On a lovely day at the Green Matching Green 1st XI won the toss and had no hesitation putting Ilford Catholic 1st XI in on a greenish pitch. With Jason Green absent, skipper Paul Dawson opened the bowling with Charlie Bass. Ilford opened with Zaman and stalwart Vince Mulholland. Both bowlers kept things very tight and after 11 overs Ilford were 15-1, Bass having had Zaman lbw with a superb in swinger. Dawson's first 6 overs had gone for 2 runs.

Simon Wasley came on to replace Bass and Dan Sibley replaced Dawson. Wasley bowled a sharp but slightly off line spell. Sibley soon had Mulholland lbw for 12. Simon Hartnell then joined the fray and Sibley swapped ends and that seemed to assist him. Hartnell bowled a nice spell having the normally rock like Liam Mulholland lbw first ball, his spell giving him 1-34 off his 10.

Wasley then got in the game with the big hitting Gopalasamy looking ready to mount an attack …Wasley throwing in from the boundary with a massive arm and a direct hit sending him on his way for 5 a relief to the Matching team.

Sibley continued to bowl well and clean bowled Guru with a superb delivery and then the same result with his good friend Steve Ward, for 14 and 10 respectively. Sibley ended with 3-52 but he bowled much better than the figures seemed to reflect.

Bass returned and once Shinde was bowled by him for a scrappy 48 he promptly cleaned out the middle and lower order with aplomb a sublime spell of bowling, clean bowling 3 of the Ilford batsmen who had no real reply to him. The spell left with him with the excellent and deserved figures of 5-18.

Ilford were all out for 139 off just 40 of their allotted 45 overs. At one stage they had looked set to post a target of in excess of 200. Matching had bowled well and fielded well as a unit. In truth it never looked like enough.

Matching opened with Jack Scantlebury and Ben Franks and Ilford with veteran Vince Mulholland and young Louis Morgan celebrating his 17^th birthday !!....a contrast indeed. Neither opener lasted long with Scantlebury lbw to Mulholland for a duck and Franks clean bowled by Morgan for 9.

Seb Forest strode in and he was joined by Simon Wasley. Forest looked classy and stroked a superb 20 and when looking in no trouble at all snicked one to Guru off Mulholland. Hartnell came and went for 7 and Matching were having a bit of a wobble. At the other end Wasley who had been promoted up the order was hitting the ball hard. He then went berserk hitting the normally reliable leg spinner Ramanuga for 37 off just 9 balls. Any chance Ilford had went then in all honesty.

Guru eventually bowled Wasley for a punishing 80 and a match winning innings. Dan Sibley and Charlie Bass then shared an unbeaten stand of 30 to bring the game home for Matching after just 21 overs. A big win for Matching.

With Nazeing beating Aspenden Standon and Puckeridge by 8 wickets only two teams can now win the League, Matching Green and Nazeing. Matching are still 39 points clear and with the teams still to play each other at Matching on the 20^th August.

Next week Matching are away at Birchanger always a tough opponent and Nazeing are at home to 3 Caps, a side that has performed well in their first season in the top flight.