1:10pm Wednesday 23rd December 2009
UNBEATEN Rayleigh Fairview moved clear at the top of the Southend Indoor League division one table after inflicting a first defeat on Hockley in a tense clash between the two leading teams.
Tight bowling by Hockley pinned the normally free-scoring Fairview back to a modest total of 98-2 in their innings of 12 overs.
Fairview were indebted to a solid knock of 25 not out from Russell Sheerman and 20 from skipper Stuart Warren.
Despite battling performances from Hockley’s Neil Foster (30) and Chris Hale (25), Fairview’s score proved sufficient as their young bowling attack restricted Hockley to 88-5 for a narrow win by 10 runs.
Seam bowlers Tom Webster who took 3-19 runs and Jack Bloxham (1-15) were the pick of the Fairview attack — and both are only 17-years-old.
Southend-on-Sea B are the only other unbeaten team in the division and they had a comfortable win over Eastwood B despite an outstanding performance from the losing side’s Brett Deeming, who scored 68 not out in his side’s 121-5.
But Southend’s strong batting line up easily knocked off the runs to win by four wickets at 122-2 with Wayne Spear (30) Simon Wray (30), Andrew Callaway (26) and Tom Kenton (26) all returning not out scores.
Bluehouse gained their first victory of the season in a thrilling game against East-wood.
Bluehouse posted a respect-able score of 128-3 which saw top scores from Duncan Baldwin (27no) and Matt Evans (25no), but it did not seem enough as Eastwood homed in on the target with James Davis (40) and Brett Deeming (26) leading the way.
Eastwood needed only 11 runs off the last two overs, but Bluehouse captured the last wicket at 125-6 to win by three runs.
Spartans put in a good batting performance against Hadleigh and Thundersley B to score 117-3, thanks to Phil Gray (34 n.o) and Andy Blunt (32).
However, Hadleigh reached that target with an over to spare as skipper Jonathan Newnham (42no) and Matt Wagstaff (29no) carried Hadleigh to 120-2 and victory by four wickets.
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