Epping 166 all out lost to Harlow Town 167-9 by 1 wicket.

Harlow Town won the toss and decided to have a bowl and the rain from the day before had left the wicket a little damp.

Epping made a steady start with the bat and the opening pair managed to get past Towns opening bowlers, after a few chances were dropped in the field. Ramya Upadhyay was then introduced into the attacked and he made the breakthrough with the help of a sharp one handed catch from Ashley Alderson in close. Manni Bawa joined Epping captain Geoff Maynard at the crease and the pair went about building a partnership before Manni was dismissed by Ramya for 31. Maynard stuck around and watched batsmen around him get dismissed by Upadhyay who took the wickets of the top five batsmen for Epping. Maynard eventually fell to Upadhyay for a very good 79. Upadhyay then cleaned up the tail and claimed 7 wickets ending with figures of 16.5-56-7.

Epping had set Town a target of 167. Town didn’t get off to a great start when Skipper Ashley Alderson was out for 2 and was quickly followed by Shiraz Ali for 9. Wickets continued to fall for Town with Matt Hurley the only one in the top five making a contribution to the score with 27 before he was caught in the deep. Town were 76-6 (with all 6 wickets being caught) and were looking like repeating the previous weeks batting display by not making 100. Upadhyay was joined by Pat Yates and the pair batted sensibly and started to build a partnership. The pair put on 50 together before Yates was caught by a very good catch from Jacob Ellis for 26 with the score on 130-7. Epping got two more quick wickets and Town were left on 139-9, still needing 28 runs to win with 7 overs left. Dan Calver joined Upadhyay at the creased the pair managed to stay around until the last over. Town needed 10 runs to win and Epping needed 1 wicket. Ramya was on strike and hit a four off the first ball. He then hit two consecutive twos and Town required 2 off 3 balls with Upadhyay on strike. Upadhyay couldn’t beat the field and ran a single to leave number 11 Calver on strike with 1 run needed off 2 balls. Calver managed to edge the ball through his legs and the pair ran a quick single to win the game with one ball to spare. Upadhyay ending on 50 not out and Calver on 3.

Ashley Alderson: “It was a great all round performance from Ramya that managed to help us to the win. Epping played well but the game should never have got that close. On Saturday we play Old Parkonians who are second in the league and are always a challenging side to play. This win will hopefully give us confidence going in to that game.”

Epping 2’s 160 all out
Harlow Town 2’s 161 for 3

HTCC win by 7 wickets

Harlow Town’s promotion push continued with a comprehensive victory over a very vocal and aggressive Epping
Skipper Gladwin won the toss and put Epping into bat on a slightly damp wicket. Openers Ali and Fussell used the new ball superbly with Ali 1-15 off 7 overs, and Fussell bowling 12 overs for 24 runs being unlucky to not take a wicket

Again it was the slow bowlers who picked up the rewards of a tight opening spell with Graeme Eversden 3- 49, Rowell 1-35 and the returning Scott Baker 3-28

Towns fielding was excellent throughout with Baker and Ben Eversden producing 2 superb run outs.

In reply, Town lost Max Poulter for a duck, but unlike the previous few weeks town steadied the ship leaving around 80 needed when the last 20 overs were called. The game turned when Gladwin pulled a hamstring taking a single and the Epping skipper refused a runner and would not allow him back if he retired hurt.

This forced the town skipper to aim to hit boundaries and with some clean hitting and some poor bowling town rattled off the 80 runs needed with 9 overs to spare. Gladwin finished on 90 not out with Baldwin 21 & Ali 37 contributing the rest.

3rd XI

Having lost the toss Town were put into Bat, with two early wickets J Simpson (0) and Bobby Blunt (14) Hutton appeared to be well in control however Towns batsmen dug in and found runs easier to come by with Kevin Tilleard (34) George Messenger (42) and Tim Poulter (78) Not Out Nick Teale (19) also not out led to a declaration by the skipper with a competitive 205 for 4 of 48 overs at Tea.

Town took to the field confident that the posted score could be defended however wickets proved to be hard to come by despite Nick Teale taking 3 wickets of 6 overs supported by Kevin Tilleard taking 2 from his 12 and a fine run out by George Messenger Hutton secured the points in the 47th over mainly due to Hutton’s Russell Frost’s knock of (109).

4th XI

Skipper Matt Parsons won the toss and batted, he contributed 33 runs to the final total of 237 for 6 declared after 51 overs. Paul Smith added 64 and Brian Lall 45 to set a getable target. Stanford Le Hope had other ideas and set about playing for draw and taking as much time out of the game as possible. Townies were only able to bowl 38 over in reply and reduced the hosts to 152 for 7 at the close. Debutant David Bygrave picked up 3 for 30 from 7 overs.

5th XI – Benfleet 4th XI unable to raise a side!

Sunday XI

Beat Stevenage CC by 91 runs.

The townies set the visitors a target of 216 in 40 overs, main contributions from Johan Cloete (60), John Simpson (46) and Daniel Gleeson (34 not out). Stevenage all out for 125 in 36 overs. 2 wickets for Taylor Wood and Scott Alderson returned the remarkable figures of 4 for 4 from 5 overs.