Ilford Catholics suffered a 41-run defeat to Noak Hill Taverners as they returned to competitive action on the weekend.

Noak Hill elected to bat and got off to a fast start but Mayuran Thiru (1-33) took the first wicket of the season aided by a Rajiv Manchanda catch behind the stumps.

John Rogers (2-36) claimed two wickets in his spell as the run rate eased while Salman Rana bowled well, taking his first league wicket for the club.

Debutant Jignesh Macwan (2-24) bagged two wickets in an encouraging six-over spell as Louis Morgan (1-10), Salman (3-25) and Vince Mulholland (1-21) closed out the innings on 152.

Catholic started badly, with Manoj Surendar being caught in the deep before Morgan and Mulholland soon fell, leaving the home side 11-2 off six overs.

Salman (19) was next, caught behind, but debutant Sakthi Ganesan (15) and Vince (27) added 38 for the fourth wicket. More wickets then fell regularly with only Mayuran (13) making double figures as the reply came to an end in the 33rd over on 111.

The seconds also suffered defeat to Springfield by 56 runs after being asked to field where Adam Tanveer (2-26) bowled some great lengths to contain the openers.

Uday Kumar (3-33) ran through the middle order but Springfield launched a counter-attack and achieved a challenging total.

Chasing 247, the Catholic top order collapsed to 65-5, before Sanjay Agnihotri (67) led the fightback, supported by Lingam Ramasamy (27) and Adam Tanveer (26), but ended 56 short.

The thirds were on the wrong end of the scoreline with a nine-wicket defeat to Terling.

Catholic were asked to bat and Martin Riches (65) and Stefan Minkey (24) started well, leaving them well placed at 73-1.

However, Terling brought John Marshall on and wickets fell steadily and, although Hudson (24) and Adrian Swain (15*) showed resistance, from 131-1 Catholic could only reach 162-7.

In reply, Swain picked up a quick wicket, but this brought Marshall (71*) and Graham Oldham (77*) to the crease and the match was all over within 26 overs.

The fourths bucked the losing trend to seal a 186-run victory over Rayleigh sixths.

Electing to bat first, Catholic saw debutant Tariq Noori score a blistering 161, supported by Ananth Kumar (24), Bill Maddison (24) and Vicky Phogat (16) in an excellent total of 279.

In reply, Catholic's bowlers kept tight lines to restrict Rayleigh to 93 all out.