On a chilly mid May Saturday Braintree thirds came back home to take on West Mersey seconds. Division nine has been kind to Braintree, with those visionaries in the club who suggested that we enter a thirds team to give the kids experience and keep people in the club proved to be like Nostradamus, with 4 ‘regular’ players this week moving up through the club, enabling more juniors to play. This week we took to the field with 5 aged 15 or under.

Unfortunately sometimes in Division 9 we’ll come up against teams we get on well with, but who have players who at best might be described as ‘unknown’ - when Johnston turned up to find 2 of them practicing full batting and bowling on the strip an hour before the game he promptly suggested to the away team they might want to tell them to stop - to have it suggested that nobody really knew who one of them was. One played in black trainers. But it’s ok - the two of them got to bat numbers 2 & 3 for the opposition then bowl 20 overs between them and score a direct hit to cause a run-out.

In any event, to cause even more confusion than last week’s names, having won the toss and decided to bowl, for what may well have been the first time in club history, we opened with two bowlers with the same name. Yes, correctly the scorebook shows C MacLeod from both ends. This wasn’t a cunning plan by the skipper to decide which figures he wanted to claim, but confidence in the bowling of Corbyn MacLeod - a confidence well placed as Corbyn bowled well despite having to face up to a left-right combination.

Unfortunately at times things didn’t quite fall for the opening pair, with fielders just being beaten by the ball, a very sharp chance going missing at mid-wicket, and the wicket keeper having one of those days when he wants to burn the gloves with extras quickly ramping up.

Captain Calum eventually got the breakthrough, brining his swing into the equation and bowling the top of middle stump. Unfortunately this brought old black trainers himself to the crease at 29-1 and still a right-hand left-hand combination. The two batters put pressure on the bowlers and fielders from the outset, and put away anything that was loose or short - it was almost as if perhaps one of them shouldn’t have been batting at Division 9 level.

We had spin from Wedge, Foyster and Lyra MacLeod to mix things up, along with the smile and pace of Rowan Lazarus on his first appearance of the season and eventually it was Rowan, after 2 of the slowest beamers seen, who got the breakthrough - tempting the left handed opener to drive the ball to captain Calum who took a comfortable catch.

Unfortunately the opposition produced another left hander to keep the bowlers thinking. Once again anything loose was immediately punished, before Lyra collected herself another wicket for the season, her mystery spin getting the number 3 batter. With Braintree looking like having a defendable score we then sadly took no more wickets as the last 2 batters went aggressive and punished the bowlers, fielders and wicket keeper, taking West Mersea to a total of 226-3.

Knowing that a good start would be key, and that the total to chase, whilst substantial, was not out of the equation, Lockhart and Johnston strolled to the crease together for the first time this season. Lockhart was welcomed with a quick in swinging Yorker he did well to keep out, then 3rd ball snicked directly over the first slip who didn’t even move as the ball raced to the boundary.

Johnston had one of those days, soon playing on to one that climbed slightly on him to depart for 5. The experienced MacLeod and Lockhart then started to put together a very important partnership, but batting was not easy. The opposition kept one end tight by bowling the same chap all the way through and rotated the other end. After the change of pace it proved to be MacLeod’s undoing as he edged behind. Johnston gave the dreaded finger, which was not what he did at the other end as Lockhart inside edged a ball onto his pads. Despite the constant chirping and protestations of the bowler Johnston remained unmoved - this would go on for the rest of the innings.

With MacLeod gone, young Sherry, the only one dedicated enough to put cricket ahead of family and football for the day took his opportunity to learn his craft. He took his time to see himself in, something that perhaps another batter further up the order should learn from, before becoming fluent in his stroke play. He lost Lockhart to a run out - a direct hit being his undoing and Johnston being able to see the line and giving it, albeit Nick was already walking back to the pavilion.

Archie Payne joined Will and entertained with some lusty blows - if some of his shots had connected they might have been closing the airspace to avoid any accidents! Archie lived by the sword, but sadly died by the sword, being caught at deep cover.

Calley came with all the gear - looking sparking with new boots and gloves, but was undone early by the bowler who had spent a good while before hand practicing on the actual match strip - it’s almost like he’d seen it before…

Rowen Lazarus, the happiest man in cricket then strolled to the crease but wasn’t able to help the score along too much, leaving Braintree reeling at 104-6.

BUT

The whole point of this cricket is to give youth a chance, and that we did, as young Sherry was joined by Harrison McBride. A boy fuelled by batting with his Uncle the previous Sunday, he came and supported Will as the two of them punished anything loose, of which there was little. They faced far more experienced bowlers but kept to the basics, and between the two of them ticked off batting point after batting point.

Eventually, with Sherry approaching his 50 he was well caught for a fantastic 42 including 7 4’s. A brilliant innings of patience and skill showing that the future is bright for him.

All that was left in the innings was for Harrison and Corbyn, probably the youngest batting partnership in the league this weekend to play out the remaining overs, get us the precious last batting point, and show that despite facing excellent bowling they could hold their own.

Eventually the 3’s finished on 180-7 - an admirable result for the team considering the experience of the batters, and the opposite level of experience we faced, with the opposition only using 4 bowlers and not mixing things up or taking things lightly.

And if you’ve read this far and think you’ve had a bad weekend of cricket? Johnston’s day - telling the opponents to get off the square, letting through more byes than runs he scored, giving a team mate run out, and having to call a youngster one short as they didn’t ground their bat when running a two. Oh and getting repeatedly told that he should’ve given an LBW by the opposition bowler.