A good performance by Aythorpe Roding brought a victory in their second game of the Covid Cup competition.

They beat Hornchurch by 20 runs in the T20 format tournament, a result which keeps their hopes of reaching the next stage alive.

With mist and a slight drizzle seemingly present throughout, Roding lost two wickets early on and it needed Sam Gravatt’s arrival at the crease to steady the ship.

He scored 34 to leave Aythorpe Roding on 58 after 10 overs but that run rate doubled in the second half of the innings.

The next ten overs produced another 102 runs due mainly to a brilliant innings by Andy Clarke who smashed 78 runs, a knock that included seven fours and three maximums.

He had good support though from Graham Milbank who added 21 as Aythorpe Roding ended on 160-7 from their 20 overs.

The wickets were shared around by the Hornchurch bowlers with Duke taking 2-33, Turner 1-35, Crane 2-16 and Marks 2-23.

The Hornchurch batsmen were up with the home team’s run rate at the midway point of the reply with Klien (10), Raftery (16), Samrasbeka (26), Kumar (19) and Kapur (12) all scoring well.

Henegran’s 42 not out was their top score but they couldn’t kick on the final 10 overs as the Roding bowlers kept things tight.

Andy Clarke had the best figures with 2-14 with Graham Milbank just behind him on 2-19.

Neil Culleton may have finished on 2-31 from his four overs but he almost stole the headlines as both wickets came in successive balls, and the hat-trick delivery wasn’t far away either.

It all meant that Hornchurch came to a close on 140-6 from their allotted overs.

The final group matches take place on Saturday, with all of them taking place at the Bill Reeve Pavillion in Roundbush Green.

Aythorpe Roding take on neighbours High Roding at noon while Hornchurch battle Springfield at 3pm.