Essex League: Beau lifts Upminster; Billericay and Fives win

Upminster’s new Australian signing Beau Webster shone with the bat in their Hamro Foundation Essex League Division One win at Shenfield.

Put into bat, the visitors lost Pulkit Gupta cheaply to Matt Salisbury, but Webster had good support from Kiran Kullar (33), captain Adam Wheater (27), Muhammad Ahmad (33) and Harry Jenkins (35 not out).

Webster eventually fell for 145 from 130 balls to Alex Rickenbach (2-74) as Upminster piled up 294-5, then bowled Jack Potticary, ran out William Howard and also dismissed Evan Ackerman early in Shenfield’s reply.

Jack Kliber (79) and Salisbury (46) steadied the Shenfield ship with a fourth-wicket stand, but fell to Ahmad and Shafiq Rahman respectively.

Webster (4-26) and Callum Berry (3-58) then shared the remaining wickets, as Oliver Ekers (40) and Tom Arnold (22) made starts, to dismiss Shenfield for 261.

Billericay earned a big 119-run win at Old Brentwoods, as Matthew Bell (49), Michael Pearn (37), Raynard Van Tonder (34) and Joe Carson (23 not out) contributed to a total of 226.

Baber Chouhdary (3-32) was the pick of the home bowling, but saw his side collapse to 70-8 in reply, before some late defiance from Muhammad Sajid and Umaad Sultan saw them reach three figures.

Robert Rayner (5-19) was chief destroyer for Billericay, as Arjun Bhardwaj (2-16) and Carson (2-26) nabbed braces.

Fives & Heronians eased to a seven-wicket win over Harold Wood, after dismissing the visitors for 134 at The Paddock.

Taqi Abbas (35) and Shahbaz Khan (31) were the only Wood batters to make much impact, as Essex staffer Jamie Porter returned figures of 10-4-13-2 with the new ball alongside Ross Ter Braak (2-25).

K Zazai (4-39) was the pick of the bowling for Fives, who saw captain Jake Poulter steer them to their target with an unbeaten 75 alongside Ter Braak (22 not out).

Gidea Park & Romford were edged out by Epping after a low-scoring contest at Gallows Corner.

Put into bat, the hosts were dismissed for 138 in 40 overs, with Shavawn Cunningham (26) their top scorer.

Former Essex staffer Mervyn Westfield hit 36 off 29 balls in reply, in a 79-run opening stand with Imrul Kayes (62), who fell to Hasitha Nirmal (4-25) to leave the visitors 115-4.

Cunningham (3-11) then set nerves jangling as Epping slumped to 123-8, before their ninth-wicket pair clinched victory.

Ilford also tasted defeat against Belhus, after being dismissed for 188 at Valentines Park.

Mohammad Ahktar hit a six and nine fours in his 66 off 62 balls, with Akhil Anil (35) also getting started.

But Belhus captain Joe Joyce (58) and Matt Doran (74) shared a 94-run stand to help the visitors on the way to a six-wicket success.