After securing their Division Two status for next season with two successive wins, Dunmow were looking to turn their league position into something more respectable.

However, poor catching and the class of Ipswich’s former Zimbabwe test cricketer Douglas Hondo on Saturday were to mean that this was not to be the case.

Dunmow won the toss and elected to field.

Heavy drizzle for the first 10 overs meant that any advantage from this decision was lost as the ball soon became soft and damp.

In addition both opening batsmen were given a life before Bose fell to an athletic catch by Josh Down off the bowling of Josh Rix for six.

Johnson (75) and Stockton (72) then built a 102-run partnership, which was far from chanceless, Johnson in particular really making the most of being dropped twice and playing and missing regularly.

When Matt Gibson finally broke the partnership in the 28th over, followed up by Baz Sewell claiming new man Roche for 10, Dunmow had regained some of the advantage that winning the toss was supposed to bring them.

At this point however, ex- Zimbabwe international Hondo walked to the wicket.

He showed his class as he blasted the Dunmow bowling to all parts of the ground.

He scored 58 not out from just 27 balls, including four sixes and five fours, to take the score very rapidly to a commanding 243.

The Dunmow reply sought to exploit the short boundary on one side and Swanston and Coupe rapidly moved the score to 59 before Swanston fell for 32.

Last week’s centurion Ollie Rooney supported Coupe who continued to hit the bowling to all parts.

At this point Hondo came to the party with the ball claiming the wickets of Rooney, Down and Gallant for just eight runs and in the process ripping the heart out of the Dunmow middle order.

This passage of play also highlighted the value of holding catches, the one held at slip to remove Gallant being particularly memorable.

Coupe progressed to 73, but with the next best contribution being 23, Dunmow limped meekly to 177 all out in the 42nd over, Hondo finishing with 3-43 and Pryke 3-21.

On Saturday Dunmow travel to Easton for their final game of the 2014 season.