Aythorpe Roding's hopes of the Mid-Essex Cricket League Premier Division title took a dive after rain washed out their game at home to Springfield.

Less than 15 overs were played before the square was turned into a giant puddle, leaving Roding 37 points adrift of Rayleigh after the leaders were able to play to a finish and victory at Great Totham.

It had all been going swimmingly for Aythorpe in those 14.3 overs though, four wickets for Jack Stevens reducing Springfield to 44-5 before the heavy rain set in.

High Roding had much better and for yet another week, both the first and second teams won.

The first-team squad defeated Broomfield by six wickets to stay top of the Second Division, nine points now their advantage to Terling.

Rain had been ominously circling the ground and the decision to field first on winning the toss proved decisive for Roding.

There was still two breaks for heavy showers but the home side's innings ended in 30 overs with just 117 on the board.

William Davis took 3-32, Freddie Burns 3-17 but both were beaten to the top bowling prize by the 4-23 from Josh O’Connor.

Ben Speakman behind the stumps also took three catches.

Roding were fortunate to have no rain interruptions in reply and proceeded to knock off the runs without too many problems.

Steve Molloy scored 34, Ben Speakman 18 and Chris Townsend 18 not out, with Benjamin Chillingworth's 35 the top score as they ended on 118-4 in the 27th over.

The seconds meanwhile beat their Broomfield counterparts by 119 runs.

Again there were no breaks for rain during their innings as they made 238-6 batting first, Freddie Duke top scoring with 60 and Tahir Khan adding a valuable 54.

Broomfield were all out for half of the Roding total in the 33rd over. Adrian Nelson starred with 5-53 and they too remain top of the table with only four games left to play.

Dunmow meanwhile suffered a 39-run loss away to Bury St Edmunds in Two Counties Division Two.

The home side made 193-6, two wickets each for Mel Hussain, Nicholas Kesingland and Sam Mixture, but they could only manage 154-9 in reply, Cameron Gibson making 41.