Thurrock CC – 25th & 26th May
Thurrock CC 1st XI – 130/3
Writtle CC 1st XI – 129 all out
Thurrock kept up their 100% record in Mid Essex Division 1 with a resounding win over Writtle at Blackshots on Saturday. Skipper Nick Henry won the toss and inserted the visitors on a rain affected pitch, after the couple of early strikes from Ryan Madder, the visitors rebuilt through Morgan who played well for his 42, but the visitors were pegged back through an excellent spell from Matt Hills (2-16) combined with Rob Neal (3-13) ripped through the rest of the order, as Madder finished things off to finish with 4-46 to leave the visitors with a below-par 129 all out.
The home side began nervously as opener O’Neill fell early but fellow opener Ayub and skipper Henry rebuilt the innings before Henry fell LBW for 38. After Henry’s fall the hosts ticked off the rest of the runs with little further alarm as Ayub went through to an unbeaten 51 as Thurrock coasted home with around 20 overs to spare.
Thurrock CC 2nd XI – 115 all out
Writtle CC 2nd XI – 122/6
A poor batting performance from visitors Thurrock saw them fall to a 7 run defeat away at Writtle in a low scoring encounter. After an extremely disciplined performance with the ball which saw the visitors restrict the hosts to 122 from their full allocation of 45 overs, with the Thurrock bowlers keeping the home sides batsman under a tight rein with Michael Parker (2-22), Paul Gelder (2-28) and Terry Hills (1-28) doing the damage. Understandably the visitors were optimistic of chasing down their target, but the hosts showed that anything that Thurrock could do, they could do better as they maintained a stranglehold over the Thurrock batsman as a succession of visiting batsman lost their wickets to poor shots as Koimuttan (3-19) and Dillon (3-32) did the damage as only Buckley (30) and Dean Henry (19) put up any kind of substantial resistance as the home side emerged victorious by 7 runs.
Thurrock CC 3rd XI – 184/9
Rayleigh CC 5th XI – 186/8
The 3’s fell to an agonising 2 wicket defeat away at Rayleigh but can emerge with their heads held high with a series of creditable performances saw them push the hosts all the way. After the visitors were inserted Thurrock put up a competitive 184/9 thanks to excellent contributions from Oakley (48) and Brooks (46), with support from skipper Tyrone Owen with 26, the pick of the hosts bowling being Martin with 3-12. Following the tea break Catling with 82 led the way for the hosts, along with 37 from Lynch as Thurrock managed to chip away wickets regularly to give them hope of the win thanks to Brooks (3-36) and Shahmeer Qureshi (2-11) but the hosts crept over the line with 7 balls to go.
Thurrock CC Sun 2nd XI – 176/8
Woodham Mortimer CC – 187 all out
Thurrock travelled to the picturesque ground of Woodham Mortimer on Sunday which was the setting for close and hard fought game which ended in an 11 run win for the hosts. The hosts won the toss and elected to bat first on a slow, low pitch. The home side’s batting effort was led by Smith who batted well for his 73 but wasn’t without some fortune as he was dropped early into his innings off the bowling of Packer but capitalised to full effect. He found little support from his teammates thanks primarily to the excellent efforts of the Qureshi brothers Bilal (3-33) and Shahmeer (4-28) as they wrapped the innings up in the final over. The Thurrock began solidly with O’Neill (43), but a lack of support from the top order meant the visitors were looking for the middle order to step up and thanks to Groves (36) and Barrington Bundock (23) the match was evenly poised with the visitors needing 5 an over off the last 10 overs but regular wickets saw the visitors come up just short by 11 runs.
