3s win in Haverhill

After a long drive through village after village, the Maldon 3rd XI arrived at Withersfield Sports Ground to play Haverhill 3s.

Haverhill won the toss and chose to field. Opening batsman Andy Barnes and Stuart Coker started the innings and Barnes was quickly dismissed following a great catch at square leg. Coker raced to 19 before being well bowled by the impressive Haverhill opening bowler ‘Nando’.

Joe Figg defended well but ‘Nando’ bowled another beautiful delivery that looped off the shoulder of the bat to gully leaving Maldon 3 down for 34 runs.

Paul Gregory joined Andy Phipps in the middle and the two stabilised the innings before Gregory was bowled for 7. Richard Bucky and Phipps played well, defending the good balls and hitting the bad balls for 4s and 6s until Buckby was given out LBW for 40.

Luke Sanders hit a quick 21 before Phipps was out for well made 64 runs, his second 50 in successive innings. Dave Richardson has been batting well in recent games and today was no different hitting a quick 52 not out including 9 fours and 1 big six down the ground.

The Maldon innings finished on an impressive looking 246/8.

The Haverhill innings started brightly with the opening batters knowing that they needed to go after the opening bowlers Callum Figg and Charlie Figg.

A few lucky edges flew to the boundary as well as some fine cut shots raced Haverhill onto 72 without loss.

Michael Newman joined the attack and was initially edged and cut to the boundary. However, he soon settled into his bowling spell and took 4 wickets in a match winning spell, including 3 bowled and one caught behind the stumps by Joe Figg.

At the other end Andy Phipps slowed the run rate down and was unlucky not to take a wicket on more than occasion.

With 12 overs remaining Haverhill required 105 to win. Enter Dave Richardson and Callum Figg. Callum bowled tightly at one end giving nothing to the batters, DR bowled his usual excellent spell and benefitted from the rising over rate to take 3 wickets, all caught behind the stumps by Joe Figg.

Callum was unlucky not to take a wicket but his final 5 overs of the innings went for just 18 runs bowling well under great pressure. Charlie Figg bowled some of the final overs and took a wicket in his final over.

Haverhill finished on 205/8 from their 45 overs giving Maldon 19 points. This was a superb team effort played in great spirits with all 11 players contributing with bat, ball or in the field.