Thurrock III 202/5
Broomfield II 193/7
Report by Salman T Rushdie
THURROCK had to survive a nail biting finish at the Blackshots Cricket Ground on Saturday to win and maintain their position at the top of the table. They were helped in part by the emerging talent on young speedster Alfie Feeney who bowled a penultimate over of real maturity to turn the game in the hosts favour.
Thurrock batted first in hot and sunny conditions on a Blackshots wicket that had a dry sub continental appearance to it. Matt Diprose and Danny Groves opened the batting for the hosts and the variable bounce helped snare Groves as a good length delivery got big on him and he top edged the ball to cover to give Broomfield an early
breakthrough.
The away side further strengthened their grip on the game when
number three batsman Elliot McCartney departed after making 10 runs. Thurrock
needed some experience to steady the ship and ageing campaigners Diprose and
skipper, Tyrone Owen started opening up the Broomfield bowling attack like the
proverbial village fete and proceeded to dispatch the ball to all corners of
Blackshots. Eventually Owen fell just short of a half century for 43 and
Diprose was trapped in front of his stumps for a well crafted 57. This bought
Thurrock’s very own Peter Andre tribute act, Stuart Warren to the crease. Both
perma tanned, in their forties always having their top off at the first sign of
sunshine and loving a bit of product in their hair it is easy to mix them up.
The one difference is that Andre is Australian and we know they can’t play
cricket whereas Warren helped himself to 53 runs! With the help of Parker’s 15
not out, Warren took the Thurrock score past 200 in their 40 overs.
The second innings started with Thurrock confident of causing Broomfield problems on the dry wicket but the visitors negotiated the opening spells of Feeney and Michael Parker reasonably well, the only victim was Opener J Hills who was caught and bowled for 18 by Parker. Controversy did arise when Parker was convinced he had the other opener J Need lbw but the umpire seemed to disagree that middle stump was part of the wickets! Captain Owen turned to the spin of Terry Hills, Tom
Redman and Stuart Warren.
Hills managed to bowl a couple of wickets and Warren had the reprieved Need caught on the boundary by Parker after the opener had made 51. All the while though Broomfield were keeping up with the rate and a close finish was in prospect.
A second fruitless spell by Parker and the sight of Warren being slogged into Thurrock Harriers running track seemed to put the game out of Thurrock’s reach until Owen backed himself to bowl a couple of overs. He managed to get Thorne caught behind by Diprose at the fourth attempt but still the visitors were up with the rate. With just two overs remaining
Broomfield needed just 15 to win until Feeney unleashed his pace with a wicket
maiden in the 39th over. The wicket was a played on bowled but the maiden was
the real killer blow to Broomfield’s hopes. Warren bowled out the final over
knowing that he had the cushion of 15 runs and Thurrock duly won to keep their
position top of the table, although it was a close run thing.
