On a beautiful hot sunny day the Ellisons solicitors derby took place at the airfield, with Colchester sporting some nifty advertising on their sleeves, and Braintree well, they just had Johnston.

Captain Callum did the right thing, and with a changed team elected to bat first in a scorcher. After watching his opening partner score an exquisite century last week Will Sherry was this week joined by Johnston at the top. It was not the same as last week, as Johnston was soon back in the pavilion having startled the opening bowlers by slapping 2 4’s with little respect.

Will continued his merry way, joined by the skipper who this week failed to trouble the scorers, being caught behind by a wicket keeper. Who he was informed catches nothing. And was wearing black gloves. Thankfully he then proved his captain right through the rest of the innings by dropping Will Sherry, and later dropping Lucas Hale. The saying ‘catches win matches’ couldn’t be more correct when comparing the catches taken in the second innings. By a wicket keeper not wearing black gloves.

Shub came to the crease with a point to prove at 4. And the fun began. It was wonderful biffing from the off. Mid Wicket and square leg were peppered, and he and Will put on a brilliant partnership including lots of singles which rattled the opposition to such an extent they turned on each other. The umpire at the time assumed that by leaving his 5 year old daughter at home he’d seen all the tantrums he’d see for the day, but Colchester ran her close for how the spoke to and fell out with each other in the field.

Shub merrily smiled, saw the ball and hit it some more. After a partnership of 96 Will fell to a good one handed grab, leaving Braintree at 119-3. This quickly became 119-5 as Shub was cleaned up by a straight ball and we got to see the brothers Payne bat together. Like the great Barry and Paul Chuckle the brothers Payne did a very quick ‘To me, to you’ leaving Archie well short of his ground and run out.

Due to an unforeseen wardrobe malfunction (he wasn’t ready) Lucas sent Calley in above him, but she was again caught leaving Braintree in trouble at 128-6. Riley was then joined by a now clothed and prepared Lucas, and they took to the bowling, knocking it about until drinks, when the ball after Riley was plumb LBW - given from the boundary it was that clear, but for a well worked 29.

On debut Seb then came out to bat and proved how handy he could be, supporting Lucas as they put on an imposing stand, with Lucas being aggressive from the off. They knocked the wind out the Colchester team, with both scoring at nearly a run a ball. Seb eventually fell in the last over, giving Leigh Garner the opportunity to do one job, which was to give Lucas the strike, which he managed on the last ball of the innings.

Eventually, on that final ball, with the nonchalance of youth, Lucas flicked the ball off his pads to reach his maiden adult 50, the first Hale to reach the milestone this season, and off just 46 balls. Braintree, thanks to the all round team batting effort finished on 249 - a good effort in the heat and considering that for the last 6 overs the opposition decided to have 7 fielders on the boundary. In Division 9 cricket.

Whilst we don’t provide a tea, this week we were treated not only to Rocky Road, but also Brenda going big on the homemade sausage rolls - a wonderful addition.

The ever reliable Leigh Garner and Lucas Hale took the new ball, but the young Hale after biffing so many runs declared he’d hurt his shoulder after only 2 overs, bringing Seb Mears to the attack earlier than expected. Whilst Leigh as ever was miserly from his end, the opening batter from the other end obviously decided to day to wake up and choose violence. He dispatched the bowling all over the place, even nailing in swinging Yorkers for 6 high over square leg, to race to 77 off just 37 balls.

However.

The Braintree team knew what to expect, captain Callum had talked us through it, and nobody got down. Nobody dropped their heads. And everyone supported the bowlers and the fielders.

And Garner continued to be metronomic at his end. Confused by only having to umpire 15 overs of our innings, and n one of the more dubious decisions of the season he claimed an LBW of the other opener, and then when he got the biffer in his sights cramped him up to offer a floated caught and bowled chance. Garner wasn’t leaving anything to chance, and to boost his own stats shouted for anyone else to get out the way and easily claimed it. Garner then had the wicket keeper snick off to Johnston (wearing regulation wicket keeping gloves and dropping nothing all day) to leave Colchester 140-3, ahead of the run rate and with the dangerous skipper and Mr 2 bats himself at the crease. Garner realised how quick Karma can come round - trapping the aggressive batter right in front of the stumps only for the umpire to rule it not out - a bit of comeuppance for his earlier LBW that was given but wasn’t.

Spin had been introduced early from the toilet end in the form of Calley Foyster, building the pressure as she does but initially going without reward. With Garner eventually finishing his excellent spell taking 3-38 off 11 overs despite the carnage, Lyra MacLeod was brought on from the other end - 4 years since ladies cricket was introduced to the club and a true testament to how far we’ve come and the excellent job the coaches have done.

Lyra got the big breakthrough - having Binns caught in the deep by Riley Payne, who added some jeopardy to his catch by nearly running under the ball. With this wicket and the pressure from both bowlers Braintree were in with a chance, but Colchester were still ahead of the run rate and with wickets in hand.

Finally however Calley got reward for all her hard work with a ball that the kids would say ‘hang it in the Louvre’ as she pitched on middle to hit the top of off stump to bowl Aneesh - it doesn’t matter if you’ve got more than one bat, or if your Instagram suggests you’re an international cricket for Malta, you aren’t keeping that out.

Lyra then picked up another wicket, caught by Lucas, having quite the day out, leaving Colchester at 199-6 which became 203-7 as Calley produced another unplayable delivery which caught the edge and was well caught by Johnston behind the stumps.

Colchester are left needing 46 off 9 overs. Calley is bowled out. Braintree need 3 wickets. Do we go negative? Do we heck. We get together, we talk through who we are. We keep the same field no matter what.

Captain Callum decides sensible action is required. He brings on Will Sherry, after a great batting performance to go full Joe Root and spin us to win it. First over, simple game, 0 runs, 1 wicket - nonchalantly caught by Leigh Garner at square leg.
A maiden from Lyra. A wicketless over from Will. Another miserly over from Lyra. The pressure is building, Colchester don’t know what to do, they try running a single to Lucas Hale. They regret running a single to Lucas Hale as he listens, throws the ball to Johnston and that man with the gloves does the rest. Colchester are down to their last wicket. They still need 21 runs.

Lyra is bowled out! The league mandated 8 overs for someone with a 4 step run up whilst allowing Leigh Garner to bowl 11 overs on the trot with a full run up means we have to find an over. We desperately need pace off the ball. We need a hero. We need a captain to step up and be slow enough and erratic enough the batters can’t find the boundary.

9 needed. 6 balls. 1 wicket. That man Sherry. The crowd go wild - 5th ball he sneaks one past the bat, the batter is down the wicket, Johnston takes the bails off. A stumping. A win! The crowd goes wild. Brenda is on the pitch! Braintree win by 4 runs with a ball to spare.

To quote the great coach Gordon Bombay (ask your parents) “A team isn't a bunch of people out to win. A team is something you belong to, something you feel, something you have to earn”. I think everyone can agree, that whilst selection or performance might mean the 11 players for Braintree rarely if ever all play together again, they will always have that one glorious afternoon as a team.