DIVISION THREE:

OLD Southendian & Southchurch reignited their promotion push with an eight-wicket win over Old Brentwoods.

The Old Boys were defeated by Stanford le Hope the weekend before but bounced back by bowling out Old Brentwoods for 124 and then replying with 125-2.

“It was a very good performance after the disappointment of last week,” said delighted Southendian skipper Aaron Lucas. “It was good to get back to winning ways.

“The bowlers bowled particularly well and Adam Hunt took five wickets and bowled a really nice pace. He is a spinner and he slowed his pace down a bit and really made the ball spin.

“They had something like 40 runs on the board before we took the first wicket, so to bowl them out for 124 was a cracking display.

“Rob Johnstone got out early but Max Craddock and Michael Hill batted superbly. They looked really comfortable. It was a professional display and I’m delighted.”

Stanford remain top of the division after securing a seven-wicket win at bottom-of-the-table Epping.

The hosts were skittled out for 74 and Stanford completed the victory with a 97-3 reply.

“We were a bit worried on Friday night with the rain but they had the covers on,” said Stanford captain Lee Knight.

“We won the toss and put them in and it was a good bowling performance. The wickets were shared around and everyone got a wicket.

“Martin Leslie got 40 runs and put on 50 for the first wicket with Duncan Page, which won the match for us really.”

Basildon & Pitsea slipped to a two-wicket defeat at home to Woodford Green.

The hosts were put into bat and lost opening batsmen Michael Gray and Paul Singleton for seven runs.

Phillip Tooke fell for 12 before Lloyd Lambert (26) and Jamie White (25) made valuable contributions.

Jamie White (12) and wicketkeeper Jon Bonnett (38) added to the total but the last three wickets went for 15 runs to leave Basildon on 174 all out after 41.5 overs, with Chirag Pithia (3-34) and Sahir Akbar (3-39) the biggest threats.

Tom Poole (1-22) and Dean Bedford (3-29) accounted for the top four Woodford Green batsmen at a cost of 11 runs.

But victory hopes were extinguished as Sean Martin (34) and Anthony Palmer (34) led the recovery with all the other batsmen reaching double figures as Woodford replied with 178-8 in 44.2 overs, with Dan Bedford taking 2-37.

l Old Southendian are holding their cricket week at Southchurch Park this week.