Walsh still in the prime of bowling life

Goresbrook’s second string were indebted to two outstanding individual performances as they came out on top in a hard fought contest against Stock’s reserves. After winning the toss and being persuaded by his think-tank to bat first, skipper Craig Ivey watched as opening batsmen Joe Curley, promoted after a swashbuckling 80 in the threes and once again walking out with a stonking hangover, hit an entertaining 95 from 87 balls, a knock featuring numerous high class boundaries and several dropped catches from the fielding side.

With Curley back to the all-conquering form that saw him linked repeatedly with a first team call-up in Lawrence Walsh's reports last season (to no avail), the 2's just needed somebody to stick around and build a partnership with him, however not for the first time, Curley was struggling to maintain a long-term relationship and once fellow opener Charlie Thompson made 23, there was precious little in the way of support for the luxuriantly haired opener as the aggressive middle order departed in a clattering of stumps, Greaves, Ivey and Jackson sharing one run between them and then number 7 Daryl Forward reacting to the carnage by being stumped for a duck.

Once Curley departed, a late partnership between Qaiser Mumtaz (16) and Lawrence Walsh (15) saw Goresbrook up to something approaching par, with the butterscotch blocker at number 11 seeing out 21 balls to ensure that wickets were the only thing gifted to the visitors, the innings concluding in the 45th over on 192, a very gettable total on pitch that received good reviews from the 2's players.

In reply, with a stiff breeze assisting his drifting Joe Barwick took the first 3 wickets to fall in a fine opening spell of 3-22 from 10 overs, another miserly return that saw Brook in the ascendancy early on. However with Mumtaz and Forward going wicketless and Billy Smith uncharacteristically full of length, the visitors looked firmly in control as they advanced to 105-3 in the 29th over with opener Hurley into the 40's and Norton motoring along on 38. At that point, skipper Craig Ivey turned to veteran leg spinner Lawrence Walsh and the leading wicket taker in Goresbrook history turned in an outstanding display, throwing the ball up and extracting plenty of turn and bounce to challenge the Stock batsmen to clear the field.

A succession of Stock batsmen took that challenge, when perhaps requiring less than 5 an over with wickets in hand, knocking the ball about for singles might have been the better course of action. However, emboldened by an early drop, the batsmen kept launching and as the wickets started to tumble, the Goresbrook catching came through under pressure, with Curley and Forward taking excellent boundary catches as Walsh started to cut through the Stock batting like he's cut through so many Lloyds Bank holiday procedures through the years.

Keeper Billy Chapman also supported his bowler with a catch and two stumpings and from a position of strength, before you knew it, Stock were all out for 163 with Walsh having picked up 7 for 22 in 6.4 overs, proving that leg spin bowling, unlike bin-collecting is not a lost art in Dagenham.

Walsh wasn't quite sure whether 7-22 was his best ever return, although pre-drinking with Joe Curley he thought it probably was and it was certainly his best league return. Post drinking with Curley, his comments are unintelligible.

The 2's dust themselves down and march on to a clash with likely promotion rivals Tillingham next week without ageing rocker Walsh who is attending Download Festival at Donington Park.