This evening saw our Dolphinettes play their first round robin; three home games, with all to play for. They go into these games having had some rain in the morning, but the sun came out allowing it to dry up nicely. Starting second in the table above Dunmow and Coggeshall but just 2 points below Terling, they were looking for 3 home wins. Our Braintree side had two debutants this evening, our bride-to-be, Amy Sare, and up-n-coming all rounder Janet Lazarus.
Starting off, set up to face Dunmow in the opener of the evening, Braintree lost the toss and were put into bat. Opening the match, Amy Hale-to-be, and Chelsie Bright, came in hard and fast, scoring quick runs between the wickets with Amy’s speed, and Bright finding her feet in her second game day of the season, and scoring her first boundary 4.
Natasha Garner and Claire Osborne returning to the field after some good matches previously, adopting the same technique with the quick singles, good backing up at the non strikers end fro, Garner claiming those speedy ones, and Osborne being called ‘Foursborne’ from her team mates watching on. Tallying up to 35 runs by mid point, the last pair came into bat comfortably.
Captain Jayde Parker, and Jade Worster, looking to finish up strong, with the loss of only one wicket, collected an additional 17 runs between them, with extras, ending the innings on 254.
Looking to turn their energy into wickets, Bright and Parker opened the bowling, keeping the run rate down to only nine runs off the first three overs. In the following three Parker, and our Hale-to-be took one wicket each, both bowled, hitting the top of the middle stump. With many jubilations, the fielding was kept tight, and the pressure was pushed on with some close run outs. Garner and Worster closed the innings well, with Dunmow pushing through minimal fours in a close game, they finished up with 250, allowing our Dolphinettes to take their first win of the evening.
Into the second game, labelled the possible grudge match, Braintree were to face Terling. Winning the toss, Braintree elected to bat. Opening up was Amy and Claire, back in with a vengeance. Using the fact that the keeper was stood back deep to the Terling bowlers, the backing up was stellar at the non-strikers end, taking good quick singles. This was applied through the next two pairs, with good batting practice shown from Worster and Mary Newham, and Gemma Gardiner and Parker, pushing fours of the bad balls, and taking those singles as they came. With the loss of two wickets, Braintree closed their half with a net score of 244.
Knowing Terling had some bigger hitters, the boundary was leg side heavy, most deep on the boundary. Captains Parker and Newham had a very even bowling line up, evenly strong throughout, however in softball knowing there is only 4 fielders to place, it is understandably difficult to cover all areas. Osborne stayed strong behind the stumps, only allowing two byes through in comparison to Terling’s 10; Specifically for our quicker bowlers Osborne has been taking on advanced training to stand up to the stumps instead of deep, making her a captains dream keeper with great hand eye. Unfortunately with Terling finding those gaps on more occasions than not, runs were picked up through boundaries, whilst singles were kept low. One ball in play saw it hit to mid on, straight into the hands of co-captain Newham, with Terling attempting to run one, thrown in at the speed of light had Worster taking off the bails with no batsman in sight; brilliant run out from the pair. However, after a nail biting 9 overs, Terling finished up on 255, leaving Braintree 11 runs short of their second win.
Going into their final game, Braintree looking for a win to make it two from the night, going into bat first for the third time, Worster and Gardiner opened taking advantage of a spread field, hitting strong fours and taking good singles, really mirroring the good running that had been done by Braintree throughout the whole tournament. Lazarus was next in, debuting with our prolific Zoe Farran, known mainly for her accurate performances bowling, but also her brilliantly loud volume in bat and field. The pair did well pushing for runs, Lazarus scoring her first few striking the ball well, Farran taking advantage of the wider balls. Unfortunately with the loss of one unlucky wicket, final pair Newham, and a returning Saskia Ives, were looking to add on a small total. As per the running was good, and with Newham taking matters into her own hands, gathering 10 runs in the pairs 12 balls, finishing Braintree on 259.
Gardiner opened the bowling, taking off stump out with her first ball of the new innings. Lazarus followed up nicely, keeping her bowling tight, followed up by Farran who bowled two overs with an astonishing caught and bowled. The wicket taken left the crowd in massive ovation, and also endless amounts of praise, given the small celebratory dance all carried out by Farran after she had caught the skied ball, outstretched above her head.
Medium pace was then brought back on with Gardiner coming back to the stumps, and Newham following up nicely. With some unfortunate extras given in the last over off Worster, and some great batting from Coggeshall throughout their batting innings, Coggeshall finished up on 275, Coggeshall deservedly winning all three of their games the evening, with some great play.
Possibly not the evening imagined by the Dolphinettes with some unlucky losses, however, still keeping their spot solid at second in group stage, now joint with Coggeshall. Plus, with many points to take away from the game and work on, their performances in each game were strong and no one looked out of place. Coach and manager, Calley Foyster, is said to be making some small changes when going into the last group stage evening, we will look forward to seeing our ladies at Dunmow on Tuesday 11th July