AYTHORPE Roding CC suffered a 49-run defeat at Pegasus & Corringham on Saturday in the Mid-Essex League Premier Division. Captain Paul Gravatt had no complaints with the result, but felt his side were unlucky with the changing conditions. Pegasus played

AYTHORPE Roding CC suffered a 49-run defeat at Pegasus & Corringham on Saturday in the Mid-Essex League Premier Division.

Captain Paul Gravatt had no complaints with the result, but felt his side were unlucky with the changing conditions.

"Pegasus played better than us," he said. "The batted, bowled and fielded better and that's the bottom line. But they did also get the best of the conditions.

"We bowled first in the rain and went for too many runs. Then it stopped raining 10 overs from the end of their innings. Our two openers scored freely, but it then got drier and more difficult and we weren't able to keep up with the run rate.

"It's always a tough place to go and we won't dwell on defeat. It's onwards and upwards for us now."

Batting first Pegasus & Corringham were soon in trouble with three wickets down for only 11 runs on the board.

However, D Laird and B Francis put on 90 runs for the fourth wicket to get the hosts back on track. Laird hit 60 and Francis 20, with further useful scores coming from M Sayers (13) and M Hathaway (40) as Pegasus & Corringham reached 171 all out in 30 overs.

Neil Culleton was the pick of the Aythorpe bowlers claiming 5-73 in 12 overs, Joe Grant took 2-34 in 12 overs and Graham Milbank 1-24 in three overs.

Aythorpe Roding got off to a reasonable start in reply scoring 70 for the loss of three wickets. Richard Eaton hit 31, Paul Gravatt 22 and Joe Grant 10, but as last week the middle order failed again.

The last seven wickets fell for 52 runs and only Andy Clarke hit double figures scoring 13, as Aythorpe ended on 122 all out in 29.4 overs, 49 runs short.

P Bennett put in an excellent bowling performance for Pegasus taking 7-41 in 8.4 overs. M Hathaway took 2-22 in seven overs and D Laird 1-34 in eight overs.

Newly promoted league leaders Great Totham visit Aythorpe Roding on Saturday, 1.30pm start.

"They have spanked their first two opponents and are obviously playing good cricket so we will have to be on top of our game to beat them," said Gravatt.

"We will go into it full of confidence despite Saturday's result and we will be up for it."

AYTHORPE Roding seconds are sitting proudly on top of the Mid-Essex League Division Seven after two games, with a good win on Saturday over South Woodham Ferrers seconds by 116 runs.

Aythorpe batted first and hit 266-8 in 45 overs, with vice- skipper Dave Anderson scoring 97.

Opening bat Justin Graham hit 60, Sean Darby 14, Mark Rosewell 26 and B Sedman made 23.

R Permanand (5-53 in 12 overs) was the pick of the Ferrers bowlers.

With an uphill task for the run chase, both the South Woodham Ferrers opening batsmen were run out, with M Stuart (2) and P Blackman (20) out quickly.

However, R Permanand (45), W Patient (43) and S McGarry (17no) pulled South Woodham round to a respectable score of 150-6 wkts in 45 overs, but falling 116 runs short.

The wickets were shared around the Aythorpe bowlers. Graham Reeve took 1-28 in 12 overs, Joe Claridge 1-35 in 12 overs, M Smith 1-14 in four overs, and Justin Graham 1-3 in one over.