On a beautiful day Matching turned up at the lovely ground of Molehill Green. Matching Green lost the toss and were put in to bat on an excellent looking wicket that may have been a bit dry.
Ian Strickland and Wes Eldred opened the bowling for Molehill Green and both kept things very tight with Eldred picking up the valuable wicket of Dan Sibley for just 4. The other opener, Graeme Bowerman plugged away on a wicket that appeared to be difficult to score quickly on at that stage. After 15 overs Matching had limped to 36-1.
Eldred bowled nicely and bowled his 10 overs right through also picking up the wicket of Bowerman for 23 finishing with 2-26. This brought Jason Green and Simon Hartnell together. Initially they also batted slowly on the wicket but steadily increased the pace scoring 108 off the last ten overs they faced. Green was eventually out stumped by Coleman off J. Connolly for a superb 106 whilst Hartnell amassed a brilliant 104 not out, their partnership being 186 in 26 overs .
Matching had posted 252-3 off their 45 overs .
Molehill Green worked really hard throughout the Matching innings constantly encouraging each other no matter what the stage of the game was. In truth Matching looked as though they may be 20 runs short of where they wanted to be. Molehill opened with the classy Simon McConnell and Sam Read. They negotiated Jason Green and Charlie Bass well , however Read was eventually out caught behind by Harry Lees off the bowling of Green for 13 with the score on 43 in the 12th over. Will Connolly came to the wicket and he looked very solid and in good form, he and the gradually more expansive McConnell looked threatening as they moved the score to 96-1 at drinks after 22 overs.
Sadly, at drinks, Simon Hartnell had to leave the field to go and see his father Bill, the President of Matching Green, as a phone call had said he had taken a turn for the worse. It put the game into perspective.
Paul Dawson came in to the attack and he and Jonny Taylor settled in to a nice partnership. Molehill were brilliant and gave Matching a sub fielder for the rest of the match which was really appreciated.
Taylor bowled Connolly with a superb inswinger for 22 and in the next over Dawson had McConnel caught at mid off by Nick Robinson for a well made 75. The next over Taylor bowled J Coleman for 1 , the next Dawson had J Berndes lbw for 5. Matching were on fire and the game was turning in their direction .
Wickets continued to tumble and Molehill were eventually 181 all out, with Dawson taking 6-41, Taylor 2-55 and Green 2-41. It was a good game and a delightful place to play .
With Stansted being beaten by Ilford Catholics and Nazeing losing to Theydon Bois only Ilford Catholics can now overtake Matching who need just 9 points from the last two games to secure the title .