With the lovely Braintree ground bathed in sunshine Skipper Wilkins won the toss and elected to bat first on a perfect looking batting track . Sam Hartshorn (43) and Steve Taylor (73) opened up for Haverhill and played some lovely shots in a partnership of 110 in 20 overs . Phil Jones (6) joined Taylor but was brilliantly caught by the teenage Keeper , who looks a fine prospect , with the score on 140 . This brought Greg Street to the crease to join Taylor but only 10 runs were added before Taylor’s fine innings was ended in the 28th over .

    Former Skipper Poole’s comment that we would need 300 runs on that wicket was to prove correct as the afternoon progressed . Dan Wilkins (40 no) joined Street (43) and they took the score to 225 before another running mix-up ended with both Players at the same end and Street was the unlucky one to go . There were only 6 overs remaining and 300 seemed a long way away at this time . But Jason Ketteridge (60 no) timed the ball sweetly from the start and smashed the ball to all parts with 7 fours and 2 mighty sixes , one landing on the roof of an Office block ! A partnership of 82 runs pushed the final total to 307 for 4 wickets .

  After a fine tea , Haverhill took the field knowing that a tight start was needed against a very strong batting line-up .  Micky Rinaldi and Martyn Wilkins opened up and after 10 overs Braintree had only scored 24 runs against some tight bowling . Joey Kettle ( 3-52) entered the attack and got the breakthrough and with Wilkins keeping things tight at one end the run rate increased .

     Martyn Wilkins bowled 15 overs straight off at one end for fine figures of 15-6-42-1 and Dan Webb entered the attack to take 5-92 from 13.1 overs . Although Opener Merrill scored 109  he fell to a fine catch from Sam Hartshorn off Webb and with the rest of the Batsman hitting out , Braintree were bowled out for 273 in the last over . It was a great game of cricket and two crucial moments swung the game , Jason’s magnificent innings and one over from Dan Webb that contained three wickets just as Braintree were gaining momentum in their run chase .

  I feel we are strong in the Batting department but need another Bowler to really mount a serious challenge this Year but we are still unbeaten and sitting second in the League Table thus far .

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