Match Reports

On a lovely sunny day, but on a sticky dog of a wicket we lost the toss and were asked to bat.  A cautious start saw 30 on the board before the loss of Archie Wilkinson.  Daryl Sleeman was clubbing the ball to all parts but the outfiled was desperately slow and 4s became 2s.  Nevertheless we were 80-1 after 20 overs. Chintesh fell for 34 and Ketan came to the wicket scoring as quickly as was Daryl.  A score above 200 looked possible.  Daryl fell for 72 (which would have been close to 100 on a better outfield) and Lee Parish came to the wicket. Ketan fell for 53, then Lee, scoring like an IPL superstar joined in the fun scoring 43 not out at a cracking pace.  We closed at 234 -8 on a pitch that looked like 180.   An excellent score.

After a deep frozen tea (sandwiches out of the freezer too late) we started the response.

Immediately Smithy and Ben Mason got into the action and Bergholt were soon 27-3.  Oakers and Ketan joined the attack and Bergholt crumbled to 45 -5, then 57 -7, Ketan taking 2 wickets in consecutive balls. Chintesh bowled tidily, then Lee (2-8 off 6.2 overs) and Smithy 2-21, finished the job.  At the end Bergholt had limped over the 100 mark to bank a solitary batting point. Ben Mason 2-18, Ketan Patel 3-22.

Bergholt All out 107.  An excellent victory by 127 runs.

Earls Colne 20 points, West Bergholt 5 points.

On a sunny afternoon and a batting track Great Horkesley won the toss and chose to bat. After some tight bowling Joe got the break through and the tight bowling continued throughout. At the drinks it looked like 180 was where they would get to. In the 39th over in came Niall and took our bowling apart. He scored 75* off the last 6 and took great horkesly to 258 off there 45 overs.

After a lovely tea put on by Archie wilkinson with homemade chocolate brownies Earls Colne went out to bat knowing we needed to bat extremely well. Archie was first to fall lbw and in came Ketan who joined Daryl at the crease. With some big hitting earls Coleen was keeping up with the run rate. Ketan fell next and then Daryl was next to fall for 40. Pete Sadler and will Dunn kept the score ticking over and was easily keeping up with the scoring rate after Peter Sadler, Jon brewer and Russell Dawes fell Chintesh with only one hand and lee parish put on a stand of 67 which looked like would get us over the line. Lee then got bowled and Chintesh 2 overs later. Finishing us up on 200 off the 33rd over. Easily within the run rate but losing regular wickets cost us the match 

Two very tight games to start the season.  In the first game at Ardleigh CC, a last wicket stand saw us sneak over the line for victory

Last Sunday Duncan Jenkinson (82no) and Tommy Garwood (78no) put on 162 for the second wicket in Witham’s one run victory over us.  With three runs required off the last ball and with two to tie, Smiffy managed only to hit the ball to the midwicket fielder for a single.  Lost by one run !

An excellent dinner at the Colne Valley Golf Club, with Angus Fraser as guest speaker, with frank opinions about KP and Boycs! 

Earls Colne collected the Plate (which was a cup) and the runners up award in Div 3.

Pre-season Nets – March 2014

Nets have been arranged on the following days at Holmwood House, 12 noon – 1pm Sundays

March 9th

March 16th

March 23rd

March 30th

We are in division 2 this year and it will be a lot tougher!! Pre- season practice has never been more important.

The Piri Piri league statistics for 2013 are in.

Joe Smith tops the Div 3 bowling with 31 wickets!.

Both Chintesh Patel and Ben Mason also feature in the ‘top bowlers’ section of Div 3.

In the Plate section no fewer than 4 bowlers feature in the top 10 bowling analyses – Oakers, Dan Grice, Colin Bocking and Joe Smith.

Oakers and Joe Smith also feature, in 2nd and 3rd place in the leading wicket takers’ section.

Chintesh Patel comes 2nd in the best batsman section with 143 runs

Full details here

Thursday November 14th the committee will meet at the Riverside Spice for their monthly meeting, but the real reason is to have a curry and support our sponsor…. all are welcome.

So we were blessed with a bright and breezy day for the last game of the season, the annual Cup Challenge. Four family pairs were involved in the EC team.  The Bosworth brothers, plus the Kerry, Scott and Robson fathers and sons.  Oakers Daryl and Ben completed the lineup.

