Chesterfords visited South Loughton II’s on Saturday full of confidence after their recent strong performances. Chesterfords lost the toss and were asked to take the field on a pitch that looked as though it would become harder to bat on as the game went on.

James Lipscombe and Alan Stokley opened the bowling for Chesterfords creating some swing and movement off the seam with the new ball. Openers, Theron and Amir rode there luck at times playing and missing as many as 3 times in an over. Lipscombe came off after 4 overs due to injury which bought the ever reliable Adam Miles to the fore. Theron was looking dangerous, smashing the ball to all areas of the ground until he played a loose late cut off Miles that caught the edge of the bat which Greg Watson cleanly took at wicket keeper. Theron had scored three successive hundreds before this game and Chesterfords were delighted to take his wicket for 36 before he began to really dominate the bowling.

David Perring came onto bowl for the visitors and made an immediate impact by taking the wicket of the other opener, Amir, in his first over by trapping the batsmen in front of all three stumps. Perring and Miles continued to bowl well throughout there spells ably backed up by there team mates in the field treating every run saved as sacred. Gerber was unlucky to be bowled for 29 by Perring with a ball that simply rolled along the floor after it pitched. The introduction of Chesterfords off spinner Steve Squares slowed the run rate considerably as Chesterfords really began to take the game by the scruff of the neck. Squares bowled with intelligence and guile as he tormented the Loughton batsmen finishing with 2 for 28. Miles came back on to finish his spell and what an impact the young bowler had. After picking up two wickets earlier Miles took 3 quick wickets finishing with 5 for 35. Perring finished his destructive spell with 3 for 29 as South Loughton II’s were bowled out for 185 in the 44^th over.

With the pitch beginning to show some signs of irregular bounce and worsening over by over any score over 180 was going to be tough to chase. Paul Phillips and David Perring started confidently but were both dismissed for 16 and 19 respectively with none of the top 4 batsmen creating a base for victory and at 62 for 3 after 14 overs Chesterfords were beginning to feel the pressure.

With the dismissal of the consistent Luke Claydon for 7, Wassim Mughal, who by his own admission has not been performing with the bat this season, came to the crease. Mughal soon found his range by crashing a ball to the boundary in the first over he faced. This continued in a superb display of hitting with the ball being dispatched to all areas of the ground which was topped off by a massive slog sweep that saw the ball cannon off the roof of the pavilion. Mughal reached his 50 in 14 scoring shots which included 5 4’s and 4’6’s. Mughal was unfortunate to be caught on the boundary after a match winning innings of 75. David Lightning played sensibly at the opposite end and with the dismissal of Mughal Chesterfords still had a lot of work to do with 4 overs left to score 13 runs. Lightning and Lipscombe kept their heads and saw the visiting team home in the 43^rd over in a keenly contested game that Chesterfords finally won by 4 wickets.