U11's win thriller at Rainham

Goresbrook took a team with two debutants and two players in just their second games to Rainham on Thursday and everyone put in a shift with both bat and ball.
Winning the toss Liam Elsom chose to bat first and despite pulling the first ball for four, runs were hard to come by on a low bouncing pitch. Only one other boundary was hit in the whole innings however resolute defence meant only 3 wickets were lost which enabled Brook to finish on a Terriers adjusted score of 239-3
Liam Elsom 7* and Grace Wood 7* were the top scorers but every batter got off the mark.
Coach Owen Elsom's team talk centred as always on the need to bowl straight, but a few too many wides and no balls were conceded early on. Fortunately the straight balls were hard to hit and very few runs came off the bat. Both Ryan Bucktrout and Lily Nunes have made tremendous progress in their short time at the club and were unlucky to finish wicketless after their 2 over spells.
After a few close run out calls the first breakthrough was made by Joe Nunes, in his debut game for the U11's, who calmly collected the ball and whipped the bails off for a smart run out. Next over Nunes got his maiden wicket courtesy of a Jack Gibson catch at Square leg and 6 balls later Nunes returned the favour to Gibson with an identical catch.
Charlie Collins also has made great strides in recent weeks and conceded just 2 runs and nabbed a wicket in his spell. Archie Dias was accurate as ever as was Charlie Trowell, who conceded just 1 run from his twelve balls and also grabbed himself a run out with a direct hit from fine leg.
Ben Atkins, once he found his length, was a handful and got his just reward with a wicket.
Nevertheless the pressure was on Harry Ivory and Liam Elsom, who were to bowl the final 4 overs, as Rainham's last pair needed to score twenty from 24 balls. Ivory bowled accurately going for 6 from his 12 balls and Elsom bowled with menace but found the batsmen running everything. However good field placement meant only singles could be scored and Ben Atkins swooped low at mid off and threw down the stumps to give Brook some breathing space. Rainham's solitary boundary came the following ball but Charlie Collins stopped a full blooded drive to mid on off the final delivery, with Rainham needing a boundary to tie, and just one was scored leaving Brook jubilant, victors by a 4 run margin.