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Stanford’s 1^st XI maintained their good early season form with a comfortable win over Old Parks at the Rec. Having won the toss and batted, Stanford needed a solid platform and they got one from openers Peter Gray (68) and Alex Ellis (29). Lee Knight (75no) joined Gray as they took the score over the 150 mark. The visitors made some progress as the batsmen chased quick runs, through Pandva (3-77) and Mann (2-34), but they couldn’t stop the home side posting 256.

Kevin Smith (2-30) and Harry Maher (2-67) struck early to severely dent the Old Boys hopes of chasing the total down and they collapsed completely when skipper Ross Poulton joined the attack. In less than 9 overs, he took 5-25 to send the visitors crashing to a 104 run defeat.

Stanford skipper Andy Powley won the toss and put the home side in. An inspired stroke this was as Old Parks II struggled against the pace of Aussie Josh Reid (2-35) and Daryl Woodford. However, it was not pace that eventually saw their efforts fail, but the wily swing bowling of Powley after he brought himself on. His 14 overs yielded  an excellent 6-38 as the home side subsided to 169 all out.

Stanford were in a bit of trouble at 42-3, but Drew Robinson (55no) was joined by Reid (38) in a match clinching century partnership. Reid went with the win in sight, but Robinson saw the team through to a comfortable 6 wicket win.

Their seemed to be no alarms as skipper Geoff Lake (22) and Peter Victory (23), enjoyed a decent 43 run stand for the first wicket. However, the Billericay bowlers soon upset things as Joe Parsons (4-34), Peter Mills (3-62) and Shaun Gillion (2-16) got among the wickets. Stanford were teetering at 84-7, before young Ben Tarten (48no) settled things down. He was joined by Colin Knight (29) in a face-saving stand that took them to the relative comfort of 170 all out.

Stanford chipped away at the home batsmen, sharing the wickets round as the scoreboard ticked over. No Billericay batsman was outstanding, but they all contributed to a real team effort that left them with a three wicket win and Stanford wishing they had scored 30 more runs!

Adrian Page played his first game for Stanford 44 years ago and in all that time had never registered a 3 figure score for the club. To finally do so was a surprise and a relief as he allowed his team the rare luxury of a declaration before tea.  With ‘Chopper’ Harris the only person to register a double figure score in the rest of the team showed the necessity of Page’s contribution. Alan Roberts (3-16) was the pick of the home bowlers, with special mention to Rhys McIroy (2-11), who showed what a handful he might become in future years.

McIlroy (32) also did a superb job in anchoring the innings as Orsett began the chase. Laura Knight worked her socks off in an unchanged 26 over spell, which showed she has stamina as well as talent. Little luck on this occasion and her figures of 2-69 hardly reflect the quality of the spell. Page (3-37) dragged himself on, but Paul Howlett (29), Roberts (19no) and the wily Dave Kooyman (21) just had too much nous to hold off an excellent Stanford effort.