It wouldn't be a proper English summer without a spot of rain, and today's fixture between Braintree and Coggeshall, with the away team being closer to the pitch than the home team certainly delivered on that front. Yet, remarkably, a full game was achieved, much to the delight of the hardy souls who braved the intermittent showers.
Braintree’s gnarled veterans arrived to find themselves facing a team with only 2 players who wouldn’t get ID’d at Wetherspoons. Coggeshall elected to field having won the toss, and Lockhart and Johnston were reunited at the top of the Braintree order. Unfortunately, after a strong batting performance last weekend, and having seen off Curtly Ambrose on Wednesday, Johnston played far too early to a ball which he spooned up to mid-on. It was as unpretty as the clouds were looking.
Will Sherry came to the crease to accompany Lockhart, and the two of them were on and off throughout their partnership as we had 3 different rain breaks of differing lengths and severity. The captains were determined that cricket would be the winner today no matter what, and perseverance won with the game commencing.
Unfortunately the breaks had done for Lockhart’s concentration as he spooned a hit me ball softly to point, but not before the pair had run a safe 3. The conditions and the accuracy and lack of pace in the bowling attack continued to outfox the Braintree batters, as Jay Singh decided to try and smack the ball into the clouds in anger at the amount of rain, only to miss it completely and be bowled.
This brought Charlie Garner to the crease, emboldened by having to use Johnston’s spare bat as his was halfway to Mersea Island. He and Will pushed the bowlers and attempted to intimidate each other to score more, in preparation for the no doubt competitive family beach cricket to come on their holiday.
Charlie and his magic bat, which possessed him into trying to cut and swipe at anything pushed the run rate along, tonking the ball to the leg side boundary before being hit in front of the stumps.
Will throughout the carnage at the other end continued on his merry way with a very sensible approach. He was joined by Joe Chaplin, and they looked to practice their running between the wickets, with an unfortunate mix-up resulting in one run being called short and Joe saying that it was because there were 2 blue crease lines and he wasn’t sure which one was right. Turns out the answer was neither as they were for a kids game, but after he realised this it didn’t happen again!
Will’s innings of sense and calmness eventually came to an end when he chipped to mid-on bringing Callum Lazarus to join Chaplin. Putting his foot down Lazarus hit 3 fours in a row to push the score towards 100, but not quite - Braintree eventually finishing on 92-5 off their 25 rain extended overs.
A quick turn-around, but slow enough for the pitch to be rolled by the groundsman left Braintree fielding in completely different conditions, with sunshine and a flat pitch that could’ve been batted on with a plank of wood.
Captain Garner started from his usual end, looking to get the swing that the weather had earlier promised. Unfortunately, it proved to be a challenge due to the change in conditions, and we went at a run a ball. From the other end Lucas Hale produced yet another spell of wonderfully tight bowling. Keeping his head, knowing the pitch would work for him if he hit the right spots he was miserly in his accuracy, removing the off stump of Max Saffer for 0 and ending with spectacular figures of 1-11 off his 5 overs - a truly expert performance and far better than his Dad’s performance at boundary boules as he watched on.
A change of bowling at both ends brought Callum Lazarus on, and again, whilst being tight and accurate he couldn’t quite see a breakthrough. A change of pace at the other end with Charlie Garner bowling some wonderful spin to test the batters, eventually trapping an LBW victim.
Looking to mix things up Thomas ‘the giant’ Mellon took the ball in hand, having been a magnet for it in the covers throughout the innings. He raced in as always with frightening pace, but with an adjustment of his speed he had the batters in all kinds of trouble, causing catches all-round the wicket, the first to Lucas Hale at Midwicket, the next to Rowan Lazarus at point and finally to himself, with a look of deer in the headlights as it came at him so slowly!!
An attempt to make a further breakthrough as Coggeshall wobbled proved fruitless, despite the introduction of golden arm Joe Chaplin. Joe bamboozled the experienced batter who was fully complimentary of him, the ball doing all sorts off the pitch including one that jumped past his head from a good length, crashing into Johnston’s arm as he avoided giving any byes away in the match despite the heckling from the boundary.
Sadly, the Coggeshall team reached their target, with less than 2 overs to spare - a fantastic fielding and bowling performance from Braintree in difficult conditions. Garner deserves the most credit for continuing with the match in what at times were biblical conditions.
We go again next week away to Kelvedon hoping to get back to winning ways