester fell well short of their target.

Wanstead slipped off the pace at the top of the table with a defeat to Hainault & Clayhall, despite a terrific century stand between John Chambers (66) and Arfan Akram (86).

In Division One, two tons from Nick Browne and Tom Yallop helped South Woodford climb to third with a win over Hornchurch.

Browne weighed in with two wickets with the ball, but Harry Shirt was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with figures of 5-36.

Chingford’s total of 221 proved shy of what was required as Hutton crossed the line with three wickets to spare.

Paul Shawyer (58 not out) and Ben MacGregor (45) had briefly raised the Forest Side team’s hopes.

The team made amends for the defeat the following day when they knocked rivals Fives & Heronians out of the cup with a narrow seven-run victory.

Fives’ disappointing weekend was completed when they fell short against Ardleigh Green in their league clash, although Irfan Ahmed excelled with a classy knock of 91.

An undefeated century from Ian Russell could not inspire Buckhurst Hill to victory over Harlow in Division Two, although they came within one wicket of claiming maximum points.

Meanwhile, Walthamstow sit atop Division Three after an exciting two-wicket win over local rivals West Essex.

Fifties from Farhad Saleem and Shafiq Rashid had put West Essex in good shape but the rest of the team crumbled, largely thanks to the efforts of Asif Bala, who removed both premier batsmen and claimed two further victims.

He went on to top score with 51 in the reply, allowing Stow to squeeze home with some steady scores all the way down the order.

In the day’s other derby, Ongar trounced Epping by 109 runs, while a six-wicket haul from Rushan Pandya helped Old Parkonians overcome Belhus. Woodford Green were well-beaten by Southend-on-Sea.