Springfield complete double over the 1's

Goresbrook’s long unbeaten run in the Mid-Essex Premier Division ended at the hands of the last team to beat them, reigning Champions Springfield, as Kurt Whisker’s men couldn’t post a sufficiently large target to extend the most definitely mid-Essex side.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Whisker would have been hoping to set a target approaching 250, however his side and the skipper personally were under the cosh from the outset as the Springfield bowlers sent down accurate new ball spells that left Brook 15 for 2 after 12 overs, Joe Curley having fallen lbw for 6 and then Richard Williamson being run out for 5.

At the other end Whisker was becalmed, taking 27 balls to score his first 2 runs, a rare struggle in a couple of seasons where the skipper looked like Matthew Hayden dominating Division One attacks and then Justin Langer accumulating in the Premier Division. On this occasion however, Kurt looked more like Bernhard Langer and it wasn’t until Jordan Calverley arrived at the crease that the scoreboard started to tick over. Whisker finally fell to opposing skipper Lee Brooks for 20 from 72 balls, and from thereon, the Goresbrook middle order were swept away until Jordan Harris arrived to give his namesake some support.

Calverley was eventually dismissed for 67 inside the last 5 overs and Harris shepherded Goresbrook to a final tally of 182-8, something to bowl at and a downright result from the situation 45 minutes before, but well short of par on a good pitch at Coronation Park. Brook’s tally was aided by 39 extras from the hosts, just about the only black mark on a well-disciplined performance.

The Springfield reply rarely looked troubled, as the hosts batsmen set about their target batting positively but sensibly and they reached 90 before Pollinger fell to the persevering Shaun Ross. An Israel Ochwo double salvo that removed the dangerous Singh and the excellent Latimir-Jones for 61 to 'reduce' Springfield to 123-3 could have provoked some jitters, but the experienced Symonds and Clark saw out the remainder of the innings without further loss, the hosts cruising home in the 36th over for the loss of 3 wickets.

Brook move on to face High Roding without more than half of the XI who played Springfield, as lads trips to Kavos, romantic holidays and international man of mystery duties intervene.

Springfield move on to hoping that somebody can stop the Bentley bandwagon, us being as good a candidate as any in a couple of weeks, although we will have to play significantly better than we did on Saturday to beat excellent sides like Springfield and the current league leaders.

Kurt moves on to trying to clear his head of thoughts such as 'why are these idiots calling me Jury?', 'why hasn't my rent decreased when the number of people in my house has increased by 33%?' and 'who on earth is going to open the bowling next week?', in order to achieve the zen like state required to score runs against High Roding.