Rayleigh CC.

Report vs Rayleigh CC

Match Report
Date 23/08/26 
Oppo Rayleigh CC (a)
Type 40 overs
Report by Mr Ray Leigh
 
Following a tremendous win at Eastons a week earlier, the O’s brought back Club Captain Ian Richardson into the side - despite protests from the Vice 
Skipper who’d been quoted as saying he was “Thriving” in his new leadership role and “Results speak for themselves”
 
Before the game a belated presentation was made to Club Treasurer and long term servant Bob Marsh. It wasn’t actually clear from Ritzy’s gibberish 
speech why the honours cap was being presented, however on the basis Bob’s scored over 2800 runs, made over a 100 appearances and kept the club 
financially secure…..it was unduly deserved.
 
Ritzy vaped his way to the middle and won the toss electing to bat giving the chance for Sandeep Barot and Jack Baker-Merry to open the innings.
 
The O’s started slowly and were in a spot of bother following an early collapse with wickets falling of JBM (8), Hudson (0) and Elby (9) who were all 
clean bowled during which Barot was adjudged LBW by John ‘Trigger’ Hayes (25). 
 
With the O’s 58-4, Matt Hiscock joined Marsh at the crease and together the pair put on a decent partnership before MH (31) was dismissed on following 
a yorker.
 
Marsh and Essex Over 60’s ‘Danger-man’ Alan Syrett kept the scoreboard ticking along (55 partnership) before both were again clean bowled with Marsh 
top scoring on 39. Undoubtedly it was Joe Clapton’s entertaining cameo which brought the most excitement as he achieved his highest score for the club 
(25) - An important knock giving the O’s a target to defend as they finished on 194-9 off their 40 overs with Danny Whittam and Hayes scampering a quick 
single off the last ball of the innings. 
 
Sadly no tea meant a brief review of O’s win at Wigan Athletic 24 hours earlier as well as the latest recruitment policy of Skipper Richardson who has 
decided the clubs future now lies with players who have ‘all the gear but no idea’  
 
Al Syrett (0-33) and Joe Clapton (1-35) opened the bowling with the O’s keeping things relatively tight restricting Rayleigh to limited runs off the 
first 10 overs, however it was Hayes (1-31) who made the breakthrough with his favourite method of dismissal - LBW. “Absolutely plumb John Boy” said 
Barot at square leg.
 
Rayleigh opener T Martin closed in on his 50 and was joined by Rayleigh 2’s player Cox. Together they continued to keep the scoreboard ticking until 
Hiscock dismissed Martin on 47 with the easiest LBW decision of the day which meant early drinks/vapes were taken with Rayleigh requiring 57 off the 
last 20 overs to win.
 
The O’s as usual produced their typical efforts in the field with a combination of sublime to absolute pony (Too many examples to mention) – Standout 
fielder comfortably Paul Elby who despite having a blood transfusion in the morning was given the role of sweeper and covered the boundary like a 
Duracell bunny on speed.
 
The O’s changed the attack bringing on both Richardson (1-29) and Baker-Merry (0-32) hoping they could find a breakthrough. Richardson dismissed 13yr 
old Sharma with a straight ball, however Rayleigh dug in and continued to edge closer to victory. 
 
The game was back in the balance after Clapton picked up a deserved wicket of Rayleigh skipper Balkwill following an excellent catch from JBM at point 
resulting in Clappers storming the down the wicket like Dale Steyn muttering something which sounded something like “Try ramping that you Telegraph 
reading Tory”. Fair play to Rayleigh who did the job and got over the line with Turner (29) and Rockenback (8 N/o) at the crease when they hit the 
winning runs with 9 balls to spare. 
 
As usual a lovely friendly fixture and a nice afternoon despite the O’s impressive record coming to an end.
 
Next up Hawks CC…
 
 

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© Dave Revell