Braintree’s First XI continued their winning streak when they beat Bury St Edmunds Seconds on Saturday by the margin of just 7 runs. This run of victories has seen the Dolphins move up to third position in the Division 2 table.
For the second consecutive week Chris Leech lost the toss, saw his team put into bat, post a modest total of 168 and then successfully defend it by means of some tight bowling and excellent fielding.
The start of the match was delayed 15 minutes as the opposition had great difficult in putting out the boundary ropes. When proceedings eventually got under way Chris Leech and Matt Renvoize got Braintree’s innings off to a really good start as the put on 85 runs for the first wicket. After some fine stroke play from the pair Renvoize was first to lose his wicket as he cut the ball straight to Andy Lonfield at backward point having scored 30. It looked as he was going to be out two balls earlier as he was caught on the boundary, however the fielder carried the ball over the ropes for a six.
With just one further run scored, Leech also found himself back in the pavilion as he edged a delivery from Chris Cook into the gloves of James Sturgeon. The Braintree captain had struck 9 boundaries in his score of 45. Chris Hinks struggled to get the ball away and without troubling the scorers he offered a simple catch to Olly Riddick.
Braintree’s innings had stalled but Rory Ainsley and Jamie Foyster got things back on track putting on 38 runs for the fourth wicket. From the final over of Cook’s spell, Ainsley found the boundary from three consecutive deliveries. Not to be outdone Foyster did the same from the following over bowled by Jack Howland. Unfortunately, just he looked well set having scored 20, Ainsley was caught and bowled by Riddick.
Bury brought Sam Aldous on to bowl and initially he really struggled with his run up, bowled a no ball that bounced twice and a wide that was fielded at gully. From then on he got his act together and claimed 5 wickets in the space of 4 overs conceding only 4 runs! Foyster (17) had his bails sent flying whilst Luke Gouldstone was trapped LBW first ball, next over Geoff Eveling (14) was brilliantly caught by the diving Sturgeon, Lee Fulgrabbe (0) found his stumps dismantled and Josh Paget (1) was also caught behind by Sturgeon.
Callum Lazarus making his first XI debut hit an excellent boundary and the smile on his face was a joy for all to see, unfortunately he was adjudged LBW soon after. Fellow debutant Karl Parker was unbeaten on 5 as the Dolphins innings closed.
In reply Bury got off to a steady start and although Josh Paget and Luke Gouldstone bowled really well they were unable to achieve a breakthrough. Chris Hinks was brought into the attack and with only his third delivery he had Lonfield (16) caught behind, two overs later he trapped the prolific Ned Stanton (13) LBW. Geoff Eveling was brought on to bowl in tandem with Hinks and he quickly found the edge of Sturgeon’s bat and Renvoize took the catch, the Bury skipped had looked dangerous having scored 34.
Braintree started taking wickets at regular intervals, Hinks claimed his third victim as he had Tom Curran (4) well caught by Rory Ainsley and then Sam Aldous (18) suffered exactly the same fate. Gouldstone was brought back into the attack and straight away got the wicket of Howland (9), also caught by Ainsley.
Hinks achieved his first five wicket haul for the club when he had George Broughton (0) plumb LBW. Gouldstone had Chris Cook (11) caught by Hinks in the deep and when he took a catch off his own bowling to dismiss Joe Corder (1) the home side had been reduced to 120 for the loss of 9 wickets.
A cameo performance by Olly Riddick (36) pushed Bury to within sight of their target, however Leech brought himself on to bowl and he claimed the final wicket as Ainsley took his fourth catch of the innings.