Two Counties Div 9
Kesgrave 300 - 3 off 35 overs (match reduced to 35 overs due to severe heat to protect young players)
Maldon CC - 189 - 2 off 35 overs
Kesgrave won by 111 runs
When the chips are down and you're chasing a big total it's time for the skipper to step up to the plate and salvage some pride for his side. Fourth team captain Plume sixth former Chris Adams did just that by scoring his maiden century (109) for the club and restored some pride to a team up against it on a hot afternoon at the Prom.
After watching Kesgrave rattle up a mammoth target of 300, Skipper Adams and Plume PE teacher Dan Rose (55) put on a solid and gritty 185 run partnership. Rose scoring his maiden 50 ably supported his skipper despite carrying a severe bout of cramp. Maldon Eventually finished on 189-2 to pick up some pride and 6 valuable points.
There were some pleasing aspects of the Maldon bowling - in particular young Plume student Rosie Digweed bowled and fielded superbly in her first competitive men's game and she took a much deserved wicket. Overall the Maldon team that was strung together fielded and batted well and never gave up showing grit and determination to salvage six points.
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TILLINGHAM CRICKET CLUB
Brookweald travelled to Tillingham on the back of a big the previous week and on winning the toss, Tillingham put them in. In the event, the unavailability of two of Tillingham's main line bowlers meant that the visitors only lost one wicket early on, Phil Hurst trapping the opening bat lbw. This in turn gave Brookweald the opportunity to really have a go in the final quarter of their innings when the last ten overs yielded over 100 runs. Andy Mee was the most economical of the bowlers with George Parlour and Jim Chapman taking the other wickets that fell in a total of 257 for 3. Tillingham never really looked like reaching that target despite some good knocks from Rob Ashworth, who opened the innings and scored 29, Paul Henson who shared in a 4th wicket partnership of 54 and made 30 before being run out and Jim Chapman who scored 69 and was Henson's partner for the 4th wicket. Once Chapman was out the innings folded quickly with Tillingham finishing on 167 all out in the 39th over.
There was better news from the Second Team who played against Rankins and recorded their first win. The conditions were bowler friendly and Tillingham took advantage by bowling the home side out for 99. Tillingham's opening bowlers, Nic Cooch and Ben Church, proved difficult to score against with Church bowling his twelve overs for 12 runs and one wicket and Cooch claiming 3 for 21. Dave Mason clean bowled two of the middle order batsmen and Andy Smith made a successful return to action by finishing off the innings with 4 for 7 from 4 overs. Tillingham's captain got in on the act by taking a running catch in the deep to dismiss the home side's danger man. It was not plain sailing for Tillingham when they batted and, with the score on 60 for 4, there was a chance of an upset. Tim Hurst made sure it didn't happen and his 41 not out was the crucial innings of the game. Mick Scott was the other not out batsman on 14 when Tillingham passed the winning score without losing another wicket.
Andy Mee was celebrating on Sunday after his 121 not out saw Tillingham to victory against Downham. Set a target of 190 to win, Tillingham were struggling early on but Mee's innings, which incuded 16 fours and a six tipped the match in the home side's favour. Earlier, Andy Smith continued his good form from Saturday by taking 3 for 26 from 6 overs and young Josh Pursey caught the eye as his seven overs cost only 15 runs. Pursey was also batting at the end, doing a good job in helping Mee get Tillingham home with two overs to spare.
Sorry Burnham Sports slumped to a 109-run defeat at the hands of Little Waltham in what was effectively their first league match of the season.
And, to cap a miserable weekend, the club's 2nd XI suffered an agonising six-run reverse away to Canvey, while the Sunday team were left without a fixture when their intended opponents, Ingatestone, failed to raise a team.
Burnham's 1st XI were without five of their principal batsmen from last season and it showed as they were bundled out for only 77, having been set 187 to win.
Sports never recovered after losing David Bridge, Paul Green, Jalal Ahmed and Neil Saunders before seven overs of their reply had elapsed. Joe Howeson, a 6ft 4in seamer, did the early damage - dimissing Green and Ahmed with deliveries that climbed sharply on them.
