Undefeated Rooke century in vain

Goresbrook 4's travelled to Rankins cricket club for this T Rippon division 9 fixture and despite suffering a 54 run defeat came away with heads held high as 8 points were gained with Steve Rooke's undefeated century the highlight.
Rankins got off to a flyer as Aaron Irving took on the visiting attack and smashed two sixes in his first twelve balls. Irving hit the ball hard and was very quick to pick up on any ball not on a good line or length. The sloping pitch and the strong south easterly blowing off the estuary of the adjacent River Roach made field placement difficult but this was not helped by far too many loose balls from virtually all of Brook's bowlers. However, before he had reached 50, Irving gave a simple chance that was spilt at square leg and this missed opportunity was to prove costly as he went on reach his century.In the meantime Paul Atkins bowled a searching spell that yielded 5 wickets including 3 bolwed's and 2 return catches. Andrew Pauling teased an edge and there were wickets for both George Godfrey and Pawan Singh in their return spells. Owen Elsom also nabbed 2 wickets, the second of which, a fine diving catch by Andrew Pauling at Mid off, was his 50th league wicket for Goresbrook.
Rankins finished on an imposing but reachable 243 form 39.5 overs.
Paul Lowe and Steve Rooke began the reply circumspectly against tidy but not especially accurate bowling with just 23 runs coming from the first 10 overs. However the next 15 overs yielded 85 and the chase looked on until Lowe was held at Mid wicket by home skipper Peter Nolde for 30. Alfie Boland was next in and he ably supported Steve Rooke as he characteristically struck the ball around the ground and ran his heart out trying to keep the required run rate down to an achievable level. Rooke reached 50 in 75 balls and continued on his way to a well deserved century in the 38th over with 11 boundaries off 140 balls.. However by this stage Brook had fallen too far behind the rate and were intent on batting out their overs with the minimum damage possible.
Boland keep his old man fidgeting on the boundary as he recorded an unbeaten 31 and Rooke finished undefeated on 104 with Brook reaching 189-1 at the close of play, a margin of defeat being 54 runs- fewer than the runs scored by Irving after he was dropped.
Overall Brook finished the game with heads held high against friendly opposition at a superb old fashioned cricket venue but were found ruing that missed opportunity.