Cokenach 174-8 lost to Eversden 175-8 by two wickets Cokenach missed the opportunity to move into second place after a narrow defeat to Eversden. Cokenach batted first and made a slow start before Shabz (4-15) had both John Gill (1) and Peter Clarke (0)

Cokenach 174-8 lost to Eversden 175-8 by two wickets

Cokenach missed the opportunity to move into second place after a narrow defeat to Eversden.

Cokenach batted first and made a slow start before Shabz (4-15) had both John Gill (1) and Peter Clarke (0) caught in the first 10 overs.

When Shabz then dismissed Matt Stevens (10) and Paul Cresswell (15) fell to Jason Ward (1-30) in the next over, Cokenach found themselves 36-4 after 13 overs.

Skipper Phil Seale (48) slowly rebuilt the innings in partnership with Nigel Sirett (18) and John Ford (21). Late order runs from Liam Botten (6), Rob Stone (11) and Jack Sirett (13no) allowed the home side to post a very competitive score of 174-8.

Eversden began their reply with Ed Ranner (40) aggressively dispatching the opening bowlers Peter Clarke (2-43) and Ford (0-19). After four overs, skipper Seale decided to take the pace off the ball and Rob Stone (5-10) proceeded to catch Sam Sabey (7) first ball off his own bowling.

Stone bowled a superb 10-over spell and completed his first five-wicket haul this season for a miserly 10 runs.

Unfortunately, Cokenach could not stem the flow of runs with Rob Hartop (36) dispatching several loose balls from spinners Botten (0-29) and Sirett (0-25).

Clarke returned to take three wickets in his second spell and reduce Eversden to 131-7 and 149-8 but, after five very tight overs from Stevens (0-45), Dave Pearce (39no) and Marsh (16no) scored freely off his final three overs and saw Eversden home with two overs to spare.