SOUTH Woodford were on the brink of both victory and defeat when time ran out in their match against Shenfield at the weekend.
The Highfield Road side were just one wicket away from a win that would have catapulted them to within touching distance of Shepherd Neame Division One leaders Ardleigh Green. But they also stood three runs from a demoralising defeat when the 50 overs were up, leaving both teams ruing what might have been.
Half-centuries from Rizwan Akram and Anand Patel helped South Woodford reach 255, but it was bowler Harry Shirt who really pushed the team towards the finish line with a superb five-wicket haul.
James Malin also bagged three victims, but the pair could not uproot numbers 10 and 11, forcing them to settle for a draw.
Elsewhere, in the same division, Chingford failed to take the final Fives & Heronians’ wicket to earn both local bragging rights and put more daylight between themselves and the relegation zone.
Shaun McMurray and Ben MacGregor had given the Waltham Wayers the best chance of taking maximum points, taking four and three wickets respectively.
But Fives’ final pair of Glenn Jackson and Jonathan Kay clung on, the team finishing 29 runs shy of their rivals’ total.
Earlier, only Matthew O’Sullivan (44 not out) and McMurray (40) had impressed with the bat, with Irfan Ahmed and Kay taking three wickets each for Fives.
In the Premier Division, Loughton came up short against leaders Brentwood.
Bilal Butt and Taqi Abbas impressed with three wickets each but they could not stop Brentwood reaching 313 from their allotted overs.
Skipper Ritchie Bann (61) and Stuart Greenhill (64) delayed the inevitable but Brentwood’s bowlers kept Loughton down to just 227.
Woodford Wells’ batsmen failed to fire at the weekend, as Chelmsford blasted through their line-up with just 125 on the board.
And the visitors polished off the runs with minimal fuss, losing just two wickets. Meanwhile, Buckhurst Hill’s chances of promotion suffered a blow when they were skittled chasing a modest 190 runs for victory against Old Southendian & Southchurch.
The bowling attack of Carlos Remy, Rohan Bhome and Joe Slisz had done superbly to knock over their opponents, but the batsmen could not get close to their target.
The result leaves the local side nine points adrift of the second promotion spot.
In Division Three, the Walthamstow onslaught continued unabated with the trouncing of Belhus on Saturday.
A solid start from the top order batsmen was undone with a middle-order wobble, but Shafaet Amin (45) held firm to guide Stow up to 241.
Although the total would have been shy of what they had hoped for, the victory was never in doubt with the likes of M. Harris Jnr and skipper Greg Harris steaming in to bowl, the former claiming five wickets and the captain taking four to leave Belhus 93 runs short.
Woodford Green remain in the hunt for a top two place, despite going down by six wickets to Ongar, who were indebted to a massive unbeaten innings of 142 from opener Jamie Abbott that saw them home.
Abbott had earlier taken three wickets in Green’s innings, although consistent batting pushed them past 232. But Abbott was up to the task, marshalling the team to their fourth win of the campaign.
West Essex came within seven runs of chasing down Southend-on-Sea’s mammoth 290-run total, but they paid the price for relying too heavily on individual scores. Half-centuries from Farhad Saleem, Usman Aslam and Julian Joy were not matched by the rest of the line-up as they were bowled out for 283.
Sabir Ali’s terrific six-wicket haul helped Old Parkonians storm to an emphatic 144-run win over Old Brentwoods. Ali also smashed 70 with the bat to almost single-handedly wrestle the points away from their opponents.
Finally, Epping succumbed to a five-wicket defeat by Billericay.
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