The Crowning Glory

We’d come a long way since those cagey first few overs at Mistley where we worked hard to make an impression on our return to Division One.

Now a few months later we had the chance to become Two Counties Division One Champions for the very first time and all we needed was to pick up 7 bonus points. In all 14 of our games we’d managed to do that, even the two that we’d lost to Browns and Jon Kent (Aka Sudbury). We travelled the short journey to Braintree with confidence high. After all we’d given them a pretty good beating at Drapers earlier in the season after Dubbers and Trevaskis put in a pair of commanding performances. For this vital game we made two changes to the team that had seen off Copdock and Old I’s so comfortably the previous week. In came Paul Davis and for his 1st XI league debut there was a call up for 15 year old Alistair Cook. They took the places of Arkle and James Ellis. The day got off to the best possible start when Spaggs won the toss and elected to bat. That was usually the recipe for success so hopefully that would put us in a position to pass 200 and take 4 wickets, that was all we needed.

Spaggs had a dilemma to solve, what his batting order would be. Most of us had occupied 3 or 4 positions during the campaign and no-one had only batted in one place. Arkle’s unavailability meant we needed a number 4, Spaggs went for Goz as his wild card. He also needed to pick a place for the guy who would prove to be England’s leading scorer in Test Matches, the skipper choose number 8. We got off to a good start as Spaggs and Rubber put together a healthy opening partnership. Unlike the previous two weeks when Rubber was outscored massively he managed an equal share of the 44 in 10 overs that the pair added. He was caught behind for 22 but it was a helpful step towards collecting those batting bonus points. This bought together our two guys in form as Dubbers joined Spaggs at the crease. These two saw off opening bowler, Dave Hale, who failed to do any damage and took the score onto 100 in the 20th over. Part of this acceleration saw Spaggs pass 50 for the third innings in a row, on a ground he clearly had a liking for. Shortly after, with the total at 103 Spaggs fell lbw to Andy Cook the left arm spinner who was about to become a thorn in our side. The partnership of 59 had come in quick time and we were well on our way to maximum batting points with another 29 overs remaining. Goz was our new number 4 and he wasn’t about to slow the run rate. With Dubbers he added 52 in 10 overs before being run out, not for the last time in his career! It was an innings of great significance as it was his highest of the season and took us to 155-3 off 31 overs. Rare was next to the crease but it wasn’t to be his day as Cook bowled him for just 1 to leave the score at 160-4.

I joined Dubbers at the crease but we struggled against the spinners Cook and Gould as our run rate slowed significantly. We added 26 in 9 overs to move to 186 before I ran past one from Cook and was stumped for just 4, it had all been scratchy singles as we stalled at a point where we should have been able to push on past 200.

Trevaskis and Dubbers eventually took us to the 200 milestone before the latter was out for 63. His 8th score of 50 or more in a tremendous season. We couldn’t push on from here and our innings ended at 221-8 off 50 overs and with just 61 runs coming from the last 18 overs it felt like the momentum was with Braintree.

Now a few months later we had the chance to become Two Counties Division One Champions for the very first time and all we needed was to pick up 7 bonus points. We could find some encouragement in the bowling figures of the two Braintree spinners. Cook returned 3-50 off 18 overs whilst Gould had 2-45 off 13 overs. Hopefully Rubber and Toby could do something similar to get us the 4 wickets we needed to secure the 2 bowling bonus points that would make us champions. The first 10 overs of Braintree’s reply showed that we were in a fight. Trevaskis, for the first time of the season, was ineffective and went for 34 in his opening 5 over burst. Spaggs grabbed a valuable wicket removing Fulgrabbe for 4 when an lbw verdict went our way. At the end of this period Braintree were 48-1, exactly the same as we had been. The copper topped Dave Denny, was a more than useful opener and together with Cook the two of them attacked with some purpose. Denny had often been our nemesis but on this occasion we got him out for 49 just as he looked like he would spoil our party. Rubber had applied the brakes but it was the other one of the spin twins, Toby who got the wicket, again lbw. Now Braintree were 65-2 off 18 overs and we needed just 2 more wickets from the last 32 overs. Cook and Sheldrake then slowly started to put together a partnership. Toby was hit out of the attack having gone for 22 in 3 overs following the 3 maidens he started with. Spaggs bought himself back to partner the economical Rubber. He hurried through a 3 over burst of which 2 were maidens but we still couldn’t make a breakthrough. Braintree were 114-2 after 30 overs and now needed to make another 108 off 20 overs and not lose more than one more wicket in order to deny us the prize. The next 10 overs were tense and saw Trevaskis reintroduced. He began with 3 successive maidens and the score advanced to 153-2 off 40 overs. Braintree were behind the clock but only needed 69 off 10 with wickets in hand and two batters who were well set. It was now or never for us. Rubber continued to tie up one end but without taking wickets. All eyes were on the diminutive Trevaskis as we looked at him to stand tall.

Nothing was happening for us and 5 more overs went past as the score advanced to 183-2. Braintree needed just 39 off the final 30 balls whilst we still needed 2 more wickets.

