James lever

Woodford Wells 223-9 beat Shenfield 128 by 95 runs

Woodford Wells got their season underway at the third attempt when they beat Shenfield in their Premier Division clash at Monkhams Lane.

The victory was the first for Rory Ellison’s men who have lost both of their previous two matches this season that have belied the rain, the most recent an eight-wicket walloping at Ilford the previous weekend.

But there was no apparent residue from the recent defeat as openers William Rogers (58) and Peter McDermott (45) put on a stand of 81 after Shenfield had won the toss and put them into bat.

Ryan Lugg (1-36) made the breakthrough for Shenfield when he bowled Rogers, only for McDermott, now partnered by Adam Wheater (5) to continue the momentum to take them to 105-2, when Wheater was run out by Lugg.

Woodford had reached 124 when Rogers was the third wicket to go, when bowled by Suhaib Sawar (1-31).

But still the home side pressed on as the middle-order produced a bold display to frustrate the visiting attack.

Robert Leiper (31) and Ellison (14) took them to 153-4, before Ellison was caught by Arshad Ali off Jon Hammond (2-42). A mini collapse ensued as Leiper was caught by James Kliber off Ali (2-45) and Hammond had Daniel Magin (1) stumped to leave them 166-6.

Mark Webb (25), now batting in partnership with Zain Iqbal (9) took them to 207, before Matthew Salisbury (1-33) had him caught by Kliber.

The tail added runs to leave them on a defendable 223-9 off 50 overs.

In reply, Magin (4-38) quickly strengthened their hand, bowling opener Ali for a duck and John Walter for six runs to restrict Shenfield to 13-2.

Daniel Jacob (47) finally got them underway, but not before Magin had struck twice more to remove Sarwar (3) and then trap Ollie Ekers (1) lbw to leave the visitors with it all to do at 36-4.

Salisbury (17) and Jacob took Shenfield to 65-5, when Salisbury was caught by Zain Iqbal off James Lever (3-20). Jacob and Jamie Walton (12) raised hopes of getting something out of the game as they made their way to 110-6, when Walton was bowled by Donovan Miller (1-14).

His departure instigated an immediate collapse as the tail failed to rebuff the attack and added just a disappointing 18 more runs for their last four wickets.