Abandoned - Rain

The search for Braintree’s First Eleven’s elusive victory continues, however this week it was the weather that beat them. Haverhill arrived at St Peter’s Road with rain in the air and an unsettled forecast. By late morning though, the sun had emerged from behind the clouds, and a strong breeze had dried the outfield enough for play to begin almost on time.
Captain Walker won the toss and elected to put the opposition into bat, hoping that the Dolphins could take some early wickets and pick up valuable bonus points if the weather closed in again. Braintree welcomed the fit again Toby Adcock back into the side after he’d fallen off his bike the previous week, also Callum Lazarus and Birthday Boy, Charlie Garner moved up from the Twos.
Johnny Pickering-Whiteoak and Chris “Jar Jar” Hinks opened the bowling for Braintree. However, the former quickly gained the wrath of the umpires by running down the wicket during his follow through, so much so that he was warned and threaten to be no balled.
Haverhill’s opening batsmen dug in scoring just 23 runs (a number of which were extras!) off the opening 8 overs. Eventually, Hinks teased Ben Wilkins and Whiteoak took a smart catch, almost immediately Hinks snaffled up the ball in the slips after Theo Sherry drew the edge of Archie Jolland’s bat.
Wickets continued to fall as Craig Williams was tempted by Sherry only to find the safe hands of Whiteoak in the deep and Anthony Phillips was adjudged LBW by Toby Adcock. Hinks then got Alfie Ford to snick off to Bryn Powell and the same pairing combined to send Harry Ford back to the pavilion.
Steady rain forced the players off the pitch; however, proceedings were soon resumed. Straight away Sean Ward was caught on the boundary by Adcock off the bowling of Louis Cant only for Louis to return the favour to dismiss Carl Bradford.
Meanwhile, Will Bailey had kept his wicket intact whilst his teammates lost theirs. He was joined at the crease by the wonderfully named Riley Pector-Hird whose bright yellow boots lit up the by now dull afternoon and the pair put on 32 runs for the ninth wicket. Bailey brought up his half century with an exquisite drive to the boundary, however he was then magnificently caught by Whiteoak off the bowling of Cant. Bailey’s slog sweep to cow corner had six written all over it, Johnny had different idea’s though as he sprinted along the fence to pluck the ball out of the air one handed.
When Sherry trapped Dan Wallage plumb in front, Haverhill were all out for 153. Tea was taken as rain started to fall again. A brief stoppage saw the Dolphins trying their utmost to soak up any water from the bowlers run up but it was all in vain as the heavens opened again. After the best part of an hour the umpires decided that enough was enough and duly abandoned the game.
During tea Charlie Garner was presented with a slice of rocky road with a single candle in it, as those in the pavilion sung Happy Birthday. It was unanimously agreed that Callum Lazarus should be the beneficiary of the Rasta Costume after asking what a cheese loaf was and requesting that a new photo be taking of himself, as he now sported the start of a moustache and a beard that needed a magnifying glass to see!