By Trevor Partridge

BRAINTREE Cricket Club visited Copford looking to continue their recent unbeaten run and to stay in touch with the Marshall Hatchick, Two Counties Championship division two leaders.

Braintree were without the services of Dan Chalk, Rory Ainsley Louis Cant and Robbie Spalding, but welcomed Dean Bass back into the team and Geoff Eveling and James Murphy stepped up from the twos.

On one of the flattest tracks played on this season both teams failed to take advantage, however, it was the Dolphins who held their nerve resulting in a two-wicket victory.

Copford won the toss and elected to bat and were soon in trouble as Russell Measor and James Bell were quickly sent back to the pavilion without scoring.

The former holed out to James Murphy off Matt Hollingsworth’s bowling while the latter was bowled by Will Jackson without playing a stroke.

Ian Catley and Calum Reid set about rebuilding the innings with a number of boundaries, until Josh Newman removed Catley’s stumps after scoring 30.

Newman then dismissed Keith Sargeant (18) in similar circumstances.

Having scored at more than five runs an over off their opening 20, the home side looked as though they would be posting a total in excess of 250, however they started to struggle once Bass was brought on to bowl in tandem with Barry Stephens.

After scoring 69 Reid was next to lose his wicket when Dan Garner took an excellent catch off Stephens' bowling.

Tom Helmer had hit two boundaries and looked to hit Bass for a third but wasn’t counting on Jackson taking a diving catch, the same combination resulted in Robert Tuckwell being dismissed for 17.

Stephens then had both Pete Kliggerman and Giles Mallinson caught in the slips by Bass and when Will Merry was trapped LBW by Bass, Copford had lost their last six wickets with the addition of just 30 runs.

With Braintree chasing 158 for victory, Warren Celiz started playing his shots from the off, however, after scoring a quick-fire 22 he failed to middle a delivery from Moriaty and could only find the safe hands of Helmer.

Bass (5) was then harshly adjuged LBW and when a mix up with Jackson resulted in Chris Leech being run out for 17, Braintree were looking up against it.

Matters got worse when Jackson presented Measor a catch after scoring only eight.

Garner and Stephens set about rescuing the situation, though, with captain Garner playing some delightful shots that resulted in boundaries, while the vice-captain was more than happy to give his partner the strike.

Unfortunately, though, having scored 14, Stephens was also victim of a debated LBW decision and when Garner was caught in the deep four runs short of his half century his team still required 37 runs for victory with just four wickets remaining.

Ably assisted by Hollingsworth, Eveling was used all his experience to edge Braintree over the winning line, pushing the odd single and striking the occasional boundary.

Although Hollingsworth (11) became the third LBW victim and Newman was dismissed for just a single, Eveling struck the boundary that gave Braintree a valuable victory.

For the second successive weekend, all three senior sides tasted victory.

The seconds defeated Great Bromley by 27 runs while, against Abberton, the Sunday side chased down 300 to win by two wickets with five balls to spare.