On another glorious late Spring day the Braintree 3’s arrived at Eight Ash Green with a team designed to amuse maximum confusion, with 2 Jay’s, 2 Cal(l)um’s, 2 Foyster’s and 2 MacLeod’s. And a lesser spotted Ainsley. After seeing the opposition scored over 400 the week before, the view was taken that ‘they didn’t play us did they’ and, with captain MacLeod coming second at the toss, we were asked to have a bowl. As always Hale and Garner worked in tandem, bowling well as a team, giving little away, despite the opener seeming to be determined to attack from the off. Chances didn’t quite fall, as balls were put just a couple of feet to the side or just over fielders, including one that fell in the middle of Jay, Calley and Garner, leading to Garner’s annual Eight Ash Green aggravation, but this year at his own team as Jay through the ball at him when he wasn’t looking. Lucas Hale was the pick of the opening bowlers, bowling the attacking opener - the writer would love to tell you what over it was, or what the score was, but as the innings was scored in the archaic form of pencil and paper we’ll never know. Eight Ash Green were in trouble though because, with the change of bowling, Garner had gone for 28 off his 6 overs and would prove to be the least economical of the bowlers. Lucas was taken off after his allotted 5 overs having yet again bowled superbly. The change gave no let off for the batters as it was a throwback to the olden days in far flung fields of Suffolk of old, with Lazarus and Ainsley giving absolutely nothing away. The smile on Ainsley’s face could probably be seen all the way in Yoxford he ran in with such enjoyment in his shoulders and promptly disposed of the second opener, whilst Lazarus bowled fantastically tight with varying bounce from the other end. The pair of them bowled in tandem for 6 overs each, Joel ending with figures of 1-10 off 6 and Callum an unlucky 0-19 off his 6. With the run rate strangled it was time for the skipper to turn to spin, knowing that wickets would be important too. In that regard he turned to Lyra and her left arm mystery. A fantastic captain/ dad’s decision, and the set batter was bamboozled by the captain spending a good 3 minutes arranging fielders on the leg side to Lyra’s first ball. Showing the lack of respect any teenage child should show to their Dad, Lyra then bowled a peach of a ball outside off stump, forcing the batter into a stroke straight to Calley at mid off. No need for all that fussing or worrying about leg side field at all! At the other end, again bowling as a tandem that the opposition just couldn’t deal with, Calley whirled away causing all manner of problems for the batters, firstly inducing a chance lofted towards to the 2 Cal(l)um’s which well generously say fell short of the fielder rather than suggest the fielder didn’t get to it. Eventually Calley did get her reward, having the opposition keeper caught, and picking up the final wicket with a devilish ball straight through him. Lyra continued to wield her magic at the other end, ripping through the middle order and causing the scorer total confusion as to whether one of her wickets was a bowled or a stumping. The opposition had no answer to her, and the only respite they got was in the brief moment when our skipper decided to hurl the ball as hard as his noodle arm would let him directly at her toe’s, causing a pause in the game to ensure her foot was still attached. With the risk of a jug in play, Lyra was taken off to allow Lucas Hale some death bowling antics, and despite the opposition left handler going full whack attack, he bowled brilliantly at the death with Foyster, including allowing only 2 from his last over. Lyra ended up with a career best 4-28, Calley a 2-23 and Lucas 1-36. All bowlers should be very pleased with their efforts, supported by every fielder throughout. In total the fielding extras amounted to a total of 4 byes which proved to be decisive. After a lovely tea (including the allotted Sherry-Martin Rocky Road AND Mars Bar slice) the batters took to the field - Johnston having made the foolish mistake of asking for throw downs from Corbyn MacLeod who took to beating the bat 3 times. The opposition ended on 148-8. With this ‘confidence’ and after Will Sherry decided that he’d test the reflexes of slip off the first ball (the slip failed the test as the ball hit him in the knee before he’d moved) Johnston attempted to deposit the opening bowler out the ground in the first over, but the ball kept slightly low and he could only loft it to deep mid on. Sherry then had captain calm join him at the crease, and got to spend time and confidence with a proper batter. Realising that perhaps he might need to be more of the aggressor he played some lovely shots and pushed along the run rate well, falling eventually for 16 but adding a dash of positivity to break the run chase down. Will was eventually bowled by a decent ball, bringing the old guard of the Chairman on birthday and MacLeod together. With sensible batting, some punchy drives from the skipper and a lefthand right-hand partnership and some fielding at a lower standard than that set by Braintree, the target came into view reasonably swiftly. As we’re back to league cricket, and after his early 50 in friendly cricket, the Captain took the decision on 45 to give other’s a chance to bat and placed his front pad plumb in front of the stumps at 109-3 This gave us the entertainment of the 2 Jay’s batting together, with somewhat contrasting views on how to call and how to run between the wickets. After only a couple of run out discussions they settled down though, more Morcambe and Wise than the Chuckle Brothers, and pushed us even closer before Jay was bowled trying to win it with a big hit. On his birthday this meant that the Chairman got a family reunion in the middle as he was joined by Calley to see us home by hitting the last 4 of the innings. Overall a comfortable win, spearheaded by MacLeod’s 45, but he was beaten to top score by extra’s, with a total of 51 extra’s proving a significant difference between the sides, and a testament to the bowling and unorthodox wicket keeping on display. Braintree look to take their momentum forwards next week to a home game against unbeaten West Mersea.