Speldhurst Cricket Club

5th July v Bidborough (A)

On Saturday the 1st XI made the long and arduous journey to Bidborough, the vast majority of us regaling in how it is our favourite place to play cricket…

Without an umpire we unfortunately lost the forfeited toss and the Bidborough captain spent around 10 minutes asking his team what they’d like to do on a wet pitch with rain incoming. Surprisingly they chose to field first.

Happy and Creef got us off to a good start, navigating the bad weather and rain break well. Unfortunately, after a couple of nice boundaries, Happy suddenly thought he was back at training offering gully practice to fall first at 23-1. I joined Creef and Bidborough started offering some friendly bowling which we duly dispatched, after being dropped three times between us by the same fielder of course. Creef bludgeoned some behind square and I hit a couple quite hard, one being through cover and one over square leg. Unfortunately, that one lost the ball that wasn’t doing much and was replaced by one that did. So after a good partnership of 63 I somehow got bowled round my legs with the ball moving up the slope and hitting my front pad on the way 86-2. Creef and Nash then continued the charge, batting well and putting away the bad ball. Creefs 50 came on the stroke of drinks with the score on 111 and unfortunately the combination of the these three factors caused his downfall first ball after drinks taking on yet another pull shot but being held this time, 111-3. Muddy joined and despite claiming he couldn’t generate any power dispatched a couple over mid wicket in a useful partnership of 63 with Nash who was batting nicely. Sadly 63 appears to be our kryptonite and Nash fell for a well made 37, 174-4. When Muddy lost his wicket on the same score the innings began to crumble with regular wickets mixed with lots of swishing and the very odd boundary and we stuttered to 200-7 from our 40. Scoring only around 40 off the final 10.

The bowling continued where the batting left off with a dropped chance in the first over with that particular opener then going on to score a rapid 50. Andy then made the breakthrough with the score on 59 with a rip snorting short and wide ball that was chipped VERY slowly to gully. It was also his boss who duly obliged. Nepotism at its finest. After the score moved onto 91 Adam Nash, bowling nicely, took a good caught and bowled and I returned to get my revenge on the opener who was this time very well caught by Joel up the slope. 93-3 and back in it. Adam Nash produced a lovely ball first up to Charlie Harding who nicked it fine, unfortunately neither Creed or Muddy moved so the ball was left uncaught. Omar came on and bowled their number 5 in his first over and all of a sudden there was belief at 108-4.

This left the vital partnership of Dan Page and Charlie Harding and they were going along nicely until a mix up allowed us to run them out through a mixture of Happy, Creef and the floor at 145-5. Unfortunately, this was about it for us as they were well ahead of the rate and they could simply cruise their way towards the target, which they did. We did take one more wicket, another for Nash, before the end but ended up on the losing end by 4 wickets with Harding 60 not out. Two big missed chances costing around 110 runs. Shame.

Lots of fines at the imperial after and good spirit, especially when they provided us with pizza and chips!!

Scorecard: https://speldhurst.play-cricket.com/website/results/6698060

12th July v Horton Kirby (H)

Ali Wood. That is all you really need to know about this week’s game. It would have been an absolute thrashing were it not for him.

Winning the toss, much to the delight of the team on a roasting hot day, I had no hesitation in batting but quickly found myself at the crease after 2nd ball of the match kept low and bowled happy. Ejas fell soon after to their erratic but dangerous opening bowler, bringing Ali to the crease. The pitch was more treacherous than we first thought, slow and the odd one keeping low, we found it tough going but built a partnership going at 4 and over, mostly through leg byes with Ali only making 2 of his first 10 overs. When I fell to their spinner trying to hit back over his head and was caught at long on, this started a string of wickets that had me fearing for a sub-100 score. 81-6 around drinks was not ideal.

Thankfully Ali had other ideas, and with some of the tail end managing to stick with him and hold up an end, he put together a well timed innings, accelerating rapidly at the back end to a fantastically made 106 not out to lead us to 214, with only myself (24 off 5000 deliveries) and Ed Wesson (15) making double figures. Extras was 2nd top scorer with 43…

Their innings started in the usual Horton Kirby manner, aggressive but reckless. Andy eames picking up the first of his three wickets with a “high Yorker” caught at first slip by yours truly.

