Josh Rix claimed five wickets on his return to help Dunmow to a convincing triumph over Tuddenham.

Needing a win to retain any hope of an instant return to Division Two, they were put into bat on a damp pitch in overcast conditions.

But Dunmow reached 88-1 in 22 overs, after captain Luke Swanston was caught at short cover, and Joe Gallant (111) constructed a well-paced maiden century with support from Ollie Rooney (39), Paul Reid (45 not out) and Mark Rosewell (18 not out).

A score of 254-3 gave the hosts confidence and Rix took wickets in his first two overs to leave the visitors in early trouble at 12-2.

Rix claimed a third scalp as pressure was applied at the other end and there were further wickets for Gallant (2-18), Baz Sewell (1-45) and Steve Hamlin (2-19).

The last two wickets fell to Rix, who finished with fine figures of 9-2-29-5 as Dunmow completed a comprehensive 102-run victory ahead of this weekend’s trip to Walsham-le-Willows.

The news was not so good for the seconds, though, as they came up short against a strong Halstead thirds and lost by 79 runs.

*High Roding travelled to table-topping Ingatestone for their latest T-Rippon Mid-Essex League fixture.

And after losing the toss they were sent into the field, with Rory Burns and Kit Morley-Jacob both bowling very tight overs at the start of the innings.

Ingatestone’s openers rode their luck somewhat and managed to put on 108 for the first wicket before Chris Townsend then came on to bowl and produced a fine spell of 4-41.

Burns (2-17) and Morley-Jacob (1-11) also had success as Ingatestone, after four straight wins, were dismissed for 158.

Roding’s Andy Duke (29), Burns (36), Ben Gallop (28), Harry Gallian (21) and Mark Gilfrin (19) all made contributions with the bat as the visitors won by five wickets ahead of their home match with Woodham Mortimer.

The seconds beat Ilford Catholics by eight wickets after the visitors made 146-7, with Adrian Pask, Derek Pettet and Cameron Armstrong all nabbbing braces before Derek Pettet (45), Tom Shrager (27), Rich Morley-Jacob (27 not out) and Paul Welland (40 not out) shone with the bat.