TWO former England Test players starred as Bromley Cricket Club beat Ealing by four wickets to win the Evening Standard Challenge Trophy for the first time.

With three quickfire wickets and 83 unruffled runs respectively, Joey Benjamin and Alan Wells ensured the journey to The Brit Oval for Bromley’s lively supporters was a happy one last Sunday.

Benjamin was the first to catch the eye. On the ground where he made his England debut 11 years previously, the former Surrey paceman bowled with great hostility and accuracy to take the first three Ealing wickets.

First to go was captain Arif Rashid, who, moments after winning the toss and electing to bat, edged a sharp chance to slip with only four on the board.

Luke Staughton (24) and Rajesh Rao (8) were quick to follow, both nicking Benjamin to keeper Leo Taylor.

At this point, Benjamin was troubling all the batsmen and had reduced Ealing to 54-3 in the 15th over. However, when his unbroken 10-over spell came to an end, the fluent Ahmed Elech began to take charge.

After reaching 40, Elech passed the highest season run total in the history of the competition, and with stout support from David Holt (52) kept the scoreboard ticking ominously.

However, Holt committed the cardinal sin of running himself out on a misfield with the score on 176, and tight bowling and fielding from Bromley restricted the Ealing total to 252 – Elech eventually making a man-of-the-match 112.

Bromley’s reply got off to the worst possible start when the experienced Nadeem Shahid was leg before to Kamara Hafeez for a duck.

With captain Grant Sheen (16) soon falling to the same bowler, Bromley were in some trouble.

However, the reassuringly solid Wells looked in little trouble while compiling 83 and with excellent knocks from Taylor (56) and Rob Ferley (53 not out), Bromley were always ahead of the required run rate.

Despite a late flurry of wickets which saw James Watson (7) and Nick Bluett (17) back in the pavilion, Matthew Isaacs was able to hit the winning runs with five overs to spare.