Easy for Buntingford with six in a row

CHRIS Chambers blasted a half century as Buntingford made it six wins on the bounce with a low-scoring win against Ilford Catholics.

Chambers (52), John Clements (35) and Barry Walker (24) were the main contributors to Buntingfords total of 173 all out, with two balls remaining from their allotted 45 overs.

While this was not a big total, the Buntingford bowlers were confident they could trouble the Ilford batsman on an unpredictable surface.

After a quiet start, Richard Pearce claimed two Ilford wickets in his fourth over. Pearce completed his allocation of 10 overs with figures of 2-34, once again providing his team with a solid start.

William Major bowled a great spell of slow left arm orthodox spin for a return of 3-32 from his 10 overs.

'Mr Reliable' Dan Duff took 2-31 from nine good overs and Chris Chambers polished off the Ilford line-up, finishing with 3-34 from 9.3 overs.

Ilford's total of 131 all out has left them in relegation trouble, while Buntingford further strengthened their position in the top two.

Buntingford will be looking for revenge on Saturday against Theydon Bois, who are the only side to have beaten them in the league this season.

Buntingford II hosted Bishop's Stortford IV and narrowly lost out in a game that produced a tense and nailbiting finish.

Put in to bat, Buntingford made a poor start by losing both openers, Forster and Townsend, for 15 runs.

They progressed to 55 before losing two more quick wickets. After losing a further wicket to be on 89-5, things were beginning to look bleak for Buntingford.

However, Chris Goldie was beginning to set about the Stortford bowling and with skipper Neale Dookheran also playing a fine innings, they took the score to 159-5 before Goldie was out for a swashbuckling 60 that contained 10 fours.

Dookheran continued to play well and he reached his 50 in the last over to finish unbeaten on 53.

With a massive 25 runs coming off the last over, Buntingford finished on a respectable 191-7.

When taking to the field, Buntingford made a dream start with Mehhe knocking over Edwards middle stump without a run being scored.

Both Mehhe and Atkins then produced fine opening spells of tight accurate bowling, that saw Stortford only managing to reach 49-2 from their first 20 overs.

Although the required run rate was at first four an over it now started to creep up to five and then six an over.

Buntingord managed to winkle out a further four batsman, but Hussain was proving difficult to dismiss and when he was joined by skipper Parker a partnership developed.

However, when Hussain was out for a fine innings of 79, Stortford still needed to score 30 runs from the final three overs and Buntingford looked set for victory.

But Ballard came to the wicket and hit a lusty six and two fours.

This together with some overthrows and a piece of missed fielding that resulted in the ball going for four, resulted in Stortford scoring 24 off the next two overs.

This left them requiring just six for victory from the last over. They duly reached their target with just three balls remaining.

Skipper Dookheran admitted at the end of the game that the whole team were bitterly disappointed to have lost a game that they should have won, saying "having bowled and fielded so well for 42 overs, we then threw all the hard work away in three overs of poor cricket - hopefully we can learn from this".

On Sunday, Buntingford played a friendly game against Grange CC at St Edmunds College.

Put in to bat, Buntingford made a good start to reach 40 before George Wurr was out for 23.

Opener John Clements and Mike Townsend then took the score to 58, before Clements was bowled for 25.

Townsend was then joined by Colin Chambers and they took the score along to 112 before Townsend was out for 31.

Chambers was hitting the ball very hard and he reached his fifty with two huge sixes in successive balls.

He was then out caught by Adrian Lowes for a fine 54 with the score on 143. Karl White then scored a good 22 before being caught by Cowell and with Clive Glasscock chipping in with an unbeaten 17, Buntingford finished on 202-7.

In reply, Grange made a confident and fast scoring start and they quickly reached 117-2 with Dutton scoring a fine 42.

Goldie bore the brunt of this attack by going for 39 runs from just four overs. With the change bowlers being introduced, the game swung rapidly back in Buntingfords favour.

Karl White produced a tremendous spell of bowling, taking four wickets for just 15 runs from seven overs.

With Glasscock (5-2-6-2) and Clements (5-0-12-1) also bowling well, wickets tumbled at an alarming rate to see Grange on 139-8.

Slow bowler George Wurr was then brought on to bowl and he finished off the innings without another run being scored, to finish with two wickets from his first four balls

Hatley & Arrington emerged victorious when they hosted Hare Street & Hormead on Sunday.

Hare Street won the toss and batted first. Peter Hastings was absent on a field trip to Yorkshire, so at short notice Bob Warman was called up from the third team.

For a return big clash with Hare Street's Grimsdale. After a steady start Hatley's seam bowler Lenton took 5-33 and Hare Street ended with 183 helped by 82 from B Hammond.

In reply Hatley got off to a poor start with the big man going first ball of the innings. Tim and Jon Anderson steadied the ship, and 58 from S Hooley and an unbeaten 36 from M Knibbs saw Hatley home with two overs to spare.