Brook bat with pride

Goresbrook 3's travelled to the Rayleigh Sports and Social club for their final TRippon Division 7 fixture of 2018 against Rayleigh Fairview 2's.
The home team were bolstered by several faces, unfamiliar from previous encounters, and got off to a solid start after winning the toss and deciding to bat on a pitch with erratic bounce and an outfield with grass so long that the boundary was brought in to barely 40 yards.
There were wickets for Danny Gilham and Tommy Smith and a 4 wicket haul for Paul Atkins. The fielding at times was cumbersome and allowed a few more runs than was desirable but Brook had to be happy that generally tight bowling kept the score down to a creditable 224-6 given the size of the boundary. 14 year old Tegan Gilham gave a creditable performance behind the sticks and capped her performance with a smart one handed catch in the final over.
Brook's reply got off to a poor start with early wickets falling but Owen Elsom with 23 and Darren Johnson with 12 rebuilt the innings however the bulk of the reply came from Danny Gilham with an undefeated 69 ably supported by Sam Wood with 18 and Paul Atkins with 13 that ensured Brook picked up 3 bonus batting points. Batting out the full allocation of overs against a good bowling attack was an added bonus.
A fifth place finish in the division after a very difficult season was probably better than could have been hoped for from an ever changing side.