Stanmore 101 Ealing 56

Stanmore shot out Ealing for 56 for a 45-run home win on Saturday and went 12 points clear at the top of the Middlesex County League.

But it was a different story on Sunday when Stanmore, who had thrashed Sunbury by 230 runs in the Daily Mirror Middlesex Federation Cup earlier in the season lost by one wicket in the last over and went out of the Evening Standard Cup.

Against Ealing, Umesh Valjee (13) and Peter Edwards (19) gave Stanmore a steady start and Richard Brooker (22) applied himself well on a difficult wicket.

Disaster struck as Rob Hesketh and Alastair Fraser were dismissed for ducks and Stanmore tumbled from 45 for one to 69-7.

But Nick Goh, Mark Stear and Dave Dunn added 32 precious runs, boosting the final tally to 101 (Soni 4-10, Martin 3-47)..

Faced with a modest target Ealing must have fancied their chances.

But they were soon in dire trouble against the seam of Fraser and Julian Makin, crashing to 20-6, with Fraser (5-17) claiming three wickets in his third over, and four out of the first five.

Makin (5-35) grabbed the next four, and Ealing were all out for 56.

In the Evening Standard encounter Sunbury, dismissed for 60 by Stanmore in the Daily Mirror Cup, gave their opponents first knock.

Valjee (39) and Edwards (10) shared an opening stand of 56, but the next two wickets added only two, and Stanmore slumped to 109-7.

Then Stear (50) batted superbly, backed by Chris Sayers (26no) in an eighth-wicket stand of 72.

Stear savaged Cowell for 19 in an over including two sixes and a four, before he was caught and the innings closed at 181-9.

Missing from the Stanmore attack were key bowlers skipper Fraser (playing for Middlesex in the Axa League), Makin and Dunn.

But Stear having excelled with the bat launched a blitz with the ball, bowling opener P Wellings (10) and N Farnsworth (0) in his first over to reduce Sunbury to 19-2.

Stear (5-24 in 10 overs) continued to wreak havoc, dismissing the next three batsmen down the order, and Sunbury were 51-5.

But opener Gould (47) held firm, and Cowell (63) joined him in a stand of 96, before Gould fell to a catch by Mark Dyson off Goh.

Cowell was next to go, caught by Stear off Luke O'Reilly (2-38) as three wickets tumbled for four runs.

But Stanmore were unable to remove the last pair, and with the scores level and three balls to go, Lewis hit the winning four.

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