The end of another cricket season in the Mid Essex League ended on a positive with wins for High Roding and High Easter.
Roding's first team visited Tillingham with the winners taking second place in the Premier Division table.
The home side won the toss and elected to field which at one point seemed to be the correct decision.
Roding had promoted second team captain, Harry Pilcher, for this game and he was top scorer with 37.
Josh O’Connor (36), Ben Chillingworth (27) and Tom Cherry (23) all chipped in with runs to take Roding on to a final total of 176, all out in the 44th over.
This did not seem enough to defend, but it came down to the final over with eight runs required.
Singles came off the first three balls but Will Davis then bowled three dots to lead Roding to a four-run win and second place in the table behind champions Basildon & Pitsea.
The seconds faced Boreham Royals and Boreham batted first, scoring 284-6 off the 45 overs.
That proved comfortably enough for the second-placed team as Roding could never get near the score.
Joint captains Angus Burns (34) and Henry Welland (31) put up the only real resistance but Roding were bowled out for 103 in the 32nd over.
That left them in fifth position while Boreham were promoted from the Fourth Division.
The thirds suffered a heavy defeat as they took on Ardeley Walkern at the High Easter ground.
Ardeley batted first and made 212-8 off the 40 overs with Edward Duke (2-30) and Adrian Nelson (2-37) the pick of the Roding bowlers.
In reply Andy Duke made 57, Alistair Bushell 20 and Will Smith 16 but they were all out for 131, losing the game by 81 runs.
High Easter completed an excellent season in Division Three with a six-wicket win at Springfield.
High Easter skipper Nick Gliddon won the toss and elected to field first and it was a good decision with his bowlers in top form.
They had Springfield at 128-6 but a late recovery got them up to 181-7 in their 45 overs.
It was spin and pace that controlled the innings, as it has been all season, with Luke Sanders claiming 2-18 from eight overs, including four maidens and Gliddon taking 2-30 from his nine overs.
The reply from High Easter got off to a bad start as they slumped to 19-3, but Waseem Abbasi ended a brilliant season with the bat with another masterclass, smashing 115 not out from 116 balls, 20 of them going for four.
Matt Green hit 33 and Steve Hills was unbeaten on 24 at the end, part of a 56-run partnership with Abbasi.
That eased them to 182-4 in 36.3 overs and leaves them third in the table with a record of nine wins, two ties and five losses from their 18 games, two ending in a no-contest.
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