Braintree’s First Eleven continued their unbeaten start to the season with an excellent 4 wicket win away to Bury St Edmunds. After overnight and early morning rain the Victory Ground looked in good condition although the outfield was a little damp and with no umpires allocated, the two skippers decided to reduce the game to 40 overs a side.
Captain Hinks won the toss and elected to bowl first. His team showed five changes from last week, with Chris Walker making his debut and a change behind the stumps with Bryn Powell deputising for Matt Renvoize.
Robbie Spalding and Himesh Patel opened the bowling for the Dolphins and the home openers, Justin Bishop and James Sturgeon, quickly got into their stride scoring 68 runs off the opening 10 overs, but the introduction of Grace Poole and Will Robbins into the attack stemmed the flow of runs and just 27 runs were conceded off the next 10 leaving Bury 78-0 at the halfway point of their innings.
Will Robbins claimed the first wicket of the day as he had Bishop (36) caught in the slips by Hinks whilst at the other end Grace Poole strived to claim a victim however her tight spell of bowling conceded just 23 runs from her allotted 8 over spell. Captain Hinks brought himself on to bowl and he soon had James McKinney (13) trapped LBW. Chris Walker was given the ball and although Josh Owen to a liking to his first over the Bury youngster tried one extravagant shot too many and attempting a reverse sweep missed the ball completely and was plumb LBW.
From a position of strength, Bury lost 6 wickets for the addition of just 47 runs. Corder (2) became Hinks’ second victim as he was clean bowled whilst Adam Kizis (17) suffered the same fate this time Walker was the bowler. Will Robbins was brought back into the attack and his pace soon claimed a further 3 wickets, he had Sturgeon (60) caught and bowled, demolished Adam Meridith’s stumps and had Joel Johnson leg before. Bury finished their innings on 191 for the loss of 8 wickets with Will Robbins proving a good acquisition taking 4 wickets for the second consecutive week.
In reply, Chris Leech and Chris Hinks got the Dolphins off to an excellent start as both played an array of shots in an opening partnership of 71 runs. However, Hinks having scored 41, was the first to lose his wicket as he was well caught on the boundary by Johnson.
Braintree then lost their way as the next three batters failed to trouble the scorers, Guy Walton was clean bowled, Rory Ciccarelli-Ainsley also saw his stumps demolished and Josh Newman got impatient and holed out to Johnson in the deep.
Bryn Powell (6) didn’t fare much better as he shouldered arms to a straight delivery and found himself bowled. Chris Walker joined Leech at the crease and the pair steadied the ship putting on 63 runs for the sixth wicket. Walker played some delightful shots, striking 9 boundaries before he was bowled for 46.
Meanwhile, Leech brought up his half century with an exquisite drive that was inches from clearing the ropes and together with Will Robbins kept the scores moving and they reached their target with 4 overs and 4 wickets to spare. Leech remained unbeaten on 62, whilst Robbins was not out 13.