Still looking for their first win of the season Braintree’s First Eleven welcomed Witham
Seconds, who also were in search of a victory, to St Peter’s Road on Saturday. Trevor Partridge made his return to the scorebox after searching for potential overseas players in India, only to discover that in his absence an electric scoreboard had been installed.
It was the opposition who won the toss and invited the Dolphins to bat first. Included in the
opposition’s lineup was former Dolphin, Luke Gouldstone whose parent’s teas had been
sorely missed since his defection. However, before the toss took place the result of Captain
Walker’s Social Media Challenge was revealed. The team were asked to bring a unique can
of Monster Energy Drink to the game, with those duplicating facing a forfeit. Most of the team
managed to produce a different flavour, unfortunately Joe Osborne and Johnny Whiteoak brought the same flavour.
Matt Renvoize and Bryn Powell opened the batting putting on 19 runs before Matt picked out
Ben Tinham on the mid-wicket boundary off the bowling of Oliver Cooke. Luke Gouldstone
was finding some pace bowling down the hill, however he was spraying the ball here, there
and everywhere conceding a total of 13 wides in his opening spell. Eventually, he produced
a straight delivery which deceived Powell and clattered into the stumps.
Toby Adcock, batting at three played a patient innings keeping his wicket intact, that wasn’t
the case at the other end though. First, Chris Walker flicked a Gouldstone delivery off his
pads to Tinham who took another excellent catch, two balls later Himesh Patel was making
his way back to the pavilion after presenting Ben Hunt with a dolly. Joe Osborne was next
to lose his wicket as Ashton Lawrence took a good catch off his own bowling.
At drinks Braintree had been reduced to 79 for 5, with only Adcock and Wides reaching
double figures. Johnny Whiteoak had joined Toby at the wicket and when play resumed he
decided to hit out, despatching four balls to the boundary in quick succession. Unfortunately,
when attempting to find the ropes again, he failed to connect as he wanted and could only
find the safe hands of Gouldstone. Adcock had taken his time reaching 22, however he found himself muttering to himself as he trudged back to the hutch after giving Freddie
Caplan a simple catch off his own bowling. Major Singh was next to lose his wicket as he was adjudged LBW and then Michael Rake was run out following a mix up.
Shibu Varghese decided that only form of defence was attack, despatching Caplan over the
sightscreen to bring up his teams three figures. Shib went on to club another maximum and two fours, finishing on 26 not out as at the other end Josh Paget was bowled as the Dolphins finished on a score of just 121!
In reply, Witham soon found themselves losing wickets as they struggled to deal with the pace of Johnny Whiteoak. Jack Bamford was the first to find himself back in the dressing room as Joe Osborne produced a juggling act that a circus performer would have been proud of, to eventually claim a catch. Whiteoak was bowling as quick as anybody had
recently from the Council Office End drawing edges from both Michael Glynn and Aadittya Rakesh bats and Matt Renvoize behind the stumps took two excellent catches.
The opposition recovered from their early setback as Jack Pawsey and Richard Linney put on 63 runs for the fourth wicket. However, bringing Shib Varghese into the attack gave Braintree some hope, his mystery left arm spin bamboozled the Witham middle order.
Linney, Pawsey and Oliver Cooke were mesmerised and all found the ball crashing into their
stumps. Unfortunately for the Dolphins the two Bens, Tinham and Hunt saw the visitors
scramble over the line.
The general feeling after the game that just 20 more runs from their Batters could have
produced a different result as Witham had found themselves struggling. However, the match couldn’t be discussed with the visitors as not one of them stayed for a drink!