Team: Adam Bailey, Joe Barnett†, Jamie Coleman, Jack Hadlow, Tom King, Tom Lopez, Kian Norton-Reeves, Craig Smith*, David Watts.

For the first time this season we didn’t have 10 players ... we had 9. Clearly the organiser / manager is not doing his job properly.

Having got a bye in the Cup competition this week was a friendly against Belhus who not only had a full team but a couple of lads who were taller than the umpires. Nutrition is a wonderful thing.

For the second week in a row three Saturday League teams won and three lost.

The 1st XI entertained Aythorpe Roding 1st XI and batting first were 40-5 but recovered to an all out total of 128 thanks to skipper Matt Williams top scoring with 47. As last week this total looked too low but in a very tight finish the visitors fell 3 runs short with Mike Walsh taking 2-10 off his 12 overs, Matt Gilmore 3-34 and Sree 2-44.

The 2nd XI travelled to Springfield 2nd XI who batting first totalled 231-9. In reply Rayleigh never looked like chasing down this total finishing on 133-5, George Barker (65*) top scoring.

The 3rd XI hosted Brookweald 2nd XI and bowled them out for 94. Steve Adams (42) led the reply and Rayleigh finished on 95-1 to win by 9 wickets.

The 4th XI went to Great Wakering who batted first and amassed 277-8. The 4th XI totalled 179-7 in their innings, Richard Verrinder scoring 72, so lost by 98 runs.

The 5th XI were away at Havering Atte Bower 3rd XI and were skittled out for 59 which the home side passed for the loss of one wicket.

The 6th XI were at home to Wickham 2nd XI who were asked to bat first first and tight bowling from all six bowlers restricted the visitors to an all out total of 119. The 6th XI passed this total for the loss of 2 wickets thanks to an unbeaten third wicket partnership of 79 between Matt Dobson (71*) and Max Jones (13*).

The Women & Girls XI were due to host strong opposition in Kelvedon & Feering but surprisingly the visitors were unable to field a side and forfeited the game.

The Under 15As opened their campaign with a 9 wicket win in a Cup match against Eastwood Under 15s. Eastwood were bowled out for 56 and Rayleigh passed this score for the loss of one wicket. See separate report.

The Under 11As began their season against Leigh on Sea with a 69 run victory. Rayleigh scored 335-2 net 325 and in reply Leigh scored 296-6 net 266.

Eastwood Under 15s   56 all out

Rayleigh Under 15A    57-1

Rayleigh won by 9 wickets
 

at Chalkwell Park, May 12th 2013

Team: Adam Bailey, Joe Barnett†, Jamie Coleman, Aaron Golstein, Jack Hadlow, Tom King, Tom Lopez, Kian Norton-Reeves, Craig Smith*, David Watts.

Once again 10 players turned up to play, this time our first League match. The conditions were sunny, windy and cool. The ground was damp from overnight rain. Before the match Craig felt that batting would be difficult but the wicket may dry out a bit later. Given that last week we had chased down a total he felt that putting the opposition in first would be the right thing to do. It seems Leigh had similar thoughts as they won the toss and put us in.

Saturday saw the start of a new season for Rayleigh Cricket Club with all five Saturday teams who had been in the League last year in a higher Division and the sixth XI playing in the League for the first time. In a week of mixed fortunes three teams won and three lost.

The 1st XI travelled to High Roding and batting first scored 171 all out, Matt Williams (32), Marcus Cornish (26) and Danny White (26) top scoring. This total was not enough and the hosts passed this score for the loss of 4 wickets.

The 2nd XI were at home to Rainham 1st XI and batting first totalled only 141, only Nick Gosling (51) mastering the bowling. Sree took 4-34 in the visitor's reply but did not stop them winning by 4 wickets.

The 3rd XI were away at Rettendon 2nd XI and scored 253-3, Kalpesh Patel (122*) scoring his first century for the Club and Adam Dudmish (46) leading the scoring. In a tight finish the hosts fell short by 22 runs, James Wratten taking 5-41.

The 4th XI entertained East Hanningfield & Great Burstead 2nd XI who batted first 210-4. The 4th XI passed this total for the loss of 5 wickets, Phil Wolff (67) and Brad Walker (36) top scoring.

The 5th XI hosted Wickham 1st XI in the first game on the new third pitch at Rawreth Lane. Frank Tennyson (26) led the scoring in an all out total of 150. The visitors passed this total for the loss of 8 wickets with Andy James taking 5-35.

The 6th XI travelled to Bentley 4th XI who batted first and looked set to score a large total but when Max Jones bowled the opener for 71, the innings collapsed to an all out total of 144, Conor Slough taking 6-38. Jack Himpfen-Jones (34), Max Jones (25*) and Conor Slough (20) led the visitors to a 3 wicket victory.

Lyndhurst played the Sunday XI at Rawreth Lane and Rayleigh scored 164 all out. The visitors were bowled out for 129, Ian Bryant taking 6-31.

The Women & Girls XI went to Maldon but only totalled 81-9, Sophie Lennox scoring 19. Helped by poor fielding by the visitors Maldon passed this score for the loss of 4 wickets.

The Under 13As opened their campaign with a Cup match against Thurrock Under 13s. Thurrock scored 101-3 and Rayleigh scored 102-3. (see Thurrock u13 vs. Rayleigh u13).

Bradford Cup 1st round: 5th May 2013

Team: Adam Bailey, Joe Barnett^†, Jamie Coleman, Jack Hadlow, Tom King, Craig Smith^*, Toby Turner (u11), Jess Walker (u11), Elliot Ward (u11), William Wheeler (u11)

After a hectic week when the team was only finalised on Saturday evening our first game of the season took place in coolish sunshine at Thurrock with 10 players, 4 of  whom are under 11s.

Craig, the captain for 2013, had about 45 seconds to look at the pitch and decide what to do should he win the toss before he was asked to call. “Heads” he said, Heads it was and Craig put Thurrock into bat.

Women & Girls away tonight at Maldon.  Six League games tomorrow and an Under 13 Cup match on Sunday morning at Thurrock and an adult game on Sunday afternoon at Rawreth Lane.

Colts coaching as usual tomorrow moring.

As you might be aware the club's website had to be taken offline a couple of weeks ago at the request of our hosting company due to suspected criminal activity. The website uses a content management system (Joomla) which needed to be upgraded to a later version for security reasons.

So far we have installed Joomla and migrated all the content, articles, etc. As always with these things, not everything (well, nothing, actually!) works when moving from one version of software to another, so most of the site's functionality and links have been turned off and will be re-instated as we fix them.

So please bear with us as we put it all back together. Fixtures, team news, reports, etc will be coming soon.

The Rayleigh Website Team

There is no coaching at Fitzwimarc on Saturday, Sunday or Monday.  Two more weeks indoors after that.

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