On a wet Saturday morning Braintree 2’s headed over the Orwell Bridge to Suffolk in the hope of finding 20 points and a club willing to supply tea. We were successful in one of these hunts. The opposing team greeted us with the warmth of a damp sponge and the hospitality of a tax audit. No tea. No biscuits. Not even a forlorn bowl of crisps.
After the logistics of quite who was taking who was calculated, Gowers won the toss in what turned out to be the highlight of his day. Deciding to put the opposition in, the Braintree bowlers immediately set about bowling tidy tight lines.
The younger Sherry, Theo, was proving that he is growing into adult cricket each and every week with pace and bounce, and capturing the first wicket with a proper cricket ball pitched up, moving away and Bostock edged behind to Hollingsworth for 11.
At the other end Paget couldn’t have asked for more Yorkshire conditions if he’d turned up and welcomed everyone with an ‘Ey up’ and told us all how ‘Chuffed’ he was with the conditions.
He started his most destructive spell for the ages having the other opener, Gonga, caught by the safe hands of Guy Walton for 12, himself creating a wall of steel in the leg-side with Johnston that would eventually result in 3 catches and no drops of midfields.
Natarajan couldn’t cope with the constant probing bowling from both bowlers and got swiftly trapped LBW on the back leg in front by Paget and skipper Tom Webb then mistimed a shot and fed a simple caught and bowled back to him. Paget attempted to add to his tally of wickets with a moon ball that missed the stumps by a fraction and bamboozled the batsmen - a clear indication that there’s still room in cricket for moon ball time.
Sherry continued to toil away but found himself out of luck - 2 edges in 2 balls finding themselves falling just short of slip - certainly not a drop, but the suggestion that older Sherry at slip was halfway back to Essex might have not helped the situation.
The opening bowlers then finished their spells, Paget taking 3 for 18 off his 9 overs, and Sherry ending up with 1 for 15 off his spell.
With the change in bowling experience was brought on from both ends, with the batsmen proving attritional. Geoff Eveling mixed up his bowling and tested the batsmen, keeping it tight, eventually trapping Reddy LBW for a 26-ball duck then Ling decided that perhaps it was time to throw the bat at Andrew Sherry, who had become angrier as the day progressed, but in his haste he picked out the safe hands of Johnston at mid-off for a 26 ball 6, leaving Kesgrave at 50-6. This soon became 50-7 with Eveling bowling Laws, as he tried to back away.
Harry Laws and Parry Minhas then added to the tally with some short-lived biffing, before Laws again fell to the guile of Eveling, smashing one at Walton who caught it rather than wore it - not even the moustache would’ve protected him if he’d missed.
Sherry was given a rest, as Charlie Garner came to bowl some mystery spin. He immediately caused problems, bowling Humphrey through his gate, stealing any opportunity for Eveling to capture a 5-for, but he finished the innings with another bowled, leaving him with 4 for 9 from his spell, and Kesgrave 71 all out off just over 30 overs.
With rain in the air, it was agreed with the skippers that there would be a quick turnaround between innings. The Braintree batting dashed to the changing rooms to get ready, whilst it appeared the opposition missed the memo, as they turned around slower than a very slow thing in a very tight space.
When the second innings eventually started, in the usual manner Dave Hale and Ian Johnston strode to the crease. Having noted Hale’s destructive start last week, Johnston appeared more than happy to stand at the other end without facing a ball - twice calling Hale through for byes on the last ball of the over.
Hale decided in the third over it was obviously time for Johnston to wake up and get involved in the game, calling him through for a tight single, that would’ve caught a slower runner between the wickets off guard.
Johnston took to the bowling in a somewhat forthright manner, leading to suggestions by the opposition that perhaps he would’ve been better off playing golf (and having him reply that he had in fact played 2 games the week before). And the Kesgrave captain attempting the futility of trying to set a field to Johnston.
Hale continued serenely, save for one very sharp caught and bowled chance that he survived, punishing the bad balls and pushing the run rate along. Unfortunately for Johnston, the dropped caught and bowled proved to have given the bowler an opportunity to practice, as he perished, caught by the bowler very low to the ground in his follow through.
Eveling then came to the crease, bringing together the pair who put on over 100 last week. With no problems at all the pair raced to the winning total, Eveling flourishing with the bat, and Hale matching him shot for shot like two drunk university students at a bar.
Braintree ended up chasing down the total in 11 overs to bring a very satisfactory match to a conclusion With Hale ending on 30* and Eveling 17*