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

Goresbrook produced one of their better performances in a stop-start season to comfortably see off Hawks at the May & Baker Club, even though a quarter of the way through, the game was heavily tilted in favour of the visitors.

Hawks won the toss and invited Goresbrook to bat on a grassy surface and the visiting opening bowlers produced testing spells to reduce 'Brook to 6 for 3. The excellent Jason Samuels dismissed home captain Kurt Whisker for 2 and wily veteran seamer Hubert Ryan took out Jordan Calverley and Toby Maund without scoring as Hawks were well on top. The support bowlers kept up the pressure to such an extent that it took until the 18th over before Goresbrook had more runs than overs batted and at that stage a score of 150 looked to be the limit of their ambitions.

However, Michael Rooke played the anchor role for a superb unbeaten 73 and as the ball softened and the Hawks fielders tired, Rooke put together significant partnerships with Jordan Harris (38), Bryan Atkins (34) and Kane Messenger (23*) as the Goresbrook batsmen dominated the last 15 overs, adding 120 runs, driving the bowling to distraction with some fine shots down the ground.

In reply, Hawks were soon in trouble as Richard Williams dismissed Fenton and Osman for ducks and Israel Ochwo bowled the dangerous Petrus William in a pacy opening spell. The Hawks middle order were then stifled by tight spells from Lawrence Walsh and Michael Rooke and as the run rate required mounted to above 8 an over, the batsmen were forced to take risks. The chief beneficiary was off-spinner Toby Maund, who shrugged off his earlier duck with the bat to take 4 for 16, Maund hustling out the Hawks tail-enders to leave Goresbrook victors by 69 runs after an excellent bowling and fielding performance, with Billy Chapman’s wicket-keeping being a real plus on his 1st XI debut.

Skipper Whisker was delighted with his middle-order batsmen and the performance of Rooke in particular; “It’s been a hard season for batsmen and Michael has struggled all year on difficult wickets, but there was some pace in the track today and he showed what a class act he is. Jordan Harris was superb as well and their partnership enabled Bryan Atkins and Kane Messenger to play with a bit of freedom at the end. 192 was beyond my wildest dreams at the 30 over mark and our attacking batting really deflated Hawks, which is not something I have been able to say often this year….”