A strongish opening XI headed over to Spring Farm park to open the season against neighbours Rainham and emerged victorious after an encounter that both sides will have taken plenty from.

The Goresbrook innings was based around a good 2nd wicket partnership between Danny Gillham Jnr and Toby Maund, the latter retiring after reaching 50 and then despite a tumble of wickets towards the end, skipper Shane Barwick also retired after a quickfire 50 as we reached 188 - 6 (+ 2 retirements) from our 40 overs.

The Rainham reply started with Dan Skipper being cleaned up by Shaun Ross in the first over, but a partnership between Sid Patel (25) and B Patel (could be Biren or Bhavik with 37) brought the hosts back into the game.

The introduction of Israel Ochwo (2-22) yielded a couple of wickets and then Lee Jones produced an exceptional spell of 8-3-17-3 to settle the match, late wickets for Barwick, Gillham and Calverley hustling Rainham out for 121.

The focus now switches to next week's Cup clash at Horndon with the 2's also visiting the same club. Unfortunately half of Saturday's side are now not available, due to a combination of football semi-finals, rugby finals and weddings, so captain Barwick will be taking a youthful XI down the A13 with most of the side straining at the leash to produce a performance that will see them retain their spot when the league season starts on May 11th.

The Sunday league campaign also kicks-off this week with a trip to the Jack Carter pavilion in Fairlop to take on Bardoli, giving the footballers and rugby players an opportunity for another hit.