Wanstead 180-6 beat Colchester & East Essex 112-10 by 68 runs.

DEFENDING champions Wanstead breezed to a straightforward victory over Colchester at Overton Drive on Saturday.

Batting first, the home side at first found scoring difficult on a slow wicket that had been a worry for home skipper Alex Richards.

But he dug in for 44 before his dismissal. It was the partnership of Jon Hinton and Paul Harvey which stepped up the scoring rate and pushed the score towards the eventual total of 180.

This turned out to be more than enough to secure the win as Colchester struggled from the start against the bowling of Arif Saeed who bowled Gadsby for three.

When Kerr was run out for just one it always looked unlikely that Wanstead would lose out.

The rest of the Colchester batsmen offered little resistance apart from Nick Gibbs solid 30 and once he went the match was quickly resolved with Colchester all out for 112.

On his return from a long injury lay-off John Harvey returned excellent bowling figures of 4-23.

In their Abbott Ale Cup match at Cheam, Wanstead returned with another win under their belts.

Jon Hinton hit an outstanding 82 to help them on their way and again their total was to big a target when their opponents came to bat. Cheam were all out for 161 as Wanstead progressed to the second round.

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