Brook drop the ball at OC's

The 1's missed a golden opportunity to head the chasing pack behind early pacesetters Thurrock as a succession of dropped catches, ranging from the very difficult (any slip catch when Izzy is bowling) to the more straightforward (boundary to a spinner) allowed Old Chelmsfordians several lives and more specifically allowed Faz Rehman and Matt Eva to construct the partnership that formed the basis of the hosts successful chase down of 195.

After a shower shortly before the start of the match, early batting proved difficult for Kurt Whisker's men, the skipper and Shane Barwick putting on 43 in 17 overs in the face of testing spells from the experienced ex-Essex staffer Joe Grant and Nadeem Ahmed, before both fell in quick succession to Aseeb Rehman. Craig Irving was then third man out to the same bowler, the pick of the old boys attack with 3-38 from his 10 overs, but then Jordan Harris and Jordan Calverley launched a fightback, putting together a partnership of 92 for the 4th wicket before Harris fell for 30. Calverley continued to take the attack to OC's hitting a fine 73, but when he went it was left to Kane Messenger to ensure that we batted the overs, setting a target of 194-8.

In reply, Israel Ochwo again took a wicket in the first over, as he had Ahmed caught behind, but Cook and Eva put together a good stand before Kane Messenger trapped Cook lbw to leave the game well poised at 60-2.

At that point Brook had several opportunities to break what was effectively the machwinning partnership between Eva (48) and Rehman (67), but although Eva was held by Calverley off the bowling of Shane Barwick, the equation had reached 45 required from the last 8 overs with 7 wickets still in hand. Despite a spirited effort from Ochwo coming back to bowl at the death, OC's middle order was up to the task and they reached their target with 2.1 overs remaining.

The 1's move on to a home game with Champions Springfield, who bounced back from successive defeats by taking early pacesetters Bentley for 360+ on Saturday, so a dramatic improvement in the field will be required if the 1's are to cause an upset.

Footnote: It appears that Old C's Alice Green may have become the first lady to play in the TRippon Premier Division by virtue of her appearance in this fixture. I say appear for 2 reasons 1) I'm no authority on TRippon history and 2) Strangely her appearance in this fixture wasn't mentioned by any of the 1st XI in the debrief back at the club on Saturday night, however photographer Sue Whisker confirms that Alice did play...