He also accounted for Ed King with a similar ball, but only after the evergreen batsman had top-scored with 23. King and young Ali Allchin (19) shared in a fifth-wicket stand of 37 before the latter, having hit four boundaries, had his leg stump disturbed by the industrious Mark Gurney.
Burnham's tail-enders unfortunately offered as much resistance as the top order. Hewson finished with four for 33, with Gurney taking four for nine.
Earlier, Sports, who lost the toss, had been satisfied to limit the visiting team to 186 for nine from their allotted 45 overs. Andy Stephens (10-2-36-2), Ali Allchin (9-1-36-0), Jalal (7-2-35-2), Karl Barnes (10-3-29-1), Robin Whittaker (5-0-24-1) and Bridge (4-0-17-3) combined well as a unit but were not helped by a string of catches going to ground.
Waltham stumbled from 109 for one to 110 for five before late call-up Joel Sample (32 not out) and Waqar Mahmood (25) recovered lost ground for them.
Burnham's 2nd XI travelled to Canvey and, for a long while, looked like ending the Islanders long unbeaten sequence.
Set 166 to win, Sports had their noses in front after tea thanks to the efforts of Tim Melton, who made a determined 62, and Dave May, who hit a fluent 40.
However, once this pair had perished, Richard Melton's men lost their way, with Brian Leech (23 not out) the only other batsman to manage double figures.
Greg Campion (three for 56), Roger Perrin (three for 24), Robert Carrington (two for 19) anbd Leech (one for 27) had all bowled with accuracy to keep Canvey down to 165 for nine in the first half of the game.
Maldon 1st XI 144 all out
Wivenhoe 241-7
(Wivenhoe won by 97 runs)
(Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Division One)
Wivenhoe batted first and a good early stand between Dunstan (92) and Darrel (31) got them off to a good start. Enter last week's hero (Ian Elliott 4-59) who pegged back their middle order, assisted by a smart catch and stumping by the skipper, Marc Gozzett. However, Wivenhoe have a good South African, Dewet, this year and he hit a forceful 56 to push them to 241-7 off their 50 overs. "We bowled well," said skipper Marc. "Martyn Coker took a wicket, as did Paul Head and Robbie Barber (who took three catches too) and 241 was not unassailable." Marc nearly had to eat his words first ball when Dewet bowled him, but it was a no-ball. Marc went on to 20 before Dewet had his revenge and, although several Maldon batsmen got into the teens, Dewet (4-50) had the upper hand. At 90-6 Maldon were facing a poor loss, but Martyn Coker (34) rallied the tail and the innings finished at 144.
Maldon 2nd XI 158-8
Harwich 2nd XI 156 all out
(Maldon won by 2 runs)
(Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Division 6)
On a bright sunny afternoon at Draper's Farm most of those not invited to the other festivities (congratulations Evey and Claire) were treated to perfect weather and a typical flat and slow wicket. With a makeshift team in place, including the first father and son combination for some time in Jake and Sam Collins, vice captain James Ellis won an important toss, and it was no surprise when the rest of the team were told Maldon were having a bat. After the early loss of both openers for only two runs, it was left to Paul Raymond (59) and Jake Collins ( 21) to retrieve the situation and left Maldon handily placed at the half-way stage. After both had been dismissed, it was left to skipper James Ellis (46 no), to guide the tail through to the end of the innings, with Maldon fiunishsing on a respectable 158-8, albeit somewhat 50 runs short of the planned target.
After seeing the difficulty of the slow wicket, Maldon opened with the spin on Toby Badger Pugh, whose control and flight proved too much for the aggressive Harwich batsman. Toby ended up with a well deserved 3 wickets. With two superb spells, Jack Mallett-Vickers proved what an up and coming prospect he is with two wickets of his own. After these two, the pressure was kept on by Paul Raymond and Jake Collins and Harwich were left struggling on 80-8. However, in true Maldon spirit, things are never easy, and an attacking 50 not out from Smith ensured things went to the final over. Up stepped Collins Senior and after frightening his team mates with a couple of unforeseen full tosses, a superb individual runout off the penultimate ball left Harwich 156 all out and Maldon victors by 2 runs. Another great team effort - so far, so good: two wins from two games.
