Third XI back in winners circle

Goresbrook's third team got back to winning ways on Saturday at the difficult to find Ecko Sports and Social club in Southend. Due to another weekend of poor availability the 3s saw many changes with Alfie Atkins coming in for the promoted Danny Gillham Jnr and Scott Barwick playing his annual game to replace the Ibiza bound Paul Lowe. Tommy Puncher received promotion from the fours to take Keith Friends place who is also in the party isle of Ibiza and lastly Martin Rooke, hesitantly, took the place of Bobby Gaymer who was injured following last weeks batting exploits.

With Skipper Gillham running late due to a malfunctioning Sat Nav 'Bolt' promptly lost the toss and was delighted as Brook were asked to bat on a glorious sunny afternoon. Livett and Puncher opened and dealt with the Ecko openers with ease, Puncher being the more aggressive as scoring moved along nicely. Puncher was in fine form, several dazzling drives found the boundary through the covers.

However Puncher was knocked out for 37 by first change bowler Wayne Wrights in his second over as a good length delivery broke his defence. Livett was joined by under 13 start Nirbhay Bist and he was quickly in his stride, enjoying the width being served up to him by Zaeen and Sohail and cutting some nice shots away.

Livett at the other end was plodding along but dispatching the bad balls and running tirelessly in the scorching heat. His running though was to be his undoing as he called for a two that wasn’t on and Bist turned down the second as he would have been running to the danger end. Livett was stranded, but despite a dashing sprint and elegant dive the 997 times capped Brook stalwart was run out by a tight margin.

Joe Wilkinson was next in and unfortunately next out as he put one hand on the duck trophy with another excellent piece of fielding practicemanship. Following last week catching practice catch to first slip, Wilkinson followed it up with a beautifully crafted lofted cover drive that was easily taken. Next week Wilkinson is looking to provide practice for the mid off region.

Scott Barwick was next in the frame and following a few shaky defences the burly batman struck a terrific lofted cover drive for four runs. Bist at the other end was continuing his innings with some smart ones and two's and getting away with the odd lofted drive of his own.

Bist was next to go though, an excellent innings of 32 was ended as he played across his line (not for the first time this season) and was bowled by Zaeen. Barwick followed without the score progressing. Following a very good lbw appeal that was turned down Barwick fell three balls later with an even closer appeal that was given.

Martin Rooke and Alfie Atkins were now in charge of moving Goresbrooks total on from what was looking like an excellent score just a few overs earlier to now just a respectable one. Atkins didn’t last long though and was replaced by his father Paul batting at number 8 following last weeks heroics.

With in excess of 100 years at the crease between the pair and near on 1500 appearances the veterans piled on the runs. Dispatching bad balls for four and running quickly the pair put on in excess of 40 runs before Rooke was left hopelessly stranded by Atkins and being run out for 19 valuable runs.

Atkins, with the assistance of Andrew Pauling added added a further 20 runs to push the scoreline to a respectable 178-9 which in truth should have been much higher. Atkins finished unbeaten on 30 to follow last weeks 33 as he shows potential to turn himself into a proper all rounder.

Tea was eagerly awaited, especially by Wilkinson who's working week looked to have taken its toll with his second successive duck. Wilkinson had spent the hour prior to tea agonising over whether a further tray of sandwiches would be added to that already on the table. Southend's subsistence server Sue supplied some more sandwiches to Joe's glee along with a freshly picked bowl of raspberries from the bush lined venue. A selection of snacks including mini scotch eggs and chicken bites were devoured along with the standard party sausages and sausage rolls. Two types of pizza added a little Italian variation whilst the snack section was completed by Chicken and Thyme crisps in one bowl and Vintage cheddar and onion in the other.

The sweet section was well stocked with several different types of cake of exceedingly good quality all washed down with a fine quality English breakfast tea. Certainly one of the best teas of the season and the first of any real quality since Eastwood away back on the 20th June. With question marks currently over the May and Baker tea and only an away trip to Thurrock left it could well be the last tea of any note until the start of May 2016.

Brook set out to defend 178 with Gillham and Adama opening the bowling. Neither found any line and length and were punished by the powerful hitting of Ejaz and Elmer. Ejaz punished anything short of over pitched with a powerful blow so Gillham sought and early change and brought on Adama's under 13 team mate Bist.

Bist, fresh from a fine performance with the bat immediately brought success. Dismissing Elmer with an undisputed lbw decision. Bist struck again to dismiss Triett shortly after with another quality delivery of line and length that swung back into the right hander to reduce the hosts to 50-3 as three wickets fell for eight runs.

Atkins Snr who had replaced Gillham wasn’t to be kept quiet as Loflin was sent packing with a fine in swinging delivery. Wallace came and went as Bist bagged his third as Alfie Atkins caught a steepler at short cover. 'Eric' (Bisto) as he was now called by the General from first slip caused trouble throughout his five over spell and the Ecko Trojans were pleased when he had to be replaced by Alfie Atkins.

Atkins Snr bagged himself another as he dismissed the biggest pair of cricket pads in Essex for no runs. At the time of writing it still isn't known who were behind the huge pads but their walk back to the hutch took almost as much time as it did for Gillham and his passengers to drive round the lanes of Southend to find the venue earlier in the day.

Ejaz was then joined by Sehda at the crease and the pair lifted Ecko from 68-6 to 106-7 with some smart running, fortunate shot placing and generous umpiring decisions. Atkins finally got the dangerman Ejaz with an lbw decision going in Brooks favour with the Trojan directly in front and not far forwards.

Atkins Snr was in a fight with Sedha though and bowled him with a full length moon ball that had the Ecko batsman ducking under a ball that hit the top of middle stump. It was deemed a no ball though but it was probably the correct decision. Atkins Jnr got himself a wicket as he bowled with supreme line and length and he found Wayne Wrights edge who found the safe, if not shaky hands of the General at first slip.

Sehda was finally dismissed for a fortuitous 19 as Paul Atkins bowled him with a fabulous yorker, why Sehda refused to walk with the stumps scattered is still a mystery as he hung around for a full 30 seconds before making his way back to the pavilion.

At 118-8 Gillham turned to the wizardry of Andrew Pauling to finish the game off. All was going to plan as the under 16 player earned himself a wicket with his fourth ball. His second over though was very different. Ecko's last man Wood proceeded to smash Pauling for five fours to reduce the deficit to just 29 runs. With Alfie Atkins finished Bist returned and bowled Wood to seal a four wicket haul and joint man of the match performance along with a win for Goresbrook.