Report of week ending 17 July

Four wins and two defeats for the Saturday League sides.

T Rippon Mid Essex Premier Division.  The 1st XI went to play Rettendon 1st XI who batted first and were 122-2 after 25 overs, which seemed to put Rayleigh in a strong position but a century from Carl Lees transformed the innings and the home side finished on 346-9, Ian Turnbull taking 3-67. Ben Francis (78), Joel Barnett (56) and Will Nolde (51) led a valiant attempt to reach the target but the 1st XI were bowled out for 270 to lose by 76 runs.  

T Rippon Mid Essex League Division 2.  The 2nd XI hosted Great Waltham 1st and finished on 191-6 in their 45 overs, Richard Abley taking 4-30. Steven Lynch (96) led Rayleigh to a five wicket victory.  

T Rippon Mid Essex League Division 5. The 3rd XI travelled to Sandon Sports and batting first scored 221-4 led by Mark Stratton (103*) and Callum Ginbey (69). The visitors were bowled out for 117, Paul Davies taking 4-22.

T Rippon Mid Essex League Division 7. Ongar were the visitors to the 4th XI and batting first scored 191-9, William Wheeler taking 3-40.  In reply Rayleigh totalled 175-8, Mark Bailey (43) and Matt Walker (42) top scoring.   

T Rippon Mid Essex League Division 10.  The 5th XI entertained Great Totham 3rd XI and bowled them out for 151, Alan Brown taking 2-14 and Jobin Stephen 2-20. Duncan Bond (75*) and Owen Davies (27) steered the home side to victory by 5 wickets.

Rippon Mid Essex League Division 11.  The 6th XI travelled to Basildon to play Rayleigh Fairview 3rd XI, who batted first and at 110-2 looked to be cruising to a high score but the introduction of Sabu Sarasan to the attack taking 5 wickets for 6 runs reduced the home side to an all out total of 126, which target the 6th XI passed for the loss of 6 wickets, Dave Turner (40) and Steve Rothon (30) being the main contributors.

The 7th XI entertained a strong Brentwood 5th XI at Blackmore and invited them to bat. Poor availability meant the 7th XI only had 7 players but Brentwood kindly lent us 3 guest players, who evened the contest up very considerably.  Brentwood scored 224-8, our guests taking 5 of the wickets.  This score would normally be well out of reach for the 7th XI but guests Srini (48*) and Rana (43) took Rayleigh to 191-7 to lose by 33 runs.

Under 15 SEDCB West League.  Rayleigh Eagles batted first against Wickford and scored 96-9. Matthew Bumpus scoring 35*. Wickford passed this total in the final over for the loss of 4 wickets.