Title hopes extinguished

Goresbrook III 171-7 lost to Great Baddow III 176-5 by 5 wickets

Goresbrook’s third string saw their title hopes extinguished at Champions elect Great Baddow, a below par batting effort being chased down with 13 overs to spare by the table toppers on a fine pitch at Writtle Agricultural College.

The loss of two early wickets ensured that Goresbrook needed to consolidate and it wasn’t until the later overs that the scoreboard started to tick along, with Keith Friend (32) and Richard Williams (64*) being the only batsmen to make much of an impact. The Goresbrook total looked well under-par and so it proved, despite a fine opening spell from skipper Danny Gillham and some sharp work in the field from u15 Nirbhay Bist, whose direct hit from cover accounted for the first wicket.

The Baddow batsmen were well ahead of the rate by this stage, as they played aggressively on a true pitch and despite further scalps for Billy Parnell, Bist and Shaun Ross, Josh Milgate ended proceedings with a flourish for the hosts, his towering six seeing Baddow home in the 32nd over.