Five wins and one narrow defeat for the Saturday League sides and a very successful Women’s Soft Ball Cricket Festival on Friday evening.
T Rippon Mid Essex Premier Division. The 1st XI hosted Old Chelmsfordians 1st XI and batting first scored 232-8, Ben Francis (62), Jason Ox (50*) and Phil Everitt (32) leading the scoring. The visitors were behind the required run rate for most of their innings, which ended 70 runs short on 162, Ian Bryant taking 5-22 and Ian Turnbull 2-36. This result leaves the team in the relegation zone but now only 4 points behind Great Baddow and six behind Canvey Island.
T Rippon Mid Essex League Division 2. The 2nd XI visited Little Waltham 1st XI, who batted first and were bowled out for 183, Richard Abley taking 3-16, Lee Brown 3-23 and Dan Frost 3-30. Callum Ginbey (96) led the Rayleigh reply and the visitors passed their target for the loss of 3 wickets in the 31st over.
T Rippon Mid Essex League Division 5. Billericay St John’s were the visitors to the 3rd XI and batting first were bowled out for 163, Steve Adams 3-8, Will Wheeler 2-10 and Elliot Ward 2-39. Steve Adams completed a day to remember scoring 88 and supported by Toby Turner (25) and Adam Sullivan (21) the 3rd XI won by 5 wickets.
T Rippon Mid Essex League Division 7. The 4th XI travelled to Southend to play Old Southendians and batting first scored 140-9, only Steve Gosling (36) mastering the bowling. The home side also struggled to score and with Nick Green taking 4-36 and Jai Patel 3-33 the finish was always likely to be tight. The home side had only one wicket left and still needed 10 runs to win but the last pair held out to spoil the cherished clean sweep of victories for the Club.
T Rippon Mid Essex League Division 8. The 5th XI entertained top of the Division South Woodham Ferrers 2nd XI, and batting first scored 183-7. This score was founded on 39 from Matt Verrinder and Steve Rothon, who continued his excellent recent form scoring an unbeaten 82. He also shared an unbeaten partnership of 59 with Sam Levett for the 8th wicket. Tight bowling by Aby Jose (4-43) and Mihir Patel (3-21) restricted the visitors to all out score of 158 to give Rayleigh victory by 25 runs.
T Rippon Mid Essex League Division 10. The 6th XI travelled to Margaretting to play Galleywood 3rd XI who batted first and scored 175-5 in their 40 overs, Gary Bush taking 2-42. Phil Wolff rolled back the years scoring 100 not out and supported by Dave Turner (29) led the team to victory by 6 wickets.
Friendly match. The 7th XI travelled to Hatfield Peverel to play Great Waltham 3rd XI who batted first and scored 227-5 in their 40 overs, Kuldeep Paik taking 3-26. The 7th XI were bowled out for 96, Jack Andrews (34).
The weekend had a marvellous start when the Club hosted a Women’s Soft Ball Cricket Festival sponsored by the ECB and Essex County Cricket Board. Approximately 100 women and girls attended and played three friendly games on four pitches spread around the outfield. The standard of play was excellent even though quite a number had never played cricket before but hopefully some of them will come to play cricket next year in the Essex Women’s Leagues.
In addition to the cricket there were other entertainments including a Bouncy Castle, Bucking Bronco, Sumo Wrestling and Water Slide followed by a live band to end the evening. Everyone who came seemed to enjoy the evening and thanks to all the people who organised the event and who were supported by excellent catering and bar staff. A brilliant evening.