Braintree’s Ones first home fixture back in Division One couldn’t have been any harder as they were pitched against Halstead, who had won the League for each of the last three seasons. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the senior Dolphins were without the services of Chris Leech, Matt Renvoize, Josh Newman, Will Jackson, Grace Poole and Jonny Whiteoak for various reasons.
Skipper Chris Hinks won the toss and decided to bowl first on green pitch, hoping to grab some early wickets. The start was delayed however, as the Dolphins Overseas star, Mitch Atkins, originally chose a colt’s ball to bowl with. Hinks’s decision to insert the opposition was vindicated as early as the third over when James Tyson had his stumps demolished by Atkins without troubling the scorers. Geoff Eveling, bowling from the Rosemary Avenue End, kept line and length as usual and caused a celebration among his teammates when he even got one delivery to turn. They were celebrating again a few balls later as Harry Pritchard got a top edge, and Toby Adcock calmly took a catch at square leg. After conceding just 13 runs from his opening five over spell, Atkins was replaced by Louis Cant who soon had Ryan Vickery trooping back to the pavilion after having his stumps dismantled. The Halstead skipper and former Braintree Colt was not at all happy, probably hoping to post a big score against his former club. Matt Childs then tempted Tharusha Fernando into a big hit, however the oppositions Sri Lankan overseas player didn’t connect fully, and Atkins took the resulting catch.
Halstead had been reduced to 68 for the loss of 4 wickets and they were soon 5 wickets down as Cant clean bowled Josh King for 14. After surviving a couple of chances early in his innings Callum O’Connell batted sensibly and had moved on to a score of 78 when Atkins was brought back into the attack. The Kiwi, after complaining about the cold English weather, was now bowling at full pace and Bryn Powell debutising with the gloves had to take cover as O’Connell’s stumps were sent cartwheeling in his direction. Atkins’ tail was up and Ed Clark was dismissed for a Golden Duck as his stumps were also demolished.
The Morris brothers Adam and Joe steadied Halstead’s ship for a while and they had moved the score on to 167 when Chris Hinks deceived the latter and Matt Childs took the resulting catch. Atkins claimed his fourth wicket when he had Lewis Millions caught in the deep by Chris Walker, however he was denied his club cap in only his second game for the Dolphins when Eveling removed Sam Walters’ bails to end the innings. An excellent all-round bowling and fielding performance had restricted Halstead to a total of 191. Atkins produced the best figures of 4 for 30 from 9 overs, but all bowlers had contributed.

In reply Braintree were soon in trouble as Chris Hinks (5) having deposited the previous delivery from Clark to the boundary ropes could only present Fernando with a simple catch from the next. The Dolphins continued to give their wickets away to Ed Clark, Matt Childs (0) edged the ball to Vickery behind the stumps whilst Louis Cant (7) gave Fernando his second catch, Chris Walker (2) then drove the ball straight to the hands of Tyson. Bryn Powell (7) was Clark’s fifth victim as Vickery claimed a catch, and although Powell was sure the ball hit his elbow, the Umpire raised his finger. Clark wasn’t finished as Himesh Patel (4) gave Fernando his third catch of the afternoon and Joe Osbourne (0), having survived 15 balls walked before the Umpire could consider giving him out caught behind. From his allotted 10 overs Clark had taken all 7 wickets that had fallen for 30 runs. Lewis Millions was brought onto bowl from the Causeway House End and with only his third delivery the spinner completely mesmerised Atkins (0) who could only present the bowler with a simple return catch. Matt Hollingsworth, playing his first game in 4 years having spent that time qualifying to fly for Ryanair, must have wished he had stayed in the cockpit as he was bowled first ball. Toby Adcock survived the hattrick ball by calmly directing the ball over the boundary, he faced a further 13 balls before being bamboozled by Fernando and presented Tyson with a catch. The Sri Lankan conceded only 4 runs from his 6.4 overs. Meanwhile, whilst all those around him were losing their heads (and wickets) veteran Geoff Eveling batted sensibly, even changing his helmet for his Caribbean headgear and remained unbeaten on 14 off 46 balls received as Braintree were skittled for only 50 runs.