IT was a mostly positive weekend for Chelmsford with four league wins for the first, second and third Saturday XI and the Sunday first team.

There was a draw for the fifth team, and disappointing defeats for the fourth team and the Sunday second team in a friendly.

The first team moved up to joint second in the SNEL Premier Division table with a victory away at South Woodford.

Karamat Ali returned an excellent six for 53 in South Woodford’s 203, while James Clifford also contributed three wickets.

Nick Bailey and Dan Hagen made very light work of this, with Bailey making 106 not out and Hagen ending agonisingly on 99 not out when, with two required for victory and on 95, he could only muster a four instead of a six.

The second team experienced one of the pre-tea finishes that became customary in home matches last year. Mark Drain took four wickets and Rob Hayto three in dismissing Woodford Wells for 97.

There was a brief scare in reply as two wickets went down in the first over but in the end victory was routine enough, with Chris Thanos and Matt Thurston unbeaten at the end.

Three wickets for Neil Fergus and two for both Craig Thompson and Jimmy Arnold were the key performances in the third team dismissing Hutton for 150.

Connor Cheverall made 58 in Chelmsford’s reply, supported by 32 from Thrift and 24 from Fergus enabling Chelmsford to win in

comfort by the margin of six wickets.

Poor batting cost the fourth team dear away at Harold Wood. Four wickets for Callum Rudd and Alistair Fergus had seen Harold Wood dismissed for 187. Although chasing this total should have been feasible no-one showed the required application and a series of poor shots saw the team dismissed for 86.

The fifth team had the better of a draw away at Leigh-on-Sea. Barry Clayden’s 83 not out was the mainstay of their innings of 199-4. A tight bowling performance ensured that Leigh did not come close to troubling this score, but the wickets required to turn a draw into a win could not be found.

On Sunday, the first team had a decent home win over Great & Little Warley.

Gary Chidley made an excellent 98 enabling Chelmsford to reach 216-8. Ben Clifford broke the back of the visitors’ reply,

taking five wickets in his opening burst. They eventually totalled 156.

The Sunday second team were ultimately beaten quite comfortably by Forest Gate. David Thrift’s 63 not out was the main contribution to Chelmsford’

s 205-6.

Despite three wickets for Matt Cook, Forest Gate managed to chase this total down inside 31 overs for the loss of six wickets.