Brook Great at Baddow

Goresbrook secured a hard fought victory over 6th placed Great Baddow after a fine batting performance on an excellent wicket at the Chelmsford side’s Recreation Ground. Skipper Kurt Whisker lead the way with an increasingly fluent 80 as Goresbrook piled on the runs after Whisker and 16 year old Charlie Thompson put together a 94 run stand for the 1st wicket to blunt the new ball.

Thompson fell for a composed 24 and then Toby Maund’s poor run continued as he went for 6, both men falling to Ramesh Gunalan, however in-form Jordan Calverley then combined with Whisker to push the score on to 164 before Whisker finally fell lbw after surviving two dropped catches.

Calverley then took up the attack and his fluent 60 was the centrepiece of the remainder of the innings, the right hander falling in the 42nd over with the score on 224. With wickets in hand, the Goresbrook batsmen were able to throw the bat and the last 3 overs yielded 38 runs as Kane Messenger (25*) and Stuart Greaves (26* from 9 balls) hit boundaries at regular intervals.

The Great Baddow reply was built around an excellent 79 from Richard Wilson who combined with Smith (37) and Pulham (25) for significant partnerships after the hosts dangerous opening pair Choudhary and Gunalan had been dismissed early on. Baddow had reached 195-3 before Wilson went, stumped off the bowling of 14 year old Adi Kumar, however by this stage the run-rate required had moved into double figures and with paceman Israel Ochwo coming back for a final spell, the batsmen were up against it.

So it proved, as Ochwo picked up 3 more scalps in a very productive season and the hosts finished 28 runs short when their overs expired. Goresbrook move on to a final week encounter with Hatfield Peverel with the likelihood being that they will finish within a handful of points of both Old Chelmsfordians and Thurrock in the 3rd – 5th places, some 60+ points behind the outstanding two sides in the Mid-Essex league Springfield and likely champions Bentley.