Ilford Catholics picked up their first win of the T-Rippon Mid-Essex League season as they beat Woodham Mortimer by four wickets.

Woodham Mortimer batted first on a damp but drying wicket, facing Mayuran Thiru (1-38) and John Rogers (0-42).

Thiru struck early on but runs came quickly before Nomi Quereshi (1-36) replaced Rogers and picked up the next wicket, aided by a catch by Louis Morgan.

The two new batsmen put on 64 before Mulholland (3-52) trapped Tripathi (20) LBW. A late onslaught by Shipton (77*) completed the innings as they scored 187-6.

Ruhul Chowdhury (55) and Louis Morgan (3) set about the chase confidently, but Vince Mulholland (7) and Liam Mulholland (5) fell, leaving Catholic on 65-3 off 20 overs.

However, Chowdhury continued to bat positively and reached his half-century.

Sujen Sube (7) and Rajiv Manchanda (2) were soon out, but some solid batting from Thiru (38*) and Surendar (52*) saw ICCC home.

The seconds suffered a four-wicket defeat to Boreham & Roxwell in their latest fixture.

Some good bowling from Boreham left Catholic struggling at 52-5 before Nishanth Patupalli (20) and Aravinth Ponnusamy (28) helped the score along, but quick wickets at the end meant the hosts ending on a low total of 134.

Adam Tanveer (2-48) and Aravinth (3-34) gave some hope, but dropped catches and close umpire calls meant a win for the visitors.

The thirds secured a huge 164-run victory over Great Altham after deciding to bat first in their match.

Martin Riches and Saurabh Penkar (28) started bright, but lost an early wicket, before Mo Zaman (63) took over and his innings put Catholic in control.

At 85-1 things looked good, but a rush of wickets left Catholic on 126-6 . Thankfully the evergreen Adrian Swain (30), aided by Karan Shah (20) and Annanth Kumar (22no) set a good total of 209-8.

The visitors reply started slowly with only 18 runs from 10 overs as some accurate bowling from Vicky Phogat (3-1), Swain (4-80) and Riches (3-13) completely bamboozled the batsmen to end the game within 23 overs, while the fourths lost to Chelmsford Super Kings.