Earls Colne won the toss in a 40 over game, and elected to bat.  Daryl Sleeman and Pat Kerry started quickly and soon 50 was on the board.  Pat holed out at long on for 25, but Alex Robson (19) and Tom Bosworth (15) kept the scoreboard ticking nicely.  However a mid-order collapse saw four wickets fall for just ten runs.  Daryl finally fell for a fine 74.  Oakers (always time for a 50) came in and marshalled the tail with a quickfire 36 before being last man out in the 37th over with 178 on the board.  A fair score

After an excellent tea, Bures started even more quickly than we had, with skipper James Lee scoring at will.  At the other end T Skinner was no slouch, but ran himself out for 25 to an excellent boundary throw from Ben Mason.  James Lee followed soon afterwards clean bowled for 34 by Daryl.  Soon after Griffiths fell to debutant 14 year old Mungo Robson.  But runs were coming quickly and victory for Bures seemed likely.  Two wickets in two balls from Oakers’s occasional off-breaks (Chris Ayers caught on the boundary for 55, plus the hapless Shennan out first ball)  provided a glimpse of light, but Si Ayers had other ideas and quickly clubbed the winning runs.

Bures won by 5 wickets, and Challenge Cup remains with Bures.  Next year we will win it back!

A great game played in the right spirit, we look forward to the return match

Our budding correspondent Joe Smith sends this blow by blow account from the front…..

Earls Colne vs. Ardleigh 21/9/13

So it came to this, after last week’s defeat to Bergholt, a win was needed for us to finish 2nd, the loser would finish 3rd, possibly even 4th depending on other results. The stakes could not be higher.
Arriving at the ground, we were surprised to see a pitch with a shed load of worm casts, and the roller being deployed 20 minutes before the game, it certainly looked like a September wicket!
Everyone was on time; Daryl won the toss and decided to bat (after our frankly piss-poor attempt at chasing last week, who could blame him!).
We started really well, un-Colne like, Daryl was in usual free hitting mode, latching onto anything short of a length, Chintesh was more watchful, looking set to be there for the duration. The Ardleigh bowling was accurate but could not get through Colne’s early batsman. Daryl and Chintesh batted until the drinks break, putting 88 on the board, Daryl had passed 50, but was shortly out after the drinks break for 56, as he and Chintesh put on 90+ for the first wicket. Chintesh fell soon after for 46 trying to attack the new spin bowler Barrell, Colne had a bit of a mini collapse after that, Archie was out for 6, Will Dunn 0, Ollie Bond 10, George Cranfield 6, David Holme 4, all dismissed by Barrell who had been very accurate, we were suddenly 148 for 7, and struggling to meet a par total of 175. Cue Joss Wilkinson at 7 and Lee Parish at 9 who played very sensibly, mixing good running with some cultured shots, which realized a partnership of 50 for the 8th wicket. Lee ended up 31 not out, Joss 27 not out and at the end of 45 overs we ended up on 198 for 7. We felt this was a really competitive total.
After a fantastic spread, of cake, egg sarnies and donuts we took to the field knowing we had set a good total, but would need to be on our toes in the field and bowl well to restrict them on a small boundary.
Lee and Joe opening up managed to restrict Ardleigh to 28 for 1 off off the first 15, Lee removed the dangerous Kurt Lamont (who had scored 88 in the first fixture earlier in the season), thanks to a great bit of teamwork from Archie and John in the slip cordon (later found out that Jon fractured his finger diving for the catch!).
Bland and Lydon the number 1 and 3, however managed to see of the opening spells and started to increase the rate of the change bowlers, Bland reaching 50 after offering up a few chances to Colne, Ardleigh got to 100 for 1 and looked on course to chase down our total, the introduction of David Holme from the top end, however turned the course of the game. Dave may not be as accurate or consistent as some bowlers, but he has a knack of breaking partnerships and taking wickets. He dismissed Bland for 52, caught by Lee, Chandler was then run out for 1 and Lydon was dismissed caught by Chintesh off Dave, off a lovely long hop! We managed to reduce Ardleigh to 126-7, from a period between 15-25 overs where we nodded off; we had got back into it thanks to some great fielding and all round pressure from the bowlers. Ardleigh were eventually dismissed in the 42nd over for 160.

Colne win by 39 runs, and finish 2nd in Piri Piri Div3 and are runners up for 2013!

     P    W    L    V    BON    TOT    AVE    
N Springfield W    16    12    3    1    19    259    17.27    
Earls Colne          16    11    4    1    22    242    16.13    
Ardleigh               16    9    5    2    34    214    15.29    
Gt Horkesley        16    9    5    2    29    209    14.93    
West Bergholt      16    10    6    0    34    234    14.63    
Gt Totham           16    6    9    1    44    164    10.93    
Wormingford       16    5    9    2    39    139    9.93    
Harwich & Dvct     16    2    12    2    59    99    7.07    
Abberton            16    2    13    1    57    97    6.47