Leyton County I v Goresbrook I - Essex County Cricket League - Prem Div

Goresbrook returned to winning ways after successive defeats and two weeks of rain induced inactivity with a crushing defeat of struggling Leyton County . In a game switched to Fords Newbury Park as the Olympic torch was passing through Leyton County Ground, the coin-toss was always going to be critical as heavy overnight rain had rendered the pitch and outfield barely playable, so it was with much relief that ‘Brook skipper Kurt Whisker called correctly and elected to bowl first.

His bowlers then performed admirably, putting the ball in dangerous areas on a pitch where fluent strokeplay was impossible. Matt Friend took 2 early scalps, clean bowling Sharma and Elie and then Michael Rooke followed up with a superb spell of 3 for 9 from his 8 overs. The Goresbrook fielding was up to its usual high standards and with County in desperate trouble, the last thing the hosts needed was the run-out of the dangerous Raj Dohal for a duck.

Only home skipper Joseph Pierre put up much resistance as the spin duo of Shane Barwick and Lawrence Walsh tied the Leyton tail-enders down, but with partners running out, Pierre was forced to take one risk too many as Walsh spun one past his charge down the pitch to make Pierre the second of the veteran leg-spinners victims in a tidy spell of 2 for 12. Leyton were eventually dismissed for 73 in a painstaking 33.1 overs, testament to the efficiency of the Goresbrook bowling and fielding.

In reply, after the pitch had a couple of hours to dry out, batting conditions had eased somewhat and Kurt Whisker and Jordan Calverley had few alarms in a comfortable chase. Leyton used seven bowlers in an attempt to force a breakthrough, but the ‘Brook opening pair saw the game to a conclusion at 74 without loss, for a 10 wicket triumph.

Whisker was delighted by the margin of victory, but after unprecedented cancellations, the 'Brook supremo was just happy to be playing cricket again.

“The conditions were a bit touch and go for a while as there had been so much rain and like most weeks this season, it’s been pretty desperate for the batsmen, but after two weeks of afternoon TV we were delighted to get a game in. We’ll need some strange results to get back into title contention, but all we can do is play to our potential and we certainly did that today.”

Goresbrook attention now switches to a rearranged Cup quarter-final against Bow Green on Wednesday evening and with the Dagenham side trailing leaders Scintilla by 27 points with just 5 weeks of a stop-start season remaining, the Cup presents the best chance of silverware for the reigning Champions, who are expected to be at full strength.