THE Vortex Lakeside Hammers are extending their holiday time ‘Kids for a Quid’ scheme to cover all meetings starting with this Friday’s Play Off showdown against the Wolverhampton Wolves. It follows on from the Club’s third highest Friday crowd seen in seven seasons a fortnight ago when the Poole Pirates were the visitors and the scheme for children operated as a one off reduction.
THURROCK Harriers tough afternoon of competition in the 3rd round of the Southern Mens’ League Division 1 at Bexley on Saturday was made all the more gruelling by torrential rain and strong winds. However, they battled their way to 2nd place beaten only by the Kent club, Medway and Maidstone.
FORMER Ormiston Park student, Alex Pritchard is preparing for his England bow in what is the biggest stage for a player of his age. The Tottenham Hotspur forward was picked by Peter Taylor for the U20 World Cup last month, his first England call-up at any level reports FA.Com.
THURROCK fell just short in a rain affected encounter at Herongate on Saturday as the elements played in a major part in deciding a tight and tense game. In what originally were reasonable batting conditions skipper Nick Henry won the toss and elected to bat first and made steady progress before opener O’Neill fell for 19 shortly before the heavens opened for the first time.
HURDLERS Hayley MacLean and Khai Riley-Borde showed their class as they both won medals at the UK National Under-20 champs. Chelmsford AC’s Hayley booked her place for the European Junior Champs with an outstanding first place in the 400 metre hurdles in a time of 58.69 seconds.
ARENA Essex Lightning Rod regular, Chris Reeves has just completed the most successful weekend of his career. Off the back of a win and a second place finish at the long track championships at Lydden Hill on Saturday, Chris won the heat and final at his more regular Thurrock stomping ground on Sunday.
The Belhus youngsters stormed to an emphatic nine-wicket win over Harold Wood in the Essex U16 Matchplay competition at North Stifford on Sunday. Openers Ben Kent and Mathew Lewis junior put on 128 for the first wicket, until Lewis was caught close to the deep mid-wicket boundary by Moore for 57, having struck eight fours and one six.
“Grays Athletic recently approached us with a request to ground share having the lost their home at Rush Green due to West Ham United insisting on sole use. “The impact on our local neighbours could have been disastrous as FA rules state that ground shares have to be agreed by the 31st March for the season following.
The question of a contract has always been a matter for debate. When Grays Ath moved into the ground in July 2012, West Ham said on the club website that the Blues had been given “permission” and “loaned” the ground. The matter could end up with a legal battle but newly promoted Grays have had to make contingency plans and are believed to have spoken to Billericay and Aveley – among others – with a view to a groundshare for the new season and sources say Aveley’s Mill Field ground is the most likely option.
THE HORNDON FEAST and Fayre is fast approaching and with that so is the Horndon 10K.The race starts at 11am on Sunday June 30th.They already have 300+ ‘runners’ signed up ‘on-line’ for the Horndon 10K this year, much more than usual at this point.
THURROCK’S unbeaten run came to an end in a run fest over Blackshots on saturday as they fell by 23 runs to fellow promotion chasers Little Baddow. the visitors won the toss and set about making hay on a track perfect for batting as openers Cole (73) and Newton (70) put 150 for the 1st wicket, the visitors continued their momentum thanks to Harris with a quickfire 80 towards the end despite the best efforts of the home side who fought hard in the field to keep Little Baddow below 300, the pick of the hosts bowling being Rob Neal with 2-69 from his 12 overs.
JON Metcalf was the star performer in the Vets League match held at Southend last week. In winning the 800m he beat the world’s leading V60 runner at 1500m.
Dave Butler of Billericay. While it cannot be said that 800m is Butler’s ideal distance he does not get beaten very often in Essex races by veterans of any age. So Jon’s comprehensive victory was a real feather in his cap.
The journey was definitely well worth it for the talented 11 year old who not only claimed two Gold medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle long course events, but also broke and recorded National records for his age group. Historical record times were 44.06 and 1.57.52 until Kieron broke them both with 39.32 and 1.28.49 respectively.
