WITH five wins from six games, it was a positive weekend for Chelmsford Cricket Club. The week had seen hard work from the captains and David Goddard to raise sides, while holidays, celebration matches and the V Festival brought havoc with availability.
Those efforts were rewarded as the first four sides on Saturday and the Sunday side won, although the fifths were heavily beaten.
Nick Prowting was in fine form for the firsts and his unbeaten 75 led them to an eight-wicket win.
Early wickets for Aaron Beard (2-39) and Mark Drain (3-17) had Buckhurst Hill in trouble at 17-4. Buxton (82) did well to get the total up to 178 with Nisarg Patel (3-36) also claiming three wickets.
Prowting made light work of that target with Dan Hagen (68) also contributing a half-century.
Chelmsford's problems were rather put into context by Hornchurch. Their second team turned up with eight players and, despite the efforts of Anas (43no), they lost their seven wickets for 90, Paul Jones taking four wickets and Matt Poole two.
David Thrift and Nick Bailey knocked off the runs without loss for a very early finish, although not as early as it would have been had one of Hornchurch's team not insisted on going off for tea with a dozen needed to win.
A fantastic partnership between Tom Iliffe and Jack Moss enabled the third team to beat high-flying Ilford.
Given the teams the other winners played against were in the relegation zone, this was the most impressive win of the day.
Keith Goodman took four wickets and Vit Sapaetharan three in Ilford's 200-9, with number ten Aziz contributing an unbeaten half-century.
After two early wickets, Iliffe and Moss steadied things and then prospered, with Iliffe showing all his skill and experience on the way to a century. Moss saw things through to finish 83no.
David Goddard and Neal Abhyankar were the leading performers as the fourth team won at Hadleigh and Thundersley.
Ken Jones picked up three early wickets, although Hadleigh's batsmen stayed positive and kept the scoring rate high.
Abhyankar (5-41) was hit for a number of boundaries, but always came back well and picked up wickets regularly as the innings closed at 130.
David Goddard made a stylish half-century and John Hayto guided the team to a six-wicket win.
It was not a good day for the fifths as they continued Chelmsford's miserable run against Wanstead. Only Tahir Khan and Jamie Matthews reached double figures as Chelmsford were shot out for 81.
Aman Ali followed up his 4-18 with an undefeated 33 as Wanstead achieved the target without loss.
Chelmsford have won only one of eight games against Wanstead this season, with six defeats.
The best win of the weekend came for the Sunday firsts, who kept their hopes of a league title alive. Nisarg Patel's all-round skills were very much in evidence with 71 and three wickets.
Chris Prowting (83), Vit Sapaetharan (44) and Rob Hayto (3-38) also turned in fine performances as a strong Waltham side came up 34 runs short, despite a murderous 85 from Arshad Ali.
They will need a resounding win against South Woodford in the last match of the season to claim the title.
