Day four of cricket week saw us welcome Billericay Veterans to Rawreth Lane. The Veterans XI, including Chloe Martin, were overjoyed to hear that El Presidente (Brad Walker) had lost the toss, and the opposition had opted to bat first on a hot August afternoon.
Billericay Innings
Chloe Martin and Andy James opened the bowling economically, with the former managing to snap up the wickets of Adrian Eddy (5), the skipper Santosh Mehrotra (10) and Ashok Thokchom (0). Chloe returned fantastic figures of 8-0-33-3.
Duncan Bond was the next to strike, removing Alan Yetts (1) off a superb Chloe Martin catch at backward point and Robert Farndon (19) who looked to be good in touch at the crease thanks to a tough catch at square leg from Terry Martin. Duncan returned miserly figures of 8-3-17-3.
Stephen Farmer batted well for the opposition, posting 50* (retired), supported by Michael Smith (46) who was eventually run out by Andy James.
Paul Marshall was the next to fall, thanks to some great glove work from Mark Bailey and some interestingly flighted ‘bowling’ from Brad ‘Orbital’ Walker.
Geoff Monk (26*) and Don Black (15*) were able to finish off the innings and enabled Billericay to post 199/7 from 40 overs.
Rayleigh Innings
Rayleigh started poorly in reply, losing Simon Lennox (5) to a dubious LBW decision in the 5th over. Murray Hall, who managed to avoid running anyone out this week, was the next to go, running himself out!
Rayleigh persevered, and a useful knock from Terry Martin (25) helped push the score to 43-4 from 10 overs before he was removed by a sharp catch off the bowling of opposition skipper Mehrotra.
Despite losing Ray Hart to a much less dubious LBW decision shortly thereafter, Tom Osbourn pushed on, aided by Murray as a runner, and retired in the 19th over with 53*. Brad Walker posted a well-made 48, batting alongside Phil Wolff (25). Brad was undone just before he could bring up his half-century, going back and across the stumps, while Don Black managed to remove the offside bail from Wolff’s stumps as he attempted his trademark late cut.
With the score at 176-6, Bondy and Chloe helped rotate the strike, but it ultimately came down to Tom Osbourn, returning from retirement, to guide Rayleigh over the line.
Needing 12 runs to win off the final over, Tom launched a six off the penultimate ball but could only connect with the toe of his bat on the final delivery. This left Billericay victorious by two runs on the last ball of the game.
A big thank you to Billericay for helping us celebrate Presidents Week. You can watch full highlights of the fixture below:
