Braintree Cricket Club’s First Eleven’s season came to its conclusion with a 74 run victory over local rivals Little Bardfield Village and with it the Dolphins secured fourth place in the Two Counties Division 2.

Before the commencement of play a minutes silence was observed in memory of Queen Elizabeth II and players from both teams wore black armbands.

Skipper Chris Leech lost the toss however Braintree were invited to bat first on a wicket that had been covered during the week and therefore protected from the heavy showers, the outfield though was lush, green, and also a little longer than usual.

Opening the batting Chris Leech and Matt Renvoize got Braintree off to a solid start at a rate of 4 runs an over. Renvoize looked to have regained the form that had deserted him of late as he despatched the ball to the boundary ropes on a number of occasions, Leech on the other hand surprisingly wasn’t finding things as easy. With the score on 60 the Dolphin’s captain was first to lose his wicket, having scored 14 he tamely offered at catch to Nelion Ridley off the bowling of Callum Hymas.

Renvoize reached his half century with an exquisite cover drive that raced to the boundary, he had moved on to 65 when unfortunately, he was beaten by a full toss from Ben Hounslow and was bowled. Ironically, this was the only straight delivery that Hounslow bowled as in two overs he conceded 21 wides!

Josh Paget was promoted up the order and edged the first ball for four and went on to score 8 before he was caught by Will Slemmings off the bowling of Richard Linney. The same bowler then dismantled Glen Newham’s (5) stumps. Chris Hinks hit Linney for four consecutive boundaries, however the next over he drove Daryl Hymas straight to Matt Graham. Hymas then claimed his second wicket as Himesh Patel (3) was caught by Linney.

Not for the first time Geoff Eveling stood at the non-strikers end and watched as wickets fell at the other. During this time Eveling had patiently built himself an innings however and for the first time this season reached 50, having fallen just short on a number of previous occasions. Eventually he was run out for 58 attempting to push the score along.

Braintree’s innings closed on 224 for the loss of 7 wickets, helped a great deal by the grand total of 36 wides that had been bowled. Saying that Braintree were almost as generous when it was their turn to bowl.

After another excellent tea supplied by John and Dawn Gouldstone, Braintree took to the field hoping to take some quick wickets and they weren’t disappointed.

Luke Gouldstone’s opening over was as quick as any he had bowled this season and Little Bardfield’s top order batters had no answer to him. Callum Hymas and Richard Linney were completely beaten for pace and found their stumps dismantled, whilst Nelion Ridley was run out attempting to escape facing him. After that initial over the visitors had lost 3 wickets for just 1 run. Matt Graham stayed around a little longer but having scored 8, Gouldstone sent his stumps tumbling too.

Joe Owen and Daryl Hymas in particular showed some fight putting on 47 runs for the fifth wicket. However, having scored 40, Owen was clean bowled by Himesh Patel. Will Slemmimgs quickly made his way to 16 before he was excellently caught by Karl Parker off the bowling of Chris Hinks.

Geoff Eveling had been waiting patiently to turn his arm over and when he was given his chance, he quickly bowled Hymas for 27. Sam Little (1) and Karl Manning (0) were then completely bamboozled by the spin and both were cleaned bowled. Andrew Barnard showed some resistance as he made his way to 15 but he became Eveling’s fourth victim with Josh Paget taking a good catch. Little Bardfield found themselves all out for 150, well short of victory. Geoff Eveling finished with bowling figures of 4 for 9, whilst Luke Gouldstone returned 3 for 24.

In the after-match team talk, Chris Leach praised his side for their efforts over the course of a season where every single one of the 36 players who had represented the Dolphins Ones had contributed in one way or another. It was agreed that both on and off the pitch the atmosphere was as good as it had been for many seasons.

The day culminated with the traditional end of season Cover Slides, games and other activities. It was also good to see that a few unexpected faces showed up during the course of the evening