Victoria Park Community League By Phil Ravitz THERE was a resounding victory for Island Community as they secured second place in the Green League to join the already qualified league leaders in the top division for the second-half of the season, with a

Victoria Park Community League

By Phil Ravitz

THERE was a resounding victory for Island Community as they secured second place in the Green League to join the already qualified league leaders in the top division for the second-half of the season, with a win over Pacific.

The coverted second placed rested between these Island and Pacific and it was Island Community, for whom this was a sixth win from seven games, who gained an emphatic six wicket win - their decision to field after winning the toss proving crucial.

Preferring to chase a Pacific total, Island immediately struck to the heart of their opponents' inning taking two quick wickets and reducing Pacific to 12-2 after two overs.

But Roy (18), Webley (40) and Faisal (30) all contributed well to raise the rate to over eight per over.

But then Pacific lost five wickets very cheaply - all clean bowled - to see them all out for 118 with balls unused, Ravi Ramanuja taking three late wickets with his leg spin.

Island were chasing 7.5 per over for victory, but raced away to 30-1 in just four overs.

A couple of dropped catches didn't help the Pacific cause and Tanjeem look full advantage, smashing 51 before retiring.

Robert Jones continued the good work with an unbeaten 41 and former opener Mo Rahman, coming in at four, struck the winning boundary off the first ball of the 12th over to see Island finish the game with plenty in hand at 122-1 to ensure their qualification for the top tier.

London Tigers showed no let-up having already qualified and registered their seventh straight win against bottom-of-the-table Tufnell Parkians.

Fielding first, having lost the toss, Tigers restricted the Parkians 83-4 with some outstanding bowling from the in-form Syful (3-3) and Rumon (2-1) as Willson (19) and Happer (20) did their best to lift the bottom side's total.

To their credit, Tufnall Parkians made it as tough for Tigers as they could, defending a small total, and Benson (3-1) and Wilson presented problems, but an unbeaten 35 from Kalad and useful contributions from Rasal and Syful saw Tigers to 84-3 in nine overs and another victory.

At the foot of that division, Wrong 'Uns inflicted a one wicket defeat on Martians in a very wet affair,

Martians took first knock and made 112-1 from 14 overs, but as the conditions deteriorated in a real downpour, managed to bowl and field in difficult conditions as Wrong' Uns just about made the total in 12.1 overs, posting 115-6, their batsmen just about holding it together for their second win of the season, leaving Martians second bottom.

The Green League match between Masiha and Bengal Tigers wasn't played. Masiha take the points by default.

At the top of the Red League, the Ducks established themselves as the only unbeaten side by inflicting a first defeat of the campaign on previous 100 per centers London Wanderers in their top-of-the-table clash.

Wanderers opted to bat and lost wickets regularly as they moved towards a final total of 104-3 off 14 overs, centred largely around an unbeaten knock of 44 from Howie Shearing and 20 not out from Chris Barlow.

Rodney 2-17 and Shah 1-37 were the pick of the the Ducks' bowlers.

The chase from the Ducks began well, although they accumulated runs regularly, the reply lacked boundaries and it always looked as though it was going to a be a closely-run thing.

Fisher took four wickets for Wanderers and Alam chipped in with two and Ducks entered the last over needing two for victory, which they managed off the first ball to settle a fine clash and a good game of cricket.

There was also a victory for Caledonian Conquerors over Victoria Park Juniors in this division to see Conquerors level in second place with Wanderers.

In a lowly clash in the Red League, Old Fallopians picked up their second win of the season - a four wicket success against Chats Palace - who have now lost all seven of their league games.

Palace posted 101-7 in 16 overs, thanks largely to 39 from Gary Horsman, Tom Walsh chipped in with 17, as Southey and Rafe Smallman took a couple of wickets apiece.

Fallopians made the total in 13.1 overs, with Smallman showing his all-round abilities, top scoring with 32, Southey adding 18 and Shah, Saeed and Downing, all took a wicket apiece for Palace.

The Red League clash between London Fields and Victoria Lounge was won by Fields to take them into fourth place in the table. Lounge slump to second bottom.

In the midtable Blue League encounter between Contenders and Tower Cavaliers, it was Contenders who were overwhelming winners by 130 runs.

Their aggressive batting yielded them a massive 232-2, Dee Alexander scoring 53 no, Ramsey 50 no and Ambrose 48 no. Andrew Dickson was the pick of the Cavalier bowling with 2-4.

In reply, they were restricted to 93-7, Stuart Onsbu making 21 and Rob Waugh and Steve Williams 11 each as Ambrose (3-3) ran through the innings.

Sky got back to winning ways in the Blue League, when they made short work of Tower Ravens in their midweek meeting.

Tower Ravens elected to bat and although their 121-4 looked a reasonable total off 14 overs, it didn't test the powerful Sky line-up who knocked off the required target without losing a wicket to force a three way tie at the top of the Blue League.

East London Comm-unity join Sky and Tower Ravens bracketed on eight points, all with five wins from six games.

East London beat lowly Rose & Crown.