Braintree’s 2nd XI returned to winning ways with a 56 run victory away to mid table West Bergholt. Having enjoyed a week of fine weather the rain returned to North Essex to delay the start for an hour and despite the wicket looking green skipper Andy Gowers had no hesitation in electing to bat when he won the toss.
It wasn’t a great start for the league leaders however as they found themselves 39-4 in the 16th over. After striking two sumptuous boundaries Matt Kent had his timbers disturbed by veteran Joe Whyte for 8 and he repeated the feat the following ball to remove Toby Adcock. Jerry Hollingsworth saw out the hattrick ball and he and Dave Hale took the score to 34 before Dean Conybear found the leading edge of Hales bat and he chipped a simple catch to Longman at midwicket for 15. After looking to consolidate Guy Walton became Whyte’s third victim as he too was bowled trying to play off of the back foot without troubling the scorers.
Skipper Gowers, they joined Hollingsworth and between the two they started to edge Braintree back into the match. Both very watchful when required but quick to pounce on anything lose and, although timing the ball was difficult as the ball softened on a very slow pitch, hitting regular boundaries. With Whyte’s excellent 12 over spell done (3-22) The tall off spin of Ben Brown was introduced and in his third over he made the breakthrough as Gowers was bowled trying to hoick him over midwicket. A shot not in tune with the rest of his innings which was ended just 3 runs short of what would have been a well-deserved first half century.
Geoff Eveling joined Hollingsworth in the middle and started to rotate the strike in his usual manner while his partner brought up his half century in 88 balls having hit 6 boundaries. It was Hollingsworth who was next to go however as he looked to hit the returning Conybear down the ground only to hear the death rattle behind him. A fine 62 from 96 balls really brought The Dolphins back from a tricky position and laid the foundation for what was to come. Andy Sherry joined Eveling with just 8 overs to go and gave the travelling supporters a treat as he proceeded to take apart the Bergholt attack. Having given himself a couple of overs to assess the conditions he set about the spin of Amanullah Omar hitting him for 4’s and 6’s at will, bringing his fifty up in just 26 balls and going on to reach 70 not out from 32. Eveling finished with a valuable 29* from 33 balls as he was happy to give the strike to Sherry and the pair, putting on an unbroken partnership of 91 took Braintree to a well over par 249-6
The Bergholt openers, Raj Anandraj and Edward Hance, made a bright start against the young Braintree spearheads of Theo Sherry and Callum Lazarus as they reached 48 without loss and it was the senior Sherry who came into the attack to get the breakthrough as he, alongside Geoff Eveling, dried the runs up and put the pressure on the home side. It wasn’t long before Sherry forced a false shout from Anadraj and Gowers completed the catch at mid-wicket. Shortly after it was 52-2 as the effervescent Ryan Deal was bowled by sherry who saw him back to the pavilion in his usual way. It’s fair to say if you are going to spend the afternoon trying to get under the skin of batsmen, you need to be able to back it up with your own performance to prevent getting a little back.
Sherry was forced out of the attach as he felt a niggle in his quad but the introduction of Jow Osborne saw wickets started to fall regularly as he turned in his best bowling performance for the club, ripping through the middle order. Allan Conybeare was the first of his victims as, shortly after surviving a sharp caught and bowled chance, he found theo Sherry at long on who took an excellent high catch. Jonny Gould the found Gowers at mid-off who stretched to take the ball one handed above his head and Omer was also caught at mid-off, this time by Geoff Eveling, as Osborne took his 3rd. The pick of his wickets came when he bowled Ben Longman with his next delivery to leave himself on a hattrick but sadly that wasn’t to be.
With opposition showing no urgency, as had been the case pretty much all day, it took an age for the next batsmen to appear and having resisted the temptation to appeal for a ‘time out’ the long delay seemed to take the momentum from the Braintree side and a 43-run partnership between Ben Brown and Dean Conybear was allowed to develop as Braintree’s excellent fielding standards dipped. Toby Adcock came into the attack and broke that partnership as Gowers to his third catch of the day to see the back of Conybeare for 19 and Mustafa Irshad soon followed for 0 as he was bowled.
Another frustrating partnership developed for the 10th wicket as Whyte (17*) joined Brown (39*) and Braintree were unable to gain that 5th bowling point as the innings petered out at 193-9
Joe Osborne returned excellent figures of 4-19 from his 7 overs.
Braintree return home next week as they complete the first round of fixtures with the visit of Woolpit III’s who will be looking to bounce back from a heavy defeat this weekend.