ByDanny Caro, Danny Caro
Chigwell & Hainault started off their season in emphatic fashion with a dominant performance against a traditionally strong Buckhurst Hill side, thanks to an impressive all-round performance with bat, ball and in the field.
Buckhurst Hill skipper Baig won the toss and elected to bat in overcast conditions. The Buckhurst Hill openers looked to play their shots and despite giving a couple of early chances away, Chigwell's opening bowlers Katseph and Khan were rewarded for their discipline and variety when three early wickets fell in quick sucession.
Alex Katseph, building on his impressive development last year, bowled with pace and extracted variable bounce out of an inconsistent pitch. He picked up the important wicket of Baig, who scored a century in the corresponding fixture last season, and followed it up with two in two balls, the second of which was a stunning caught and bowled diving sharply one handed to scoop the ball from the ground.
The evergreen Stuart Kaye (3-17 from 7 overs) bowled with great discipline and the Buckhurst Hil batsmen quickly learnt their lesson not to take any risks as he picked up the wickets of two batsmen who started to look settled.
At 59-7, Buckhurst Hill dug in, trying to salvage a respectable score. They found it difficult to manoeuvre the ball against some tidy bowling from Kaye, captain Danny Myers and debutant Tom Seeds whose flight and spin caused plenty of problems. After initially playing cautiously, batsman Ali decided to attack the Chigwell bowlers, resulting in a flurry of boundaries. Myers brought back Alex Katseph and this move reaped rewards as he removed Ali to pick up his fourth wicket.
Myers picked up the final wicket with Buckhurst Hill closing on 141 all out.
The Buckhurst Hill opening bowlers threw away the momentum they built in the final 10 overs of their innings with some bowling waywardly at the start of the Chigwell innings.
An excellent opening partnership of 69 between Tony Bloom and Michael Myers was buffered by 33 extras.
The Chigwell batsmen played cautiously and sensibly, picking up the odd boundary and benefitting from the wides and byes afforded to them. Tony Bloom looked in particularly good touch for his 23 with a couple of outstanding drives.
Three quick wickets fell as the impressive White (2-9 from 6 overs) was introduced into the attack. He bowled with great pace and crucially bowled a tight line, accounting for Bloom and Murray in successive overs.
The other Buckhurst Hill bowlers were not able to settle into any rhythm as Jack Pocock and Tom Seeds cruised Chigwell to victory with an unbeaten partnership of 70 from 10 overs.
Pocock, in particular used his feet and attacked the bowlers playing an array of shots around the ground, finishing on 33 not out. Seeds (16 not out) played a more cautious innings, mixing a solid defence with some elegant cuts and pulls.
The victory, by seven wickets came with over 10 overs to spare.
This encouraging performance will provide a lot of confidence for the season ahead.
Buckhurst Hill Sunday 'B'- 141 All Out (Ali 43; A Katseph 4 for 41, S Kaye, 3 for 17, A Khan 2 for 49)
Chigwell & Hainault- 142 for 3 (J Pocock 33 not out, T Bloom 23; White 2 for 9)