On Saturday at Draper's Farm, Maldon 1st XI began the season with a terrific victory against Ipswich and East Suffolk in a game that seemed to be going against them for so long.
Maldon were put into bat on a drying pitch that gave Ipswich's seamers every help, and it was the left arm swing of Karl Mildenall (5-55) that troubled Maldon all innings. Early wickets fell to him and young Gary Driver before Jimmy Ainscough (63) and Nemish Perera (31) steadied Maldon.
A seaming Draper's Farm pitch was a good introduction for Nemish who has started the season late with Maldon because he was called up into Sri Lanka's 20/20 team.
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With these two gone, Ian Elliott (21) provided the main resistance to Karl Mildenhall, who took 4 of the last 6 wickets; without a late stand by Gary Bannister (14) and Martyn Coker (16) Maldon would have been well short of a defensible total. As it was, their 177 all out was to prove enough.
For a long while it seemed as if Ipswich were going to win. Derek Bloomfield rode his luck to a hard hitting 66. At one time Ipswich were 128-3. Victory beckoned.
Enter Ian Elliott. "I brought Ian on to calm things down and keep some control as he did last week," said skipper Marc Gozzett.
Little did Marc know what Ian had up his sleeve.
The answer to this is two good spinning fingers because, aided by Jimmy Ainscough with 2 superb stumpings, 2 catches and a run out to his name, Ian proceeded to tease and tantalise Ipswich to defeat.
In 9 overs, Ian took 7-24, his best 1st XI performance in his first match back after a serious Achilles injury.
Skipper Marc was delighted with his bowling change! Paul Raymond did a good containing job whilst the fireworks were going off at the other end. Paul got 1-42 in 16 good overs of spin.
The 2nd XI started their season with a trip to Bury St Edmunds and, after losing the toss, were unsurprisingly put into bat on a damp, slow and low wicket.
Due to the non existent pace in the wicket, scoring was hard and after two early wickets Dan Gardner (44) and Jake Collins (30) ground out the runs to try and set a base for some acceleration in the final 15 overs.
This was achieved by captain Paul Bardo (64no) who carried on his recent trend of early season form. Maldon finished their 45 overs on a very competitive 177-9.
Even so, it would still require a disciplined bowling effort on a drying wicket.
The perfect start was achieved with early wickets from Paul Head and Chris Punchard to put Bury up against it.
Further wickets fell at regular intervals and ensured that the required run rate kept rising.
This was backed up by a superb fielding effort by Maldon, no one more than Elissa Penketh who has laid claim to the cover point position already.
All Maldon's bowlers kept the pressure on and bowled intelligently. In the end the wickets were shared around with Jake Collins, Paul Head and Dave Richardson each taking two wickets, with Chris Punchard, Paul Bardo and Elissa Penketh one each.
Bury were finally restricted to 129-9 in their 45 overs leaving Maldon victorious by 48 runs. A great team effort.
The 3rds took on Dedham at the Prom. They were put in to face a very tight Dedham attack on a typical low, slow, early-season pitch at the Prom. Maldon 3rds is a breeding ground for young players and at 11 years old, Sam Collins was the youngest. There is some experience in the side and Andrew Barnes (61) showed his in a patient solid innings. However, after sixth formers Chris Adams (28) and Connor Pateman (21) were out, the other youngsters struggled against the nagging accuracy of Dunne's 5-16 and Maldon's last 6 wickets fell for 10 runs: 145 all out.
"We made them fight for the win," said wicket keeper Alan Sims. "I thought Connor Pateman bowled well (2-4 off 6 overs) and we fielded with some spirit." Moon and Adams got 1 wicket apiece as Dedham got to 146 with the loss of 4. "If we get the balance of youth and experience right, this will be an enjoyable XI for the young ones - we had Sam and Nikki Hadfield playing - and terrific for the future of the club," said skipper Andrew Barnes.
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