Match Reports from the Weekend

With the sun finally deciding to make an appearance, Maldon Cricket Clubs league programme started with the clubs First, Second and Third elevens all involved on this first weekend of action.

Maldon’s First Eleven opened their season with a long distance trip to Worlington hoping to continue the good form of the previous season where they finished fourth. After losing the toss Maldon were inserted into bat on a surprisingly good looking wicket despite the recent rain. After getting off to a poor start with the loss of both their openers, Matt Wild (27) and Ian Elliott (82) produced an excellent 100 run partnership which was halted by Wild being unfortunately run out at the non-strikers end. Elliott’s knock contained 2 sixes and ten fours and was a master class that provided the backbone of Maldon’s 189 all out. For Worlington, fast Bowler Nunn bowled with good pace and returned to clean up the tail to finish with the superb figures of 5-15 from 9.1 overs. Despite the late collapse this was still thought to be a competitive total and so it proved.

Worlington’s response was a strong one, especially from Ziaf Kulasi (46) who was dismissive of the Maldon attack and at 70 to 1 and 127 for 3 they looked in control but two inspired run out’s courtesy of a Chris Harris direct hit and Matt Wild’s athletic stop turned the tide. Elliott (2 for 16) this time took control with the ball removing the dangerous Estlea. He was ably supported by Harris (3 for 20) who span the ball hard, and returning overseas player Matt Anderson 2 for 32 who bowled tight overs at the death and were supported by some excellent catching which resulted in Worlington being bowled out for 151, falling 38 runs short.

Maldon Captain, Chris Harris was quoted as saying “I’m pleased to see we stuck at it during a very competitive match. Our fielding was superb, especially returning all-rounder Matt Anderson who took a sharp catch off the bowling of veteran metronome Ian Elliott”.

A confident start for Maldon as they head to Ipswich for next week’s second game.

The clubs Second Eleven travelled to local rivals Eight Ash Green, and after winning the toss and electing to bat, Eight Ash Green and especially Parker (80) set about putting pressure on the opening bowlers. Parker was supported well by A.Hammond (31) and Spicer (23) throughout the middle overs with old timer Dave Richardson (2-56) and Bawden(2-36) keeping the scoring low by bowling tight lines. A late order flurry of wickets for newly appointed Captain Jack Riley (5-53) brought the innings to a close with Eight Ash Green finishing on a solid 200-9.

Maldon started poorly with the bat and slumped to 35-3 when Matt Shinn (36) served up some counter attacking against some accurate bowling from openers Goodall (3-30) and Firmin (4-45). Young Reece Bawden provided 41 important runs in the middle order as Maldon ultimately fell 53 runs short of the total.

Maldon 3’s travelled to Felixstowe for their opening game of the season, in the team we had a mixture of youth and experience with several people making their debuts for the club. Maldon won the toss and elected to bowl first, a good opening spell from Richard Howes and Henry Miller kept the opening batsmen in check but with the first change they started to score more freely. The opening batsmen kept finding the gaps in the field or the ball was looping over the fielders heads, then the older heads of Jas Bains and David Blackboro slowed the scoring down and also picked up some wickets, but with wickets in hand, Felixstowe cashed in during the final overs and scored 259 - 4. Maldon’s chase started badly with Simon Reeve out early for 4, Captain Mike Smith kept the scoreboard ticking over, but wickets kept falling, and after Smith fell for 45 the runs slowed down and Steve Harris with 20 and Kritik Patel with 17 were the only notable scores from the rest of the team.