3s ease home

Goresbrook's 3rd XI cantered to victory on Saturday over Woodham Mortimer 2s with a splendid display of batting, bowling and fielding.

Winning his fourth consecutive toss, Skipper Gillham elected to bat on an afternoon with plenty of breeze and the threat of showers. Tommy Puncher returned to open the batting with Mathew Jones and Joe Barwick was called up from the fourth XI to replace Tahmid Khondakar who was promoted to the second team.

The pair started in their usual fashion with Puncher driving full and straight whilst Jones cut and cut again. Puncher's bat was in full flow with some fine lofted cover drives reaching the boundary. With the Woodham captain refusing to relinquish his close field the openers were scoring at a steady eight runs per over. Both, however, gave chances that were not taken until Chris Hayman bowled Puncher for 33 in the eleventh over.

Paul Lowe followed two balls later for no score to bring Andy Livett to the crease following his relegation from the second XI. The Tottenham supporter soon found scoring runs against Tripathi as easy as Arsenal find finishing above their North London neighbours as he raced into his innings.

Mat Jones finally fell for 39, giving the simplest of catches to cover off the bowling of Cook when a half century was beckoning but this brought in Keith Friend.

Friend missed out on a half century last weekend but he made no mistake this time around as he flayed the Woodham attack to all parts of the wonderful MABA ground. The beginning of Friends innings was watchful with only three being scored from his first 21 balls, from there though the big man took off.

Livett at the other end was enjoying himself just as much, rocking back and thrashing Woodham to all parts as he too raced past his half century. Marv holed out though for a fine 71 off just 64 deliveries with Brook on 194-4 from just 30 overs.

With a youthful lower middle order to come Friend continued his attack in the presence of Gillham Jnr who himself played a fine innings, unbeaten on 36 in a partnership of 108 with Friend that remained intact. Word finally got out to the middle that Friend could compile his first century for the club but the in-form Chris Jordan impersonator fell just short to finish on 97no from 90 balls.

A fine May and Bakers tea followed courtesy of Jo's catering who didn’t disappoint with a double helping of Quiche Lorraine.

302-4 looked to be a tough target for Woodham and so it proved. Brown and Glasson, who has been the pick of the bowlers for the visitors looked to attack from the off as a small rain shower went through. Paul Atkins and Joe Barwick opened the bowling for the hosts and took some time to find their line and length and were dispatched at regular intervals to the boundary.

With the opening partnership on 58 Skipper Gillham Snr introduced himself to the attack and this reaped rewards just five balls later when a short ball was gloved down leg side where 14 year old Gillham Jnr took a fine tumbling catch to end the 45 run innings of Glasson. Two overs later Barwick got the first of his three wickets, as suddenly things clicked into place for the dishevelled drifter. Barwick can be a handful in the nets when the balls are swinging and as the lacquer wore off the new ball, he started to find his rhythm, dismissing Brown for 13 lbw before seeing off Cook for a golden duck the very next ball by way of another fine catch from Keith 'Chris Jordan' Friend.

Barwicks hat-trick ball was good but not good enough as Harness survived but Gillham Snr comprehensively bowled him in the next over as the visitors crumbled from 58-0 to 65-6. Barwick finally got his third and final wicket, bowling Good with a not so good delivery before Gillham claimed his third and fourth wickets.

The first of these was possibly one of Gillham's finest 95 wickets for the May and Baker based club. Swinging in, the ball pitched on middle and then seamed away to clip the top of the outside of the off stump. The second was possibly fortuitous as a Reddin looked to have padded rather than gloved behind where Gillham Jnr took another good catch.

Gillham Snr and Joe Barwick finished with excellent figures of 4-12 and 3-27 respectively which led to the introduction of two more 14 year olds, Alfie Atkins and Nirbhay Bist.

The two were both excellent in their short spells. Alfie Atkins deserving more than his 1-11 after his excellent fielding. Had others fielded to Atkins' level, especially ginger haired ones, then he would have taken at least two further wickets. Bist bowled with good composure as he took 2-11 from two overs as Brook eased home by 196 runs.