Despite the season’s worst performances from Captain Davey Watt and Piotr Swiderski the Vortex Hammers led the for much of the match led by an inspired performance from Peter Karlsson and another stunning display from reserve Richard Lawson, which included a superb victory over veteran multi British Champion Scott Nicholls but with only Lewis Bridger and Seb Ulamek providing significant support the Essex side were eventually overhauled by the current League leaders.
A first wicket partnership of 75 between Gavin Jefferies and Joe Joyce gave Belhus the perfect platform to complete a comprehensive 127-run success over Billericay at North Stifford on Saturday. Jefferies struck a patient 61 from 119 balls faced and hit six fours, while Joyce forced the pace with 45 off 53 deliveries, striking eight boundaries.
THERE were a number of strong performances by William Edwards students at the Essex Track and Field champs in Chelmsford on Saturday.
Leading the charge was James Pearson who took gold in the junior boys shot. Brian Kasanda triumphed in the 200 metres and Joe Winn leapt to 1.72 to take silver in the High Jump.
THERE ARE Thurrock-based athletes competing for a whole host of clubs across the region. It looks like a very promising year as they continue to make a great impression as many climb up the national rankings. Borough athlete Alex Houghton was a comfortable winner of the Orsett Three mile Run on Sunday. Frustratingly he recorded the same time as his record run last year 15m 49s, but this was a welcome show of form from the Grays athlete.
STIFFORD Clays Primary School’s cricket team became Thurrock’s ASDA kwik cricket champions following a decisive win over Warren Primary in the final of the event organised by the Thurrock School Sport Partnership and hosted by Belhus Cricket Club on Thursday (6th June 2013).
Following the cancellation of their league fixture due to unavailability, Belhus were able to secure this last minute fixture with opponents from within their own division of the Shepherd Neame Essex League. Therefore, it was unsurprising that a close and gripping encounter followed. Batting first at Thames Rugby Club, Belhus openers Don East and Ryan Prendergast took the score to 34 without loss after sixteen overs.
THE Vortex Lakeside Hammers Co Promoter Jon Cook says his team need to keep their feet on the ground and focus this week as the Poole Pirates visit in red hot Friday action at the Arena Essex Raceway.
Says Cook: “Rebuilding the team has overnight put us amongst the favourites and we now need to concentrate match by match and fulfil the full potential that is there for all to see”.
Captain Harry Slack won the toss and elected to field in this latest youth representative fixture as part of the South Essex District Cricket Board’s extensive match schedule. The South did not start too well with many extras being conceded and no pressure being applied on the Metropolitan batsmen. They raced to 74 from the first fifteen overs at the Rankins CC ground, but then Josh Jones was introduced to the attack and stemmed the run flow with two wickets at a cost of just 18 runs from eight overs.
LAKESIDE’S recent changes worked a wonder as they steamrollered Coventry 55-40 in the Elite League at Purfleet and move level on points with fourth-placed Swindon. Sebastian Ulamek won three races on his debut and Lewis Bridger picked up 13 points in a powerful display from the home side, whilst the Bees were totally reliant on Krzysztof Kasprzak’s huge 20-point haul having gone into the meeting without skipper Scott Nicholls (foot injury).
Thurrock 1st’s maintained their 100% record this season with a hard fought win away at Ingatestone on Saturday. After winning the toss and electing to bat first on a spongy pitch the visitors lost early wickets with opener Ayub and skipper Henry both out driving the visitors then rebuilt thanks to Rhys Hymas with a hard hitting 35 and Dan Laird. After Hymas fell an excellent century partnership between Laird and Mark O’Neill helped the visitors past the 200 mark before Laird fell for a well made 74, as O’Neill made an unbeaten 79 to take the visitors to a more than competitive 248/8 off their 45 overs.
The final saw a full contact win from Darren Mouser, who despatched several along the way, including David Newman who had a torrid time along the home straight, getting hit several times as he spun in traffic. Jamie Webb lead for much of the distance but eventually went out with a big bang on turn one along with a handful of other cars. As Mouser took the flag his front tyre shredded, with pieces of rubber getting flung into the air. If the race was a lap longer, Grant Underhill would have had the win, as it was he had to settle for second with Paul Harrison third.
