Parnell's put Hornchurch to the sword

A Goresbrook eleven containing a veritable mix of youth and experience pulled off a comprehensive victory against local rivals Hornchurch on Saturday.

Even before the toss most of the visitors were already looking forward to tea but young Billy Parnell was equally enthusiastic about the prospect of operating the electronic scoreboard, as he was to with aplomb.

The venerable Andy Livett opened the innings but soon found his opening partner Aaron Scott back in the hutch after edging behind at the end of the second over for a duck. Charlie Thompson soon joined Scott back in the pavilion and with the run rate having barely risen above two for the first ten overs and with the home fielders implying that anything less than 240 would be below par, Livett felt it imperative that he go on the attack and as a consequence, he fell with the score on 35-3 having made 23.

This brought skipper Shane Barwick to the crease with Dunston Alfred and after a few overs in which Hornchurch seemed to be turning the screw both opened up and began to score freely. The sage of St Lucia, Alfred, played a typically swashbuckling innings and amassed a quickfire 50 with Barwick in the supporting role, but when both fell in quick succession, Barwick for 24 and Alfred for 54, Brook were in a spot of bother. That bother basically involved a tail longer than your average giraffe, featuring as it did Joe Barwick (nursing a nose bleed from the mere possibility of batting as high as eight) the Parnell brothers and Owen Elsom, doughty competitors all, but more renowned for their work with the ball and in one case, their work with black jackets.

It was therefore left to Craig Ivey and Craig Irving (not the lesser known alternative universe Irvey and Iving who both got ducks in a game in a galaxy far far away) to get the total up to something respectable and this they did in style despite the former suffering from a twisted knee that somewhat hampered his running between the wickets and the later fuming as the wicket keeping axe hung over his head, as Aaron Scott was already warming up on the sideline in full view of the impressionable skipper Barwick. Both men went shot for shot until Irving surged ahead with a mammoth six over long on and then reached his fifty with a reverse sweep for four that brought up the 200. A final flurry of runs took the total to 211-5 with Irving finishing on 55* and Ivey on 34*.

After the wedding breakfast Brook took to the field and 16 year old Daniel Parnell opened the bowling in tandem with Joe Barwick. Barwick wasn't at his shimmering best as the regular flow of traffic down the Hornchurch Road seems to disrupt the air-flow, making Harrow Lodge Park a difficult ground for your average drifter. Indeed Barwick's philosophical forefather Bridge took a few poundings over here in the past, but the orange orienteer put in a respectable shift picking up 1-37 and making the first breakthrough with Charlie Thompson taking the catch at mid wicket. Home skipper Bones then took a liking to Barwick's line and length keeping the score board steadily ticking over, but Parnell picked up a wicket courtesy of an Aaron Scott-Nobyes catch behind and the youngster showed great maturity, maintaining his line and length even when Bones danced down the wicket to him, eventually enticing a brash shot that came down with snow on it straight into the hands of Craig "no gloves" Irving at mid off, the prodigious hangtime allowing sufficient gap for the fielding side's shouts of "catch" to disrupt Irving's unicorn based musings and alert him to the potential for a wicket.

Owen Elsom then did what he does, pegging the run rate back with a brace, second catches for both Irving and Scott, in a spell of 2-25. But it was 13 year old Billy Parnell (3-39) who stole the show and earned the Caribbean commentator's plaudits with 3 wickets as he followed his skipper's advice to continue flighting his leg spin to bowl two victims and earn Scott a third catch behind. After Shane Barwick (1-12) had nabbed a wicket via a Craig Ivey catch he brought Daniel Parnell (3-30) back into the attack and Parnell the elder took just four balls to match his brothers haul to leave Brook victors by 53 runs.

240 may well be par for Hornchurch but they reckoned without the Parnells.