4:10pm Tuesday 8th September 2009
BENFLEET claimed the Division Three title following a victory in a see-saw match against third-placed Old Brentwoods.
The win meant Benfleet pipped Stanford le Hope to the crown, although the Thurrock club achieved promotion to Division Two.
Benfleet lost early wickets to Seemab Ahsan (3-40) and K Sarwar (3-29) before Phil Wright’s 42 steadied things.
Andy Scott (39), Mike Tremain (30) and Andy Prophet (26) bolstered the middle of the innings and Kam Khan’s late 12 helped the visitors to 194-9 declared from 52 overs.
Sarwar (72) led the reply but a steady fall of wickets swung the match in Benfleet’s favour, until the last three bats added 49 runs to make it touch and go until Epping were dismissed for 178 off 44 overs.
Alan Pritchard (4-37) and Khan (3-43) did the main damage and Benfleet skipper Paul Tremain said: “It really was close and it was a difficult game to be honest.
“The match had gone backward and forward all afternoon. We had set out to get 200 and eight points to make it easier for ourselves, but we did not get there and had to do it the hard way as 194 was not really enough.
“We knew Stanford were smashing Epping, so we knew we had to bowl Old Brentwoods out.
“In the end we were glad to get the win and claim the title.”
In contrast to Benfleet’s match, Stanford recorded a comfortable 118-run win over hosts Epping.
The visitors saw Kevin Smith (46), Adam Knight (33), Martin Leslie (19) and Sam Spooner (17) keep the scoreboard ticking over.
But then a middle order collapse put pressure on Stanford before Harry Maher (26), Lee Knight (20), Matthew Huggings (12) and skipper Ross Poulton (7no) got them to 204 all out from 38.5 overs.
Dinesh Bidiwala (6-45) did the main damage for Epping, with Terry Preston and Tim Adams taking a brace each.
But Epping were put to the sword by their visitors as Clive Ballard (5-36) and Maher (5-23) ripped them apart in 18.1 overs.
Only opener Dan Sly (41) resisted the onslaught as Sam Spooner and Kevin Smith had two catches each, while Lee Knight had a catch and two stumpings before Epping were bowled out for 86.
Southend on Sea hosted Belhus at Southchurch Park and fought out another high-scoring draw between the two clubs.
Belhus opted to bat and saw Roy Heffernan (88no) and skipper Richard Day (82) anchor the innings, which reached 274-4 declared.
John Horne claimed 2-70 as Day opted to bat out Belhus's full 52 overs.
Phil McIntosh led the Southend reply with 83, while skipper Wayne Spear contributed 71 and Tom Kenton (33) as the Seasiders replied with 235-7 from 44 overs.
Kevin Harber led the attack with 3-37.
“We probably lacked a bit of bowling on a lightning quick pitch,” said Spear. “Richard and I had a joke and he said he hoped we we’re annoyed that he had batted on, but he wanted to give people a bat.
“John Horner and Nigel slowed it down a bit but 274 was probably 20 or 30 runs too much for us.
“We got 235 but they opened it right up for us, although we were very weak batting.
“I think Belhus’ batting is very strong. They will be pushing next year if they have a bit more to their bowling. We have scored 500 runs against them in two innings.”
Belhus captain Day added: “We set out to have a bat last game and we had no intention of declaring early.
“We batted our 52 overs and then set out to crowd the bat, which we did, but we could not get the breakthrough, although in the end it did not really matter as we got the draw.
“Congratulations to Benfleet and Stanford on promotion. They had good a season and never had a blip, unlike ourselves.”
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