Brook prevail in Stifford run-fest

Many cricket clubs tour in September and many of those travel by bus. However most of Goresbrook's team for the visit to Belhus on Saturday were not on tour but they were on the bus...... the 370 from Romford to Lakeside due to a shortage of available drivers, and indeed players of driving age........

Buses have always been like Las Vegas for Goresbrook, as club rules have always stated that what happens on the bus stays on the bus. What stayed on the bus on mini-bus trips of yore tended to be the underwear of whoever was sitting next to Darren Ivory, however fortunately in these days of child-welfare officers, no such reportable incidents occurred on this trip (although Adi Kumar was mentioned in dispatches) and after a brisk walk up the hill into North Stifford village, with Owen Elsom taking the polka dot jersey, Skippy for the day lost the toss and found himself composing the order from one to ten with himself firmly pencilled in at number eleven.

Craig Ivey immediately set about the youthful opening bowlers clubbing them to all parts of the ground, well cow corner anyway. Squeaky, when permitted by his partner to face a ball, played correctly to all the other parts of the ground, his run a ball offerings being hugely overshadowed by Ivey's exuberance. The score quickly reached 50 and Ivey's 50 followed soon after. A change in bowling personnel stemmed the flow of runs a little but by drinks the score had reached 145-0. Ivey then reached his century, but holed out immediately after for 102. Andrew Pauling came to the middle not only with his bat but with a pack of tissues for the nose bleed he had batting so high up the order. After struggling to get any bat on ball Pauling then picked up successive boundaries from rare off line deliveries from the evergreen Jim Banner and would probably have needed the tissues for another purpose had he hit double figures, but alas it was not to be..... he fell, stumped for 8.

Lee Jones joined Squeaky in the middle and this pair ran well, accumulating freely until Jones chipped to mid off for 17. This brought Harry Jackson to the crease and it was he who helped usher the Sunday skipper to his century and beyond, Goresbrook finishing on 266-3 from their 40 overs: Ivey 102, Harris 126* Pauling 8, Jones 17, Jackson 5*

With the ball Alfie Atkins opened proceedings and struck twice in his 5 over spell courtesy of catches by Jackson and Kumar. Bev then replaced his progeny and matched his effectiveness with a return catch and a second catch for Jackson, however this brought Billy Winter to the crease and he scored freely against everything that Brook could throw at him...... literally in Charlie Thompson's case! Having conceded 5 runs from 5 overs in his opening spell Owen Elsom returned to the attack and mixed up his pace, or lack of, to good effect and it was in the penultimate over that the contest itself was over but there was still time for Winter to hoist Thompson far beyond the boundary ropes to bring up his century, which according to unofficial statistician Andy Livett by correspondence from Thailand, is approximately 90 more than his old man scored in his illustrious career against Goresbrook.

Belhus 230-4: Alfie Atkins 2-12 Paul Atkins 2-26 Charlie Thompson 6-0-67-0

Brook ran out winners by 36 runs in a thoroughly entertaining match played in a good spirit throughout. Belhus will indubitably be out for revenge in Brook's seasons finale at the same venue on Sunday.