It's a Family Affair

Goresbrook’s second string produced a terrific performance to breeze past their Great Baddow counterparts by 9 wickets on the opening Saturday. Skipper Brad Winsley deputising for Aaron Scott (not the last time we'll use those 4 words this season) won a vital toss and inserted Great Baddow on a green looking pitch and his experienced seam duo of Danny Gillham snr and Richard Williams (2-12) bowled in the right areas from the outset to reduce the visitors to 30-4.

A brief rally followed as Simmons hit a quick fire 30 and Goresbrook first change bowler Joe Barwick became an early victim of the new ruling on beamers, the rusty bearded right armer being removed from the attack for the innings by the umpires after successive head height deliveries that were frankly of no danger to anybody except Robbo who had to duck for cover behind the stumps as the batsman missed the second with a wild attempted tennis smash.

However after the drama of Skippy following his uncle Scott as one of the few Goresbrook bowlers removed from the attack by the umpires (Scott being banished to the outfield after repeatedly running on the pitch at Frenford in a Sunday league game) father and son Ricci and Billy Parnell soon restored a measure of control, Ricci taking the big wicket of Simmons with one that swung late to take off stump and Billy skidding the ball through at a good pace for the duration of a fine spell of 2-19 as Winsley's men remained in the ascendancy.

The skipper nipped in following Billy Parnell's spell to take the 8th wicket and he then summoned the burly Gillham snr (4-20) back to wrap up the tail as Baddow were dismissed for 108, keeper Darren Robinson also having an excellent day with 3 catches, a stumping and a generous tea featuring more variety than your average Bev over, Dory having added the carbohydrate holy trinity of rice/pasta/potatoes and a smattering of protein in the shape of chicken skewers, nuggets and mini sausages to the standard sandwich platters.

At tea the general consensus was that even a target of just over 100 looked like it could be tricky on a seamers wicket, however 16 year old Danny Gillham jnr had other thoughts, as did the Great Baddow bowlers, who took some time to locate the cut strip.

Simmons followed Barwick to the naughty step after an incident packed opening over that featured another pair of beamers, this time at least at a speed that made the batsman duck, but with the bowlers clearly rusty, Gillham produced some outstanding attacking shots, dealing mostly in boundaries as he nursed a knee injury, his unbeaten 63 taking the game away from the visitors. The waif-like right hander exhibited fine timing hitting a couple of straight sixes and ten fours, largely through the off-side and he had good support from 15 year old Frankie Boland and 18 year old Lee Jones both of whom reached double figures as the 2's eased home in the 19th over with the help of 23 wides and no balls.

Skipper Winsley was delighted with his side's performance commending the attitude of his somewhat makeshift side,

"Danny (jnr) is a class act and once his knee is healthy he won't be playing 2nd team cricket, but he was forced to play a bit more aggressively than he has in previous seasons mainly because he couldn't run....and he demonstrated that he can find the boundary easily these days.

I was most pleased with our bowling and fielding though, everybody got stuck in and although we have loads of established 1st & 2nd team players to potentially come back, the 11 that turned out did a great job for the club and can take that confidence into whatever game they are selected for next weekend."