Shenfield slip up against Ilford
Hornchurch ended up well beaten by Brentwood in their Essex League Premier Division derby.
Roy Smith’s men suffered an early batting collapse, before a lower-order recovery helped them reach 191.
But the visitors saw Tom Oakley and Aaron West score quickly in reply to ensure they were ahead of the asking rate when heavy rain forced an early finish.
Brentwood captain Joe Buttleman put Hornchurch into bat after winning the toss and saw Max Osborne dismiss Paul Murray with the 10th ball of the innings.
Charlie Griffiths accounted for Billy Gordon in the ninth over, to leave Hornchurch 16-2, before Essex new boy Paul Walter joined Jamie Sorrell in a half-century stand for the third wicket.
Walter hit two sixes and three fours in a run-a-ball 28 before being dismissed by Jake Wickham and Ian Belchamber (3-24) dismissed Sorrell, Hornchurch captain Smith and Michael Bones cheaply to leave the visitors in trouble at 85-6.
Rashidi Boucher and Brentwood old boy Tom Moore steadied the ship with a 44-run stand over the next 14 overs, before Moore (25) was stumped by James Redwood off the bowling of Charlie Griffiths (2-31).
And after West Indian Boucher fell to Wickham (2-49) for 36, some late defiance from Chamikara Mudalige (27) and Marc Whitlock lifted the total to 191 before West (2-6) wrapped up the innings.
Brentwood openers Oakley and West then combined in an impressive stand as the visitors looked to get ahead of the run rate before the weather intervened.
Oakley had reached 86, hitting a six and eight fours, from 96 balls and West was unbeaten on 57 off 65 balls, with eight fours, when the heavens opened.
The deluge left the Harrow Lodge Park wicket unplayable and Brentwood, at 154-0, were deemed to be 92 runs ahead on the Duckworth/Lewis scale and comfortable winners.
Ilford got the better of Shenfield in a rain-affected contest at the Courage Playing Fields, with Essex’s Ashar Zaidi contributing with bat and ball.
Shenfield chose to bat first and Arshad Ali hit a six and three fours in a quickfire 20 before falling to Zaidi.
The Essex all-rounder dismissed John Walton (28), while Theeban Tavarasa trapped Jack Potticary leg before to make it 79-3, before Jack Kliber and Matt Salisbury combined in an 89-run stand.
Salisbury fell six runs short of his half-century to Mo Ahktar, while Haris Mahmood was stumped by Saf Imtiaz off the bowling of Zaidi to leave the hosts 200-5 in the 44th over.
Kliber became a fourth victim for Zaidi (4-21) soon after, falling nine short of a century after hitting three sixes and eight fours in a determined innings, and Tavarasa (3-42) struck twice more as Shenfield closed on 237-9.
Salisbury struck early in Ilford’s reply to remove Akash Raji and Ahktar, while Tom Austin ran out Abid Ali (25).
But Imtiaz and Zaidi then combined in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand, hitting unbeaten half-centuries.
Ran began to fall at 5.45pm, but the duo returned after a lengthy delay and Imtiaz had reached 68 not out, with Zaidi one run behind, when they reached their revised Duckworth/Lewis target of 192 with three over to spare.
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