Hadleigh & Thundersley's promotion hopes are in the balance after they fell victim to the weather at home to Harlow on Saturday.

The visitors won the toss and put Hadleigh in to bat, and the hosts set a rain disrupted target of 175, with captain Adam Fleming leading the way with a knock of 40.

And when the bad weather contiuned at John Burrows Park, Harlow were given a revised total of just 78 from 20 overs for victory.

And despite the dismissal of openers Conor Ramsey for one - as he was bowled David Williams and caught Luke Smith - and Luke Monger for six - bowled Joe Robbins - Harlow's Rehman Ahmed (40no) and Ahmed Khawaja (18no) saw them home.

Fleming admitted they'd fallen victim to both the weather and the toss and said the calculation which set Harlow such a low target is "unfair".

He said: "They calculate it by working out the run-rate for our first innings and then times it by the number of overs.

"So basically they had to score 3.89 for 20 overs, whereas we did that for 40 overs and in the wet.

"Our ground is so small that they could do that in their sleep.

"Harlow were a bit embarrassed with that victory, but that's the way it goes."

It left Hadleigh in fourth and 19 points off the top two promotion spots, with their last two games being trips to Fives & Heorians and the leaders Chingford.

Sothend-on-Sea also lost because of a reduced target: they made 190-8 and their visitors Hornchurch replied with 95-3 for victory.

And the weather was no friend of Orsett either as they made 259 all out and then saw Upminster win with a reduced target of 154-6.