The sun shone bright all day over Little Waltham but unfortunately a dark cloud followed the Rayleigh first XI for the majority of the day. What looked to be an opportunity to build on a convincing win against Rankins last week turned into a frustrating loss with a number of factors to be taken into consideration.
Ian Bryant won the toss and elected to field with the reassurance that Mike \’I hate the Labour Party\’ Walsh and Ben \’I couldn\’t get a tan if I tried\’ Stevens were to take the new ball. As it panned out it wasn\’t the bowling attack that failed but the fielding unit with cheap runs and dropped catches making the difference. The culprits on this day were Jason Ox and Marcus Cornish – two excellent fielders who showed early season jitters.
Lo and behold the chap Nish and Gravy dropped went on to retire, not due to the laughable efforts from Smith and Tom Chase in the field but because he had reached his 100. Rayleigh battled on with Gilmore taking a couple of excellent wickets and Cook snaring 3 rabbits in one over to leave Rayleigh a target of 228 to chase.
IB came out with the line of the day saying he was to open the batting with Smith but much to everyone\’s chagrin he wasn\’t joking. Smith occupied the crease, and occupied the crease, and dibbed and dabbed, and prodded and nurdled but that was really all we saw. Ellis and Cook fell early but Cornish with runs to get after his earlier drop didn\’t disappoint with some solid drives and pulls pushing the Rayleigh score along. Smith continued to nurdle but amazingly got bowled trying to hit a big four, finally returning to the pavilion having scored 2 from 19 overs. Are you Suckling in disguise?
Cornish top scored with 54 and the mid order chipped in with Stirk and Ox getting in but not making the most of their decent starts and by this stage the target was well out of reach.
Tom Chase on his first team debut and return from injury played out the final overs with Mike Walsh who saw off the fierce onslaught from the Waltham front line. Mike managed to secure 14 not out in his brief innings which is his highest score for Rayleigh and beats his total runs scored in the 2009 season by 9 runs, while Tom carried his bat earning a pint from IB.
A loss by about 60 runs in the end which can be put down to sloppy fielding and erratic shots with people getting themselves out on what wasn\’t a bad pitch. Much room for improvement next week against what is surely to be a stiffer test against Premier Division opposition – Aythorpe Rodding.