1's finally find Rayleigh of sunshine

With skipper Kurt Whisker sunning himself in Andalucia, Jordan Calverley lead Goresbrook to a hard fought win against a Rayleigh side who are making a decent fist of Mid-Essex Premier Division cricket after promotion last year. Calverley won the toss and elected to bat and was delighted with his team’s efforts on a pitch that looked better than it played. Stand-in opener Toby Maund made a patient 34 and in tandem with Shane Barwick (23) they took the score to 79-1 after the early loss of Joe Curley. When both Maund and Barwick fell in close succession and Calverley fell for 10, the innings looked like it might derail, but fluent innings' from Kane Messenger (38), Billy Chapman (28) and then under 15 star Adi Kumar (34) took Goresbrook over the 200 mark, the innings eventually closing on 219.

The Rayleigh reply looked well on track to chase down the runs after Ben Francis (41) and Andrew Impey (59) added 79 for the first wicket and then after Francis departed to Craig Ivey, the score advanced to 119-1. However after an insipid first 20 overs when the seamers couldn’t exert any pressure with the new ball, some harsh words were spoken at the drinks break and a different Goresbrook team emerged. Suddenly the hosts were forced to battle for every run as the Goresbrook spin attack started to turn the screw. Barwick took 2-36 and Billy Smith continued his excellent season with 3-29 as the Rayleigh wickets started to tumble despite an astonishing dropped sitter from captain Calverley, usually the most reliable of fielders. Craig Ivey’s cutters were also effective on the worn surface, as he took 2-28 and all of a sudden from a position of strength the overs and wickets started to run out for Rayleigh, their chase eventually foundering in the 44th over 21 runs short of their target.