EALING reached the regional final of the National Knock-Out Cup with an 86-run victory over Richmond on Sunday.

After being put into bat, openers Arif Rashid and Ian Boyton took full advantage of indifferent bowling to hit scores of 107 and 63 respectively, helping Ealing to an impressive total of 277 in 45 overs.

With the visitors needing six runs an over, Ealing's bowlers responded. Alan Price (2-30) and Ian Blanchett (1-37) took care of the early wickets while Cup skipper Peter Wellings (3-45) and Kamran Hafeez (2-29) skittled through the middle order as Richmond were bowled out for 191. Graham Beckett was outstanding behind the stumps, taking three excellent catches.

They will now play Finchhampstead in the regional final on Sunday.

On Saturday Ealing pulled off a narrow victory over Eastcote to move up to third in the Middlesex County Cricket League Division One.

Arif Rashid's side are now eleven points behind leaders' Brondesbury, having been deducted ten points for fielding an ineligible player.

Jitin Bahl was the matchwinner for Ealing. Needing seven runs from the last over, Bahl hit two sixes off the first four balls.

Earlier Eastcote had notched up 252 -9 in 63 overs before declaring, with Simon Burris taking three wickets for the hosts.

After going in to bat Rashid's team started shakily and were soon reduced to 62 for 5.

But they fought back through Chris Peploe (94) and Vishal Sethi (52) before Bahl sealed a dramatic victory.

Captain Rahid said: "We made it difficult for ourselves by losing early wickets but credit goes to Chris and Vishal for playing extremely well to bring us back into the game. We have some very good young players and I am happy to see them take up the challenge."

In Division Three, Old Actonians took one point from their draw with Barnet. They declared on 182-9 after 57 overs before the home side made 169-8 from the remaining 43 overs.

On Saturday Actonians visit Harrow Town.

Southall went to the top of the Fullers Middlesex Championship League after an 81-run victory over Polytechnic on Saturday.

Batting first, Southall reached 223-8 in their allocated 55 overs thanks to a third consecutive half-century from Asghar.

Southall's Singh took three wickets for as many runs, which left them needing just two more wickets in the last twenty overs. Polytechnic defended heroically until the fourth ball of the final over when the last batsman was yorked by an unplayable delivery by Shazad.

Southall next match is aginst local rivals Hanwell on Saturday.