Victoria Park Community Cricket League By PHIL RAVITZ SKY have suffered a first defeat of the season and only a second reversal in 17 league matches as Contenders recorded a five-wicket win over the Blue League leaders. For Contenders it was a second succ

Victoria Park Community Cricket League

By PHIL RAVITZ

SKY have suffered a first defeat of the season and only a second reversal in 17 league matches as Contenders recorded a five-wicket win over the Blue League leaders.

For Contenders it was a second success of the campaign and they hauled themselves up to fourth in the Blue League after posting 142-2 thanks to an unbeaten 50 from Aleem Hussain.

It proved just beyond the powerhouse Sky who fell four runs short despite an unbeaten 52 from Aleem.

Contenders bowled very economically and bounced back from their controversial loss to Tower Ravens the previous week.

At the foot of the Blue League, Rose & Crown's decision to field first in their clash of the bottom two proved a shrewd one.

They restricted basement side Old Ranwellians to 92-6 in 16 overs, Sean Feeney ripping through their batting to take 4 for just 11 and knocked off the total for the loss of just one wicket, thanks to Feeney's undefeated 40 and Dan Heaphy making 27. Rose & Crown passed the total in just 9.5 overs to record their second victory and leave Ranwellians without a win from their opening six games.

London Tigers maintained their perfect start to their Green League campaign, with their sixth straight victory in their clash with Martians.

For the Marshes based Hackney side it was the first of two games in successive evenings, both of which were lost fairly heavily, to leave them with just one victory so far this season.

Against the powerful Tigers, Martians chose to bat but only posted 92-5 from 15 overs, with Tigers' sharp bowling from Syful, 2-10 and Sumon, 2-16 doing the damage.

Tigers experienced few problems in making the target thanks to Raihan's unbeaten 50 and only seven overs had gone by before Tigers amassed 93-1 to go top of the pile with the only unbeaten record in that section.

Island Community remain their closest rivals and the following evening they added to Martians' woe with a five wicket win.

Martians again batted first and set a modest target again, their nine overs yielding 58-5.

It proved little to tax the Islanders who knocked off 59 without loss in just four overs for the team's fifth win in six matches.

At the other end of the division, Wrong 'Uns had their first success of the season - a 10 run victory over fellow strugglers Tufnell Parkians.

Both sides were without a victory going into the game, but it was Wrong 'Uns who batted first and managed 134-4 off 16 overs thanks to Allan Young's 40 and a useful supporting knock of 22 from Nick Woolf.

When Parkians replied, they enjoyed a surge in the middle of their innings to really threaten the tally.

They were left needing 20 off the game's final over and fell half the target short, as two wickets each from Matt Wark and Matt Ames kept the brakes on and saw Wrong 'Uns home to break their duck.

Third placed Pacific had to settle for a share of the spoils from their scheduled clash with Masiha. The game didn't take place - a victim of Wednesday's Tube strike - so both teams settled for a both apiece.

The midtable Red League clash between London Fields and Victoria Park Juniors went Fields' way by 17 runs.

Fields won the toss and elected to bat and amassed 171-5 from 16 overs with unbeaten half-centuries from Robin Friend (58 not out) and Paul Teasdale (50 not out).

In reply, Vicky Park Juniors didn't get close enough, restricted to 154-7 thanks to a particularly tight spell from Fields' Chris Skinner that gives the Hackney team an even-handed record of three wins and three losses from their six fixtures, the same as the Juniors, for whom this was a third defeat.

Second placed Caledonian Conquerors further cemented their position without having to pad up.

Their scheduled fixture with bottom-of-the-table Victoria Lounge didn't materialise as Victoria Lounge weren't able to field a team. Conquerors take the points by default!

The two final games of the week in the Red League produced overwhelming victories for leaders The Ducks and third placed London Wanderers.

The Ducks made Old Fallopians regret their decision to bat, restricting them to 93-5 off 16 overs despite a valiant, unbeaten 45 from Rafe Smallman.

With Husnain Abbas (50 no) and Rafiq (30) in imperious form, Ducks passed the target with only one wicket down for a sixth successive victory.

Wanderers chose to bat against bottom side Chats Palace and made the decision count, stacking up 181-3 off their 16 overs, Howie Shearing contributing 53 no, Badhrul Alan 51 no and Chris Barlow 29.

It was far too much for Chats who made only 41-7 in the face of Dean Fisher's 4-20 to go down by a massive 140 run margin in their sixth successive defeat.