Braintree Cricket Club’s First Eleven secured their Marshall Hatchick, Two Counties Championship Division Two status courtesty of a narrow 8 run victory at Little Bardfield on Saturday. Skippering the team for the final time, Chris Leech won the toss and elected to bat first in temperatures more accustomed to the Mediterranean.
Opening batters Chris Hinks and Matt Renvoize got the Dolphins off to a decent start scoring runs freely. In only the second over Renvoize despatched a delivery from Slemmings onto the pavilion roof, he tried a similar shot shortly afterwards, however he failed to get such a good connection and was caught right on the boundary, fortunately when taking the catch the fielder stepped over the rope.
Hinks struck 18 runs from a single over, however having added just a further 6 runs he was caught off the bowling of Slemmings. In addition to the two maximums, Renvoize found the boundary ropes on 6 occasions unfortunately when on 40 he was caught off the bowling of Hitchcock. Louis Cant crashed a delivery into the sightscreen but he lost his wicket a few balls later. After the good start Braintree had been reduced to 82 for the loss of 3 wickets.
Chris Leech and Will Jackson dropped anchor and steadied the ship putting on 40 runs for the fourth wicket. However, having moved onto 18 Jackson was controversially given out caught behind, when the ball had clearly hit his forearm and looped up in the air.
Robbie Spalding (0) and Luke Gouldstone (1) both surrendered their wickets to Tom Graham. After patiently moving on to 26, Leech received a cracker of a delivery from Graham and found the ball crashing into his stumps. Tom Urquhart, on his debut, hit two cracking fours before being caught by Callum Hymas and when Karl Parker (1) was bowled, Braintree from a position of 119 for 3 had lost a further 6 wickets for the addition of only 29 runs.
Andy Gowers and Josh Paget batted sensibly and added 47 runs for the last wicket. Gowers was the more aggressive, hitting a six over mid-wicket and 6 fours in a score of 38, unfortunately he was trapped LBW leaving Paget unbeaten on 8. The last wicket stand had moved Braintree on to a more respectable 195.
During Gowers’ innings there was an excellent piece of sportsmanship from the home captain, the Dolphin was caught off a delivery that was well above waist height, the Umpire gave him out, however Hymas withdrew his teams appeal and the decision was reversed.
Matt Graham and Rory Hitchcock got the Villagers off to a flyer crashing 27 runs inside the first 4 overs. However, Robbie Spalding trapped Graham LBW for 23 and then had Neilon Ridley well caught by Chris Leech. Hitchcock moved on to 29 before Josh Paget rattled him on the pads and the batter had started his walk back to the pavilion before the finger was raised.
Callum Hymas (34) and Daryl Hymas (19) pushed the score along, but both fell victim to Louis Cant who had them LBW and bowled, respectively. Cant then dismantled the stumps of Tom Graham (0), Slemmings (1) and Hounslow (6), whilst Chris Hinks also ensured Register (6) suffered the same fate.
Similar to Braintree’s innings, Little Bardfield lost 6 wickets for only 36 runs and looked to be heading for a crushing defeat. Stuart Noble did his best to rescue his side though, swinging at every ball and moved the Villagers to within 8 runs of the Dolphins total. He quickly reached 28 but he was caught on the boundary by Hinks off the bowling of Cant. Cant finished with bowling figures of 6 for 35.