I chopped and changed the bowling in a bid to bring about wickets, as the run rate was always above required, and cue Ali Wood again: a super spell taking 4 wickets yet again and looking threatening throughout: some good catches by plunkett X2 and one by yours truly. During this spell ejas had a nasty dislocation to his finger fielding a ground ball, leaving us down to 10 men for the rest of the innings. Get better soon ejas!

Eamo returned with us needing wickets and picked up a plumb lbw, and another wicket with his “high Yorkers” leaving them 7 down and 40 odd runs to get – dramatic. Sadly, their partnership was pretty solid, getting them there with 3 overs to spare and comfortably the better team in the end.

A great effort from the team on a day in which we thoroughly outclassed were it not for one man. All praise be to Ali Wood.

Scorecard: https://speldhurst.play-cricket.com/website/results/6698065

26th July v Sissinghurst (A)

A very positive Saturday for the first XI, achieving the double over a strong Sissinghurst side.

On arrival we were greeted by a VERY green wicket – opposition players genuinely saying they put the stumps in early so we could know which track we were using. My plan was always to bat first considering the relative strength of our two units but what we were presented with put doubt in our minds. After a long discussion we decided losing the toss would be best but if we did win, we would bat. Fortunately I lost the toss and they chose to bowl.

It was great to see a long awaited return of Michael Hanson who looked composed until getting a Jaffa from Quentin who is undoubtedly one of the best bowlers around. I then joined Creef and we both played very well. Some shots timed better than others and some very generous bowling but also seeing off the rest of Quentin’s difficult opening spell. We each got to our 50 in the over before drinks and refreshed ourselves looking for a big total. After drinks they unfortunately took the long overdue decision to take pace off the ball and spread the field which made boundary scoring harder. We milked it well for a while before I hit a half tracker straight to cow to depart for 71 and end our partnership at 144. Nash then also fell to a half tracker. Jflem ran well between the wickets and struck some of his usual beautiful cover drives…straight at cover…before holing out to a full toss and Creed finally tired just that little bit too much and got a good one to be bowled for 97. Muddy hit a couple of boundaries and hobbled some spurious runs and we got ourselves to 223-7, less than it looked we’d get at 159-1.

After a downpour at tea we went out with a good chance of winning and lots of bowling options, just not many strike options or options that had bowled much this season. I opened up with Nash. Nash bowled with good accuracy while I managed to weasel out the first three wickets with some swing and hitting of lengths. The third wicket of which being Quentin (also probably the best bat in the league) to a ridiculous one handed catch by Omar and, when I say ridiculous, it was so because the ball was looping slowly at head height and he simply decided to catch it one handed rather than the simple two handed catch. In strode their captain who nearly took the game away from us earlier in the season. Second ball he strikes one straight to Nash at mid off who catches it, drops it, catches it again but then drops it again…. The captain went on to score 103… In the meantime Hanson returned a 9 over spell on the bounce (his body will be in pieces) and picked up the prize wicket if Brough Cooper. Plunkett showed why he is genuinely one of our best middle over bowling options, landing nearly every ball on a perfect length with a bit of inswing, and taking a deserved wicket. Unfortunately, I then tried to run for a ball in the field which my body has decided I can no longer do and had to hobble off leaving Muddy in charge and 2 overs short, fortunately Blake was there and was permitted to sub field. At this point up step Omar and Amir. Bowling to some of the best bats in the league and doing so brilliantly and keeping the run rate down. Their great performance meant the required rate never got below 10 even with their captain hitting a great stride with the bat. Nash finished off at the pavilion end well leaving Amir to begin to clean up the tail at the other end with some impressively accurate bowling under extreme pressure. However, with their captain at the crease they always had a chance and at the start of the final over he was on strike needing 13 to win. Considering the number of large sixes he had hit by this point it was very much in the balance. Amir holds his nerve, pitches one full and straight and it is struck high and handsome but only as far as Blake at long off. Essentially game over. Muddy, as always, likes to keep things interesting and allowed their 13 year old to run a single with a horrendous misfield after imploring the team to ensure there were no singles. Fortunately this didn’t matter to Amir who wrapped up the innings by striking the stumps just two balls later.

Amazing work from the team with comfortably more than half of the overs being bowled by teenagers including all of the final ten death overs. The future is bright!

Onto Ightham this week. We are playing our three closest relegation rivals in the next three weeks so three wins are imperative and very much within our grasp.

This was a massive and impressive win against a strong team.

Scorecard: https://speldhurst.play-cricket.com/website/results/6698074