1s bury Brookweald

Another strong bowling and fielding performance from Calverley's kids, with KK Messenger breaking through with the new ball to take 4-33 along with an early run out to have Brookweald 5 down. Kane was well supported by Harry Jackson and then Shaun Ross (2 for 15) who nipped out a couple in the middle overs before spin twins Barwick (2-16) and Maund (1-6) wrapped up the innings.

In reply with 59 overs to score 103, Kurt Whisker had a decent stab at getting some value for money, digging in for 26 from 80 odd balls, but eventually with 24 wides thrown in, even Kurt had to concede that he couldn't stretch the game out past 6pm, Tony Maund seeing us home with 21* after Kurt went lbw after nearly an hour and 3/4's of grinding.

Brookweald's report on the league website rues their decision to bat first on a pitch that was "very difficult to bat on", noting that when chasing we batted sensibly, looking only to score off bad balls. Some truth in that, although it's hard to come to the conclusion that the pitch or the bowling would have been materially easier to bat against had they batted second, although had we batted first the assembled masses would have been treated to the 1's top order playing a few shots rather than professionally minimising the risk of any scares.

The 1's go top at the halfway stage with Bentley being torn a new one by Springfield and OC's going down at Great Baddow, so it's onwards and upwards to the second half of the season with Canvey visiting on Saturday. The groundsman has dumped an entire beach on the Annex to make the Islanders feel at home, hopefully the 1's bowling will not be so accommodating.