Sweet Seventeen

Goresbrook's 3rd XI continued their unbeaten start to the 2015 season with a comfortable victory over the Trojans from Southend. In fact Saturdays six wicket victory took the winning run to a magnificent seventeen consecutive games that included eleven from the backend of last season. Captain Brad Winsley's winning streak is having the clubs statisticians (Barwick snr and jnr) searching for the current record winning run.

Surprisingly, the Ecko Monarchs on winning the toss decided to bat to the glee of Winsley and the returning Richie Williams. Andy Livett and Keith Friend also returned to the starting lineup with Ricci Parnell unavailable and son Billy Parnell returning to the 4th XI. Aaron Scott also returned from injury while Paul's Atkins and Lowe were on leave.

Seasoned campaigner Williams opened from the lake end and was quickly in his rhythm, gaining bounce from the pitch and troubling Sweeney with a series flying deliveries that warmed the hands of Gillham Jnr. The ever improving Khondakar got the nod at the District line end and found his line early with just a single bad delivery being hit for four.

Khondakar made the breakthrough in the fourth over as Ejaz was forced into a shot that found the safe hands of the Goresbrook skipper. With Williams keeping new batsman Hope quiet, Khondakar removed the other Trojan opener Sweeney as he took a smart catch off his own bowling. Williams got reward for his fine opening salvo with the wicket of Elmer in the seventh over to leave the Southend outfit in trouble at 10-3 from ten overs.

Gillham Snr replaced Khondakar and took a wicket with his sixth ball as he held the catch off his own bowling and Hope was gone. Thomas and Wiggins added some stability to the batting crisis that brought them in and Goresbrook were made to work hard in the field. Gillham found the outside edge of Wiggins' bat but Livett at first slip was unable to hold on to the ball as he dived full length to his right.

Meanwhile Thomas was treating everyone to an interesting array of shots. Seemingly all at sea early on, Thomas fended off several Williams deliveries with zero foot movement and anything on leg stump was played single handed. His confidence grew though, and his technique proved surprisingly effective, as despite never moving his feet the wicket keeper batsman always found the middle of the bat and found the boundary six times. His solid defence was mixed with attacking shots and none caught the eye more than a one handed shot off his legs for four runs off the dumbfounded Gillham, the ball racing to the boundary past the despairing dive of fine leg fielder Williams (one part of this sentence is false - seasoned observers will have no difficulty spotting which part).

With Williams opening spell of 6-4-8-1 completed Winsley brought himself into the attack and removed Wiggins lbw in his third over. Brenton was soon to follow, well held by Gillham at midwicket following a shocking delivery from Adi Kumar. Ejaz jnr and Thomas moved the score on from 38-6 to 89 and gave themselves a glimmer of a score to defend until Khondakar ended Thomas's resistance of 40 from 90 balls with a corker of a yorker.

Ejaz jnr was next to fall to the returning Williams, the big Yorkshire paceman getting his second wicket by way of a routine catch from Scott at second slip. Dunston Alfred then took a fantastic catch at cover, running in to dismiss Sehda off Williams whilst commentating on the impending dismissal, a level of multi-tasking that most men struggle with, although apparently not in St Lucia. The Yorkshireman, rarely trusted with a second spell by captains over the years, then completed his bullying of the lower order, and revealed Winsley to be somewhat of a visionary for engineering his return, by bowling Townley to finish with figures of 9-5-14-4 while Khondakar's exploits returned him and excellent 8-3-16-3.

At tea both sides were subjected to the worst home tea of the season. Although the hot potatoes remained there was a distinct lack in the meat department and the sandwiches consisted of just cheese and the excellent egg. Gone was the quiche that has proved a success of recent weeks and the carbohydrate section also missed out as a bowl of pasta was axed in favour of a huge plate of party sausages that didn’t really hit the spot. The urns were hot though and the English breakfast tea provided the ideal foil for the still excellent danish pastries.

Livett and Scott started the reply for the hosts and it was as if Marv was counting the deliveries as he was getting singles off the last ball of each over with the odd four thrown in for good measure.

Scott, returning from a back injury and rehabilitation break in Turkey finally got the chance to face a delivery and it was the only one he faced. Perhaps the ball of the day in both innings seen at the MABA, Scott was forced into defensive action as the slow long hop from seamer Johnson reared up to at least waist height and Scott was helpless as he fended the delivery down the leg side to Thomas who took a good catch.

Scott's one ball innings did at least last ten minutes and in which time he saw Livett score 11 runs with two fine hits for four and got close to raising a sweat scampering through for singles off the last ball of the over. Following Scott's demise, Livett was joined by Ben Irving and on the back of 50 last time out, the youngster who had bowled quickly earlier in the day without reward was soon in full flow. Full of confidence he struck a few early deliveries to the boundary before being undone and giving bowler Johnson his second wicket by taking the catch off his own bowling.

Keith Friend was next to fall as Sehda made his way into the Trojans attack as he edged behind for just three runs. Dunston didn’t fare much better as he gave Johnson his third wicket, a dismissal notable for the lack of commentary as the ball looped through the air towards the fielders gleefully outstretched hands. Livett was playing the Ecko attack with ease though taking singles at will and dispatching the bad delivery. Kumar joined him at 70-4 and the pair steered Brook home with no further drama with Livett finishing unbeaten on 42, the doughty opener taking no risks in his pursuit of a red-inker, leaving Kumar on 12no to strike the winning runs.

With the third team not receiving any accolades for being the only winning side of the four teams last weekend Winsley wasn’t happy, the Cat raging,

"That’s seventeen on the spin now. We have played very well this season and last and deserve a bit of recognition for that. We have tough games up and coming and we want to continue this fine run as you never know when it is going to end. If I can keep the body of this team together, a difficult task with so many golden oldies in the squad, I don’t see why we can't continue. It's all down to hard work and commitment and if we work together we can keep this going".