Five wicket hauls like buses for Messenger

Goresbrook breezed past Bentley second string in little over 3 hours of play to consolidate their position at the top of Mid-Essex League Division One. The stars of the show were bowlers Shane Barwick and Kane Messenger who came on first change to split the 10 Bentley wickets to fall, after the visitors had battled to 30-0 following lively opening spells from Israel Ochwo and Shaun Ross.

17 year old left arm spinner Barwick demonstrated a good recovery from a back injury to bewilder the Bentley batsmen with a superb spell of 10-4-12-5, his third five wicket haul of a prolific league season. Prior to the last league game against Rettendon, seamer Messenger hadn’t picked up a 5 wicket haul in 7 years of senior cricket despite being a crucial cog in Goresbrook’s ECCL Championship winning sides, however after breaking his duck against Rettendon, Messenger followed up by clean bowling all five of his victims, finishing with 5-37 as Brook ran through the Bentley batting.

A total of 81 was never likely to extend Goresbrook for long despite a green tinged pitch and with such a low target to chase, skipper Kurt Whisker elected to rest himself, giving Craig Irving and Richard Williamson an opportunity to open the innings. They started positively and raced to 50-0 before Williamson fell to Pagett, but Michael Rooke and Irving knocked off the remaining runs in the 11th over, allowing Goresbrook some well appreciated extra time in the bar.