Calverley stuns Waltham

We opened our ESL Premier Division campaign with an outstanding win over Waltham, a club who were national knockout quarter finalists as recently as 2013. The star of the show was Jordan Calverley who hit a second unbeaten ton in as many days, accelerating from 50 to 100 in just 20 balls, as the Waltham bowling, which including ex-Hornchurch/current Loughton spinner Taqi Abbas, was dismissed to all parts as Goresbrook took 100 from the last 10 overs. Calverley had fine support from 15 year old Adi Kumar who hit a sparking 53* and u19 openers Aaron Scott (23) and Charlie Thompson (43) who ensured that Brook got off to a good start.

The powerful Waltham batting line-up would not have been overly concerned at a chase of six an over at the tea interval, but an inspired and youthful Goresbrook side, average age around 19, performed superbly to dismiss the visitors for 187. Wickets were spread between the bowlers used with Joe Barwick, Kane Messenger and Adi Kumar picking up two each and Calverley completing a dream afternoon by effecting two run-outs including the key wicket of Fahad Mahmood, as Goresbrook completed a 48 run win.

Skipper Jordan Harris was delighted, but not surprised by his young side’s performance, “We were struggling for a side for Sunday in the week, as we had various people away, but the under 15 lads we put in can only learn from playing against good players. Everybody was excellent today in attitude as well as performance and Jordan Calverley was absolutely magnificent. We’ll no doubt take the odd beating if we continue to field sides this young against the likes of Chelmsford, but it’s great experience playing against Premier league cricketers and the lads can only benefit from it.”