AN incredible last four weeks have seen Harlow emerge from the foot of the table, right to the summit after a crushing 158 run victory against local rivals Harlow Town.

Fantastic individual performances from Chris Whitworth, Alex Senior and the return of Abi Farooq has seen Garner’s men win four games to swiftly end relegation fears and replace them with hopes of promotion.

Town captain won the toss and elected to bowl hoping to make the most of the conditions and was rewarded in these conditions over with the wicket of Syed Hassan courtesy of a loose shot.

Farooq and Whitworth steadied the ship rotating the strike on what appeared to be a good batting surface. Whitworth, on there back of a century last week, was the more aggressive batter and managed to tick along at a run a ball.

Medium pace was to break the partnership as Tom Wilcox (5-57) found the edge of Farooq’s bat for 44. James Forde batted well for 22 before he fell attempting to run a ball to third man with keeper Yates taking an excellent low catch.

At 116-3 from 32 overs the game seemed evenly poised but Whitworth went through the gears along with Sergio Fedee. Opener Whitworth claimed a consecutive ton with a four through mid wicket before he fell for a superb 115. Fedde (39) and Gul Hassan (17) pushed thew score past the maximum batting points mark before skipper Garner bravely declared with 229 on the board.

Town began their innings in clear skies with the scene set for a great run chase. Joe Riddell opened up by beating the bat several times as he claimed 1-17 the wicket coming when Shiraz Ali feathered a catch to keeper Andre Riddell.

It would the fellow opening bowler Alex Senior who would devastate the Town batting, swinging the ball both ways with excellent accuracy. Forde produced a fine gully catch to open Senior’s account. Ginai succumbed to a horror shot to fall for just 9 before Yates and Anderson showed some resistance. When the latter lost his wicket Senior ran amok taking six wickets as Town collapsed to just 71 all out. 

Abi Farooq completed the task of winning the game after Senior’s spell taking the final 2 wickets as Harlow wrapped up the win in 25 overs. 

Results elsewhere meant Harlow went top of the table but only 38 points separate eight sides in what is a wide open division.

Next week Harlow travel to Bentley hoping to complete a league double and maintain their promotion push.