AN impressive partnership from Silvester brothers Jack and Tom could not prevent Burnham Sports suffering another defeat, at Rainham on Saturday.

After winning the toss and electing to bat first in the T-Rippon Mid-Essex League division one contest, Burnham's opening partnership of Jack Silvester and Neil Saunders was broken in just the second over as Saunders was bowled by T Bunn, who claimed two wickets for the home side.

This brought Jack’s brother, Tom, to the crease, promoted in the order to number three.

After a brief period of consolidation, the pair got stuck into the Rainham bowlers and were scoring freely, taking particular liking to the bowling of D Patel – he was hit for 40 runs off his six overs.

Older brother Tom was dismissed first when he was caught at long on, having made 46 from a second-wicket partnership of 79.

Despite this loss, Burnham looked to have a solid foundation to their innings, with the score at 84 for two from the opening 19 overs.

However, once Jack was dismissed, also for 46, an all too familiar batting collapse began.

J. O’Neill did the damage to Burnham’s middle order and finished with exceptional figures of five wickets from his 10 overs, conceding only 15 runs, as Burnham crumbled to 139 all out.

Andy Stephens, with 12 not out at the end of the Burnham order, was the only other batsman to make double figures.

Burnham’s bowling would have to be excellent to stand a chance of claiming a shock victory and they got the perfect start when Robin Whittaker dismissed Rainham opening batsman J Hothi for one.

Whittaker and fellow opener Stephens bowled aggressively to try and bring Burnham into contention but to no avail, after a number of chances went begging.

Joel Whittaker, David Bridge and Tom Silvester claimed a wicket each but this was not enough to unsettle the Rainham batsmen, who reached Burnham’s score in the 26th over.

S Patel top scored with 37, while B Patel (26) and D Skipper (20 not out) also contributed to the chase.

After the game, captain Joel Whittaker said: “Our batting hasn’t been up to scratch lately and that has cost us games.

"We need to regroup and hopefully we can have a strong finish to the season."

There are three games remaining this summer.

Next week Sports host Stock at Millfields.

Burnham won the reverse fixture in the first half of the season.

Meanwhile, Burnham Sports' second XI also fell to a defeat as they took on local rivals Tillingham at home.

Tillingham batted first and opener M Snowden led them to a commanding score.

He scored an impressive 115 not out, with P Potton also contributing 31, to push Tillingham onto 200.

For Burnham, Roger Perrin (10-2-34-3) and C Voller (7-0-27-3) took wickets at regular intervals but they could not claim the vital wicket of Snowden and put the visitors under substantial pressure.

Burnham’s batting has been strong recently and a chase of 200 was not beyond their grasp.

The top three of Jack Shipton (17), Grant Smith (21) and Ed King (19) all made good starts but none could go on and make a big score, as Tillingham tightened their grasp on the game.

Corby and Ashworth each got three wickets and Barrell got two.

Mike Jenkins made a composed 42 not out in the middle order but he ultimately ran out of batting partners as Burnham were dismissed for 166, 34 short of the Tillingham total.

The seconds’ next fixture is away to Hatfield Peverel.