On another glorious Saturday Braintree second XI came up against IPSCOL CC, who were promoted alongside Braintree as Champions of Div 7 last season so instantly a game that Braintree wanted to win. With the home team winning the toss and Mr. Gowers electing to bat (a wise decision from our battle hardened skip) Braintree's opening pair was to be Dave Hale and Matt Kent, who in the previous weeks had both scored centuries. As always, Hale started off in positive fashion scoring two boundaries from the first over but unfortunately after 13 balls he was caught at mid-off off the bowling of Firdosi and sent back to the changing room for 8. Braintree skipper elevated himself to number 3 and stepped up to the crease. with the score 21-1 and alongside Kent started to push the ball about until Kent, who was playing some terrific shots was, caught for 25 runs. At 39-2 IPOCOL CC would have thought they were on top but little did they know the one and only Rory Ciccarelli-Ainsley was stepping up the mark. He showed respect for the first few balls and then unleashed the Italian/English bombardment and with support from Gowers, the pair pushed Braintree to 94-2 until Gowers was plumb LBW to Kumar for 21. The relived IPSCOL CC were happy to see the back of Gowers but they had no idea what was to come when the man who is business up front and party from behind, aka Guy Walton, came into the game. Walton, who has been in terrific form, didn’t hold back and both he and Ciccarelli-Ainsley started the Braintree push with both scoring boundaries, running quick singles and twos, showing what finely tuned athletes they are. At this point IPSCOL CC were very quiet in the field as a few dropped catches which were key to a to change in the game. A few overs later, the crowd applauded and excellent Ciccarelli-Ainsley 50, his second of the season, coming off of 55 balls . With Braintree having moved to 167 following a stand of 73 came the fall of Ciccarelli-Ainsley who was caught and bowled by Jay Ram for an excellent, run-a-ball, 70. Next up was Himesh Patel who, from ball, one showed no respect for his kin, but having only faced 4 balls was caught on the boundary by Prabhu, who had previously dropped three in the same position, for 6. Jerry Hollinsworth faced just three balls before he adjudged LBW to Sadhak. and with two quick wickets IPSCOL thoughy their luck had changed but Walton was being problematic and was now with the man they call Braintree’s Jimmy Anderson, Robbie Spalding. Both players picked up the pace pushing Braintree through the 200 mark but as Walton reached the mid 40s he was caught finally looking to accelerate. Braintree at 201-7 from 37 overs needed a heavy hitter and that is what they were given in the form of Grant Mitchell look-a-like, The Angry Man, Andrew Sherry and in true Sherriness he did not hold back as both started the final push before Spalding was caught in the 39th over for 17. Next up to the crease was Theo Sherry and the father and son combo increased Braintree’s run rate until Theo was caught and bowled trying to push the ball back over Kumar's head. At 249-9 Braintree now presented the other Mitchell brother, Daniel King, and in the last few overs put on 14 extra runs which saw Braintree innings 263-9.

With a decent score on the board Braintree knew that they had IPSCOL by their short and curlies but had to put pressure on from ball one, which Robbie Spalding and Theo Sherry did with perfection, with only 13 runs given away in the 1st 3 overs. The 1st wicket fell to Spalding with Daniel King taking the catch at point to remove the dangerous Sri Munendramani for 7. Overs 4-6 brought even more pressure to the batting side and Spalding struck again snicking off Chirag Bhargava into the gloves of Hollingsworth for 8. The visitors now 26-2 Braintree could smell the distinct odour of a collapse and in the 7th over the young Sherry that struck as Sadhak succumbed trying to drive him but only managed to edge the ball into the cordon where Dave Hale took a sharp catch low to his left. The visitors, now 31-3 had the find something in the bag but unfortunately the sheer talent of Spalding and young Sherry yielded finding another wicket in the 9th over with a brilliant clutch by Himesh Patel. The visitors at 45-4 now where is disarray and young Sherry picked up his third wicket in back-to-back overs as Prabhu picked out Patel at mid-off for 2 to make it 47-5. At this point young Sherry was taken off due to age restrictions and the man they call the King entered the bowing attack. Both King and Spalding applied pressure and with Spalding finishing his spell (2-34), on came Andrew Sherry. IPSCOL had managed to put on 60 runs before the next fall of wicket when, in the 22nd over, Andrew Sherry, having found his rhythm and had two very close LBW appeals turned down, bowled Shani Ranjan with the middle stump flying out the ground. In the next over King took an IPSCOL victim with the swift hands of Hollingsworth stumping Valmikam for 0 to give the Braintree Veteran his first scalp of the season. Now 108-7 the visitors knew the end was near with Andrew Sherry picking up another wicket in the 24th over as Ram's stumps were demolished. The skipper could now bring back young Sherry for his final few overs and he picked the final two wickets back to back. The visitors all out for 123. With Braintree dominating the game they retained second place in the league as they push for consecutive promotions. Next weeks sees them travel to third placed Abberton which is sure to be a cracker.