The 46th over was to be bowled by Trevaskis and with the very first ball he struck, getting Sheldrake (30) to nick off to Ali Cook who despite Goz and Ruddy being in the side was our new keeper! He allowed 16 byes and I don’t think he got to keep too many more times in his career.

The partnership was worth 118 and had almost taken the title away from us. The new batsman was Steve Blyth another who had an annoying habit of scoring runs against us. He touched the bails for good luck after taking guard and then off the second ball of the over sneaked a single to put Cook back on strike.

Cook scored 2 more off the third ball meaning that Braintree now needed 36 off 27 balls.

The equation changed dramatically off the next ball when Cook hit Trevaskis out of the ground for a maximum. Now it was 30 off 26 balls whilst we desperately needed 1 more wicket.

Then it happened. Trevaskis took immediate revenge for being hit for 6 by bursting through the left handed Cook’s defence to clean bowl him for 85.

I remember being a backward square leg and seeing the ball hit the stumps. It was a great sight and I looked at Jay who was jumping and shouting.

We huddled to celebrate for just a minute or two as the next batsman made his way to the crease.

We hussled Braintree through the remaining 25 balls taking 5 for 13 as they ended at 209-9 to leave us winners by 12 runs.

It really didn’t matter that we had won the game as that wasn’t the goal we’d just been focused on getting the bonus points we needed. Perhaps we relaxed a little after that to ease to a victory that seemed improbable a few overs earlier.

Trevaskis ended with 4-81 (to end the season with a phenomenal 55 wickets). He took wickets with his last 2 balls and as far as I know he’s still on a hat-trick 20 years later...(surely he would justify at least 3 slips if he finally got to bowl the hat-trick ball).

Spaggs had 4-34, a seasons best adding to the Moses analogy, thanks to the late collapse. Although without a wicket Rubber had bowled an excellent spell of 17 overs for 51 at a time where the game and the title could have gone away from us.

As I recall it the downside of winning the title in an away game was a small relieved celebration at Braintree before we returned to Drapers / Foyaj Miah’s Curry Nights for a less sophisticated evening which included several moments which might be described as “not what it’s all about”.

Twenty years on I’m content that all the celebratory moments were definitely warranted.

We had won the league and it was a team effort although there was no denying that we had a star batter in Dubbers and a star bowler in Trevaskis.

Our end of season figures showed this very clearly.

Top batters

1. Dubbers = 769 runs

2. Arkle = 359

3. Spaggs = 341

4. Cook = 320

5. Rubber = 299

Top Bowlers

1. Trevaskis = 55 wickets

2. Legend = 18

3. Rubber = 13

4. Elmo & Toby = 11

We used more than 20 players through the season and here’s a player by player analysis of the main contributions.

1. Elmo...missed the final 6 games after surgery. Even when he played he was limited by his injury but still made winning contributions with bat (Sudbury) and ball (Frinton)

2. Spaggs...a slow start was compensated for by a sprint finish as with both bat and ball he stepped up in the race for the title to lead us in the style of Moses

3. Damian Westwood...an explosive start at Mistley which launched our winning run. Disappeared in a puff of smoke soon after to become a Buffalo Soldier.

4. Dubbers...Mr Invicible was our batting supremo from start to finish. Better at home (463 at 77) than away (304 at 44) and top scored on 6 occasions whilst finishing 3rd in the league batting averages (59).

5. Arkle...Struggled initially but blossomed in the second half of the season when he averaged 62!

6. Cook...better away (237 at 40) than at home (72 at 24), 100% record as acting captain and occasionally in the ear of the opposition

7. Rubber...Mr Versatile, batted practically everywhere from opener to number 8 and was sometimes our go to spinner...only player to make the top 5 of both lists

8. Legend...Had plenty of deals for batters who tried to attack his brand of slow bowing. Literally drove the bus through Exning and a few others justifying his nickname

9. Trevaskis...Looked innocuous on debut but unplayable as the season progressed. A quick leaner and never shy to offer advice to any who would listen and those who wouldn’t...multiple 5 fers and the leagues leading wicket taker!

10. Toby...strong second half of the season and provided some welcome variety to our attack

11. Jap...never 100% fit he was a useful back-up to Trevaskis with the new ball if not in the bar

12. Rare...in and out of the side but always willing to play any role and could be counted on to chirp in when the opportunity arose

13. Marc Gozzett...stepped in after Damians departure and played more than a symbolic role in our destiny. Another who would bat anywhere

14. Steven Rudd...ignoring the drop at Copdock and those on Colchester High Street he was another who showed willing on multiple occasions, a good team guy if hard to comprehend what he was saying some of the time

Plenty of others played a game or three to help us out when availability was a challenge. These were Keith Bannister, Neil Bannister, Katan Patel, James Ellis, Paul Davis, Steve Gozzett and of course Alistair Cook...

What was next hadn’t been on our minds at all during the whole season. Now we were being told that we had qualified for a one-off play off game against the winners of the Cambridgeshire league, Longstanton Grasshoppers.

We knew nothing about them but the good news was that this was going to be a home game. We just needed to find 11 players for a fixture we hadn’t expected to play....