BRAINTREE made the long trek to table-topping Mildenhall for their latest Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship fixture.

With no fewer than six first-team squad members unavailable for selection, Geoff Eveling and James Murphy were promoted to the first team for their opening games of the season.

Braintree were hindered further as an accident on the A14 meant the majority of their team arrived with moments to spare, having no time to warm up. Will Jackson lost the toss and Mildenhall elected to bat first.

Quincy Titterton and Josh Newman restricted Mildenhall to just 36 from the opening 10 overs.

Ryan Clark (15) was then drawn forward by the Australian and Warren Celiz took the catch behind the stumps.

Pete Worthington’s innings only lasted two balls as Gareth Fisher had him caught in the slips by Dean Bass.

Ben Shepperson joined Steve Taylor at the crease and, between them, started to push the score along.

However, with Taylor on 45, Bass was brought into the attack and, with his first ball, had him caught at mid-off by Chris Leech.

Eveling was then introduced to bowl in tandem with Bass and, with his very first ball, had Shepperson caught by Celiz for 65.

Soon after, he had Luke Youngs caught by Fisher for 30.

Tom Allen joined his brother, Matt, at the wicket and the pair pushed singles at ease until Robbie Spalding trapped the former LBW for 19.

Moments later, the latter suffered a similar fate, having scored 36.

Titterton was brought back on to bowl and completely beat Hamzah Ikram (8) for pace and demolished his stumps.

Unfortunately for Quincy, the very next ball was hit for six by Kyle Morrison, for which he later had to pay the penalty.

Spalding then drew Morrison out of his ground and Celiz quickly removed the bails, while Titterton cleaned up the innings, having Martin Taylor caught at long-on by Dan Garner, Mildenhall having reached a total of 257.

In reply, Leech and Bass got Braintree off to a steady start, putting on 38 for the first wicket.

Leech (17) was first to depart, caught behind by Youngs off the bowling of Morrison.

Unfortunately Bass, when on 14, powerfully struck the ball into the hands of Bowman at mid-on, off the bowling of Taylor.

Jackson glanced consecutive balls off his legs to the boundary.

However, he also fell to the Bowman-Taylor partnership for 10.

When Celiz (5) had his stumps sent cartwheeling by Morrison and Titterton (11) was caught behind, Braintree were in all sorts of trouble on 70 for five after only 15 overs.

Fisher and Garner steadied the ship and frustrated the Mildenhall bowlers for a further 17 overs, content with blocking the good balls, pushing the odd single and despatching the bad balls to the boundary.

The pair put together a partnership of 68 before Garner was allegedly run out, having scored 28.

Morrison was brought back into the attack and quickly sent both Newman and Eveling back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers.

James Murphy stayed around long enough to help push the score up to 153 and subsequently a potentially valuable third batting point.

Eventually he was caught in the slips for four and when Spalding was cleaned bowled soon after, Braintree were all out 104 behind their opponents, with Fisher remaining unbeaten for the best part of two hours on 42.

With things extremely tight in the mid to lower half of the division one table, Braintree will be looking to get back to winning ways as they entertain Frinton on Saturday.