Mildenhall hosted Essex side Frinton in the latest round on the EAPL. Frinton had first use of the Wamil Way pitch and it didn’t take long for Mildenhall to take the first wicket. Tino Best struck with his second ball. Fowler and Young then managed to steady things for the away side and the 50 partnership was brought up after 14.5 overs. Fowler was caught by Matt Allen off Tom Westley for 32. Matt Allen then managed to dismiss Young for 41. The Frinton innings was taking some time to get going. The 100 coming off 29 overs and the 150 taking 47.1 overs. The dangerous Mervyn Westfield became Tino Best’s second wicket of the day for 32 off 39 balls. Kemar Smith proved to be the main batsman for Frinton as he scored 60 off 45 balls with 6 sixes. Coomber made a patient 29 of 53 balls before he was run out by Worthington. Kyle Morrison then came to the fore with some late innings wickets. Kyle dismissed Smith, Benn and Catlow with only Josh Frame showing some real resistance. Frinton managed to score 250 in the 64th over. Tino took 2 wickets for 40 runs off his 12 overs. Kyle took 3 wickets from his 13 overs. Matt Allen took a wicket from his 4 overs. It was however Tom Westley that kept great control during the middle of the Frinton innings. Tom bowled 18 overs 1 wicket for 64 runs. Frinton ended on 256 from their 64 overs.
Mildenhall got off to a terrible start with Worthington LBW from his first ball. Kyle Morrison has been in excellent early season form with the bat and a good partnership was built with Tom Westley. The 50 partnership came of 8.2 overs. Kyle brought up his person 50 in the 11th over. The 100 partnership came up in the 17th over off 103 deliveries. Unfortunately Tom was run out for 33. Kyle was eventually LBW for a terrific 68 off 63 balls with 12 fours and a 6. Shepperson and Tom Allen were dismissed for 5 and 6 and Mildenhall were in some trouble when Matt Allen was joined by Tino Best. Matt batted with great maturity while Best took on the challenge to be the main aggressor in the batting partnership. Their 50 partnership came off 65 delivers. Best brought up his personal 50 after 40 balls. Allen and Best’s 100 partnership came up after 41 overs and 109 deliveries. Matt Allen was eventually dismissed for 33. Tino was the star of the day with his 90 not out coming off 69 balls with 12 fours and 4 sixes. Mildenhall reached the target from 46.3 overs. This was a superb performance from the home side who are now demonstrating how they belong in the top echelons of East Anglian cricket.
Not such positive news from the 2XI as they travelled to East Bergholt. East Bergholt batted first and runs proved hard to come by on a difficult rain affected pitch. Crucial innings from the home side came from McGrath (21) and a very important 55 from Oakley. Skipper Steve Graham was the key performer for Mildenhall with the ball. Steve bowled 14 overs and took 5 wickets for 44 runs. Alex Cruickshank made a welcome return to Mildenhall action, his 7 overs cost 21 runs and he took 2 wickets. Jack Bowman took 2 wickets from his 9 overs and Lou Handy was the other bowler and wicket taker. Mildenhall would have felt confident in chasing 145, especially as they had 49 overs in which to chase them.
However that confidence was misplaced and the away side never looked like scoring the runs they needed to win. There were ducks for Rich Thurston, Steve Graham and Tom Heyward. Jack Bowman and Kiefer Renouf both scored 12. Martin Taylor was the only other batsman to score double figures. Martin managed to score 36 before he was bowled by that Oakley. Mildenhall limped to 86 all out, well short of their target. Hunter took four wickets and the aptly named McGrath took five. A disappointing result for the 2XI.
The 3XI travelled to Abberton for a match against a strong Essex side. The wicket had patches of dampness so it was no real surprise that Abberton won the toss and decided to bowl first. Andy Francis and Neil Clark started brightly and scored quickly in the first 10 overs. However, overs 10-20 saw the run rate begin to decline and Francis was the first to go as he was LBW for 19. Mick Saunders was unlucky to face a delivery early on his innings that popped off the surface and hit the shoulder of his bat. The ugliest of the Taylor’s (James) in the physical and batting stroke making sense joined Clark and together they began to establish a reasonable partnership. Neil Clark was back to his best as he swept and pulled his way to one of his best innings in several years. Clark was eventually out for 67. Taylor took up the run scoring responsibilities and showed an improvement in his personal form. Taylor was run out for 53 off the last ball of the innings. Mildenhall’s total of 163 was not an imposing one but was a great improvement considering recent batting troubles. For the home side Scott was the key bowler with 3 wickets off 12 overs for 40 runs.
Abberton started well with experienced pair Grant and Abrey making life difficult and frustrating for the Mildenhall bowlers. Andy Zajac struck eventually by removing Abrey for a pretty horrible 35. It was horrible in the sense of his ability to play shots that are much not included in the James Taylor coaching manual. I personally don’t like to see what I would term as pure ‘scunges’ through fine leg off inside edges. I accept that runs are runs but I prefer to see runs scored in a slightly more Emma Watson (pretty) fashion. Grant however was more difficult to remove. He took the sensible approach to chasing down the runs required. Gabe Jones eventually dismissed Grant for 68. Best batsman in the league (according to such an esteemed judge as yours truly) was dismissed to a self-professed wonder catch by Zajac. After taking the catch Zajac felt the need to scream ‘What a catch, lads, what a catch!!’ Andy, to quote my friend Martin Taylor…’We will be the judge of that – and not you’. Abberton reached their target for the loss of four wickets. The wickets were shared between Zajac, Jones, Ellis and Cameron Francis. Despite the result the performance was much improved from the 3XI and the team look forward to another away match next week against fellow strugglers Hadleigh.
As an aside I can’t recommend a movie at the cinema this week but I can recommend the martial arts Marvel presentation “Iron Fist” on Netflix. It has a wonderful mix of action and suspense that I found enthralling on a Saturday evening.
Mildenhall 4XI entertained Sudbury 3XI in a low scoring affair at Wamil Way. Mildenhall batted first with Paul Thurston scoring 15 and Jared Austin hitting 19. Craig Warren looked destructive in his innings of 16. It was however Matthew Parker who proved to be the main man with the bat for the 4XI. Matthew ended the Mildenhall innings on 42 and that innings was to prove crucial in the context of the match. Mildenhall HoF legend Kevin Boardman was able to give Parker some real support with 15 towards the end of the innings. Mildenhall ended on 142.
Sudbury started well enough with contributions from Amos (13), Cook (14), Holness (14), and Quinn (19) but none of these batsman could go on and make the significant contribution required. Jezzer Bayes bowled with great control in his 11 overs. Jeremy took two wickets for 22 runs. Jared Austin was another who was very difficult to get away. Austin bowled 11 overs, taking 3 wickets for 15 runs. But it was that man…the Boardman that finished the innings for the Wamil Way side. Kev with his re-modelled action took 4 wickets for 7 runs off his 4 overs. Sudbury finished on 103. Another excellent win from the 4XI.
As in victory…