Maldon 3rd XI 128
Halstead 3rd XI 129-3
(Halstead won by 7 wickets)
Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Division 8)
A depleted Maldon 3rds fielded a very young side. However, arguably George Jones (aged 13) bowled the ball of the match (pitched middle, hit off stump) to remove Halstead's opener Coleman. Skipper Alan Sims was equally encouraged by a courageous bowling performance by, amongst others, Tom Sutton (another 13 year old), Hayden Brunt (1-26), Mark Foster (1-29), both venerable 15 year olds.
In Allen (50) and Elsbury (37), Halstead had two experienced hard hitting batsmen. Maldon had collapsed, in the face of some accurate bowling, despite a 50 from McLeod, until Ed Moon (26) and Jon Barrett (14) showed their potential. Both drove the ball well and pushed Maldon up to a decent 128. As Alistair Cook says to young cricketers on his blog: "the most important thing is to enjoy your game" and Maldon's youngsters did just that and made skipper Alan Sims proud of them.
Maldon 4th XI 190
Kesgrave 2nd XI 300
(Kesgrave won by 110 runs)
(Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Division 9)
On a flat wicket at the sunny Prom, Kesgrave won the toss and piled on the runs against a very young Maldon side. "I was so pleased with the way we kept at it," said skipper Chris Adams. It was Chris himself who kept at it when Maldon batted. Chris is only 16 and took his responsibility seriously enough to pace himself to a maiden century (109) out of Maldon's 190.
Maldon Div C 149-3
Sudbury Div C 148 all out
(Maldon won by 7 wickets)
(Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Division C)
On Sunday at Draper's it was another young man who scored a maiden century: John Matthews was undefeated on 102 as Maldon chased Sudbury's total of 148. John won the Best Young Player at the club's presentation dinner last year when it was said: "we believe he could be a future first team captain". Well, he certainly took a step in the right direction today.
Yet it was the bowlers who had put Maldon in such a stong position and Sudbury never able to escape from the accuracy and guile of Dave Richardson (4-21) and Andrew Barnes (3-29).
So, what a payback for Maldon's heavy investment in youth. On Friday Joh Matthews revved up for his senior game by scoring an undefeated 70 at Hatfield Peverel in an under 15s 20-over match. Hatfield scored 83 in reply to Maldon's 125.
Watched by a large crowd, on Friday evening, the Woodham Mortimer ladies team produced a big win against Old Chelmsfordians. Laura thorogood, Victoria Brown & Shirley Smith all retired on 25 not out.
On a very warm saturday our first team entertained Rayleigh and ran out winners by 50 runs. Our second team travelled to Galleywood and came away with an eight wicket win. Ian Ball batted through the innings and made a gritty 70 not out.
The Maldon Ladies say thank you to the Maldon and Burnham Standard - so says Susan Randall of Maldon Cricket Club.
Maldon Ladies started this season's campaign on Friday with a win at Harwich. "There's a renewed optimism and enthusiasm in the camp due to a large influx of girls wanting to learn to play cricket," says Susan. This time last year Maldon Ladies had eight members and were struggling to field a team. At the first training session of the new season 20 ladies and grils turned up, which is very encouraging. This year, Maldon aims to run teams at uneder 11, under 13 and under 15 as well as the Ladies team playing in the Beaumont Seymour League.
We have a number of girls in county squads: our captain Elissa Penketh is captain of Essex under 17, Isha Patel also plays in that team, Rosie Digweed is part of the Essex under 15 squad and Izzy Collins, Charlotte Hayman and Chloe Dack are involved in the under 11 squad. BS League this year is divided into north and south so there won't be so much travelling and there is still time to join us. Practice is at the Plume School at 6pm on Mondays."
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