Chelmsford slipped from second to mid-table in the Essex Premier League after a crushing defeat at Chingford.
On a gloriously sunny day, Chelmsford were a match for Chingford only in the first few overs of this match before three outstanding performances from the home side led to the comprehensive loss.
Mark Drain opened the bowling against Chingford who chose to bat having won the toss.
Swinging the new ball to good effect he reduced Chingford to 21-3 after five overs with an opening burst of 3-7 in three overs and raising expectations that Chelmsford could further profit from this early advantage.
However, the Chingford pairing of Dan Lawrence and Alfie Taylor clearly had other ideas and calmly wrested the initiative back whilst still steadily scoring at around four an over.
A couple of straightforward chances were spilled and Chelmsford's four pace bowlers increasingly lacked penetration or threat. James Clifford's off-spin was introduced in the 18th over with the score on 86 for three, followed by Tom Craddock's leg-spin from the other end 11 overs later at 126 for three.
Still the batsmen were untroubled and steadily took the game away from Chelmsford.
Eventually, with the score on 227, Clifford had Taylor caught at long-off for 110, ending the fourth wicket stand with Lawrence of 206 lasting 47 overs, by which time Lawrence had also reached the century mark.
At last Chelmsford began to take wickets, including that of Lawrence in the penultimate over for 153, but the damage had assuredly been done and the Chingford innings closed on 297-8 from 64 overs.
Apart from the two century makers no other Chingford batsman reached double figures. For Chelmsford, Drain finished with 3-54, Clifford 2-91, and Craddock 3-64.
Faced with a mammoth task in the second innings, Chelmsford's batting was simply no match for the pace bowling of James Porter 3-45 and Shaun Eaton 7-37 and subsided meekly for 112 all out in 44 overs, with only Adil Dewan (25) and Jack Sterland (26) getting past 20.
This result sees Chelmsford slip from second to mid-table in the Premier Division and needing to quickly address the worrying decline of the last two weeks.
