Chesterfords are only five points behind the leaders in the Herts and Essex League Division Two league after their victory at Thorley on Saturday. Chesterfords won the toss and elected to bat first on a hard flat pitch that looked ideal to bat on. The vis

Chesterfords are only five points behind the leaders in the Herts and Essex League Division Two league after their victory at Thorley on Saturday.

Chesterfords won the toss and elected to bat first on a hard flat pitch that looked ideal to bat on.

The visitors openers got off to a slow start thanks largely to the accurate bowling of S Cruise

and T Pack, scoring only 40 off of 15 overs.

Paul Phillips was the first to fall after hitting a cover drive into the air straight to Mills, with James Lipscombe falling shortly afterwards for 43.

David Perring batted well and started to increase the run rate, but he too found it hard to score freely as the pitch became slightly two paced.

The run rate was being stifled by Thorley's good work until Dave Lightning joined Perring at the crease and the two of them started to take a few risks that looked as if they were paying off, until Perring was caught after a scoring a gritty 51.

Lightning was in scintillating form and he raced to his 50, as Chesterfords reached 204 off of 45 overs with Lightning finishing on 52 not out.

Chesterfords opening pair of Wazz Mughal and T O'Reilly struggled to find their length, with Thorley's opening pair in fine form.

The turning point in the game came when Adam Miles and David Perring were thrown the ball and both bowled superbly.

Thorley's batsmen had no answer to the bowlers and when Bob Mills wanted a quick single, Perring was there with a superb piece of fielding, finding the stumps from 35 yards.

Chesterfords continued to perform strongly and bowled Thorley out for 126, winning the game by 78 runs.

Miles finished with figures of 4-43, but the match winning performance was produced by Perring who finished with figures of 4 -35 as well as putting 51 runs on the board.

Thaxted returned to winning ways at Stansted Hall on Saturday making up for last week's game that was postponed due to the inclement weather.

Captain Kevin Wood won the toss and put Stansted Hall into bat on a lively wicket.

Charlie Burrett exploded onto the scene with some fine aggressive bowling claiming 3-25, and Sean Murphy gave a masterly display of seam bowling giving away only 14 runs for one wicket in his 10 over spell.

Luke Matthews dumfounded the opposition with his leg spin claiming 1-20 in his allotted overs as Thaxted restricted Stansted to 126-7 in their 45 overs.

However, alarm bells were ringing for Thaxted when they lost John Henry to his first ball.

Phil Leach used all his experience to reach his second 50 of the season to put Thaxted on the road to victory.

Leach was ably supported by Scot Smith and some lusty blows at the death by Paul Taylor and Tim Dixon saw Thaxted take the win by six wickets, with 129 runs on the board.

Rayne's T.Rippon Mid-Essex League Division Two clash with Writtle on Saturday was abandoned without a ball being bowled, due to a waterlogged pitch.

Rayne seconds secured an impressive victory at Boreham seconds on Saturday on a relatively dry pitch.

Nick Alen lost the toss, and Rayne II were put into bat.

After a couple of early wickets Rayne found themselves on 12-2. Malek and Rob May began to steady the ship with a partnership of 29 before May was caught.

This brought Paul Sheppard to the crease, and after Malek scored his second league 50 for Rayne, he began to take the attack to the Boreham bowlers. Malek and Sheppard put on 78, before Sheppard was caught for 20.

Malek eventually went for an impressive 75. Sam Cooper swiftly followed for a brisk 27, and this marked the beginning of the Rayne collapse.

157-5 became 164-9 in no time at all and it was left to tail-enders Richard Dawson and Thomas Alen with a partnership of 22 to take Rayne past the total needed for the second batting point, as Rayne closed on 186 all out.

Once again the opening bowling pair of Richard Dawson and Thomas Alen started well with just six runs coming off the first five overs. Alen's impressive season continued,taking the first wicket with a good catch by keeper Jon Tatam.

Alen took out the top four Boreham batsman, including the dangerous M Bicknell and T Money after good catches by Nick Alen and Rob May respectively.

Dawson soon got in on the act as well, ending up with very economical figures of 12-4-26-2. Alen finished on 12-4-37-4 and Boreham found themselves on 66-6 after 24 overs.

Nick Trigg also bowled a tidy spell, but D Ford was still at the crease batting well. However, he eventually ran out of partners, finishing not out on 75 as the hosts were all out on 149, giving Rayne the victory.