Good wins for the 1st, 2nd and 4th XIs, a successful Charity 6s and the Under 11s win the Adventure Island Kwik Cricket tournament

The 1st XI travelled to bottom of the table Tillingham and batting first and scored 197–5, Chris Eldridge (75), Danny White (53) and John Cook(42) leading the scoring. Tillingham were bowled out for 134, Ian Bryant taking 4–26 and Mike Walsh 3–8 off 8 overs.

The 2nd XI entertained Hullbridge at Rawreth Lane and scored 225–7, John Stirk scoring 85 and Steve Adams 65. Hullbridge were bowled out for 204, Tom Chase taking 3–30 and Ben Stevens 3–46.

The 3rd XI visited Broomfield 2nd XI and batting first scored 212–6, Matt Belcher scoring 67* and Jack Vile 50. A heavy downpour at tea caused the game to be abandoned as a draw thus enabling the chasing teams, who all finished their matches, to move closer to the 3rd XI in the table.


Bottom of the table Bentley 4th XI visited Rayleigh 4th XI, who batted first and scored 275–6, Brad Walker 60, Simon Harwood 53 and Alex Jones 47* leading the scoring. In reply Bentley 4th XI scored 130–8, Nev Dunn taking 3–17.

The 5th XI visited South Woodham Ferrers 3rd XI, who batting first scored 273, Alex James taking 5–10 off 3.4 overs. The 5th XI were bowled out for 85 in their innings.

Other matches

Adventure Island Kwik Cricket 6-a-side competition at Garons

 

Each match lasted 6 overs and scores started at 200. Five runs were deducted for each wicket lost.

In the quarter-final on Thursday the Under 11s played against Old Southendians who, batting first, scored 229 for 2 net score 219. Rayleigh scored 276 for 1 net 271, Alex Belcher scoring 49 off 10 balls, Josh Jones (13), Conor Slough (11) and Max Jones (11).

In the semi-final on Friday they played Leigh on Sea, who batting first scored 250 for 4 net score 230, Alex Belcher taking 2–5 in his over. Rayleigh scored 269 for 1 net 264, Alex Belcher scoring 22 and Henry Hands 17.

In a thrilling finale on Sunday they played Southend on Sea Echo Monarchs Trojans (SOSEMT). SOSEMT batted first and despite some good bowling by all the Rayleigh team, some short boundaries and big hitting by the SOSEMT boys saw them post a daunting looking 291–0 off their 6 overs. In reply some good contributions from the first 4 Rayleigh batsmen, meant the final pair needed 20 runs from the last 2 overs. Despite a run out adding to the excitement, it fell to Rayleigh’s skipper, Conor Slough, to hit the winning 6 to secure victory. Rayleigh scored 305–1 net 300 to win an exciting and high scoring game by 9 runs.

The Club held a very successful Charity six-a-side tournament at the Club on Sunday in aid of The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal (Rayleigh Branch). Six Rayleigh teams took part together with teams from Ashingdon, Branscombe (Bournenmouth), Herongate and South Fambridge and competed in two groups of five, the top two teams in each group playing in two semi finals and a final. In the final Branscombe proved worthy winners against a useful Ashingdon team. A donation will be made to the Royal British Legion in the near future.

Thanks to Ian and Marie for organising the day, to Colin White for running the bar, to John Stirk for umpiring all day and to our visiting teams for contributing to the success of the day.

The Saturday 6th XI played Stock 4th XI. Neil Dobson (46) and Chris Slough (21) gave Rayleigh a flying start of 83–1 off 12 overs, but for the second week running the remaining batsmen failed to consolidate on this start and after their 40 overs totalled only 154–8, David Maher (36) being the only other batsman to trouble the bowlers. Stock passed the target for the loss of 3 wickets.