The first game back

It may have been the latter half of July but finally Bearsted was greeted with the sight of some cricket on The Green.

The weather was glorious and a big crowd was there to watch Bearsted 2s take on Gravesend 4s in a “pre-season” friendly.

The pitch was looking good, despite the best efforts of football teams to damage the outfield. The wicket looked a little green but played well.

The skipper remains Tim Croom. He’s frankly hopeless at picking teams but a nice enough bloke and helps greatly with our diversity statistics on the Committee. His lockdown look, a combination of Jake Ball’s and Gareth Thomas’s hair styles makes it look as though he has his head on upside down.

Croom insisted that we should play it as if it was a proper match, so promptly lost the toss. Gravesend, who were a friendly lot, asked us to bat.

Croom and Tim Lush strode out to bat. Would they feel pressure from the large crowd of picnicking locals? Something was clearly getting to Lush who faced 8 overs before realising he was not wearing a box.

Gravesend had a nice combination of experience with some promising youngsters. Holt opened the bowling using his height to good effect. Pervais from the other end was young and angled the ball in well from a good length. The batsman took a while to get going but with the outfield fast the score ticked along. Croom started playing some expansive strokes. The opposition was generous with their fielding adding several to our total when balls were missed.

Croom moved to his half century but was then promptly out for 51 with the score at 74. Dave Latter joined Lush.
Gravesend had two good 14 year olds playing. One bowling tidy leg spin and the other generating good pace with a smooth action. It was the latter who did for Lush clean bowling him for 47.

Filmer came out at No 4. It seemed to take the opposition a while to adjust to the pair’s style and preferred stroke making. Some better field setting might have kept the total down but Bearsted kept on accumulating runs. Latter was caught for 43.

Charlie Luxton strode out to bat at 5. Or so it seemed. It transpires that it was actually Sam who looks more and more like his big brother. He played some fine attacking shots before being well caught for 21.

Barker came out and was 2 not out including being dropped after looping up a sitter. Filmer meanwhile realised that the end of the innings was nearing. In a poorly disguised display of jug avoidance and average protecting he stopped playing even his late cut. He was to finish on 41 not out, returning to the pavilion with a knowing, satisfied look on his face. We finished our 36 overs 229 for 3.

36 overs is to be the new norm this year to allow for players to sanitise hands every 6 overs.

Tea was affected badly by COVID-19 restrictions with players having to bring their own repast and eat outside. Tesco £3 meal deals will be selling well for the next few weeks.

Feehan and Ben Lush opened the bowling. Feehan (5–0-29-0) was quickly into his stride, bowling well but seems to have lost a bit of pace on his run in. Indeed Dave Latter was later to approach the wicket with more speed.

The opposition opened the batting with a useful combination of a technically correct accumulator and an expansive stroke player. The latter punished anything that was wayward. Lush’s first 3 overs went for 22.
Slevin replaced Lush and did what Slevin does. His first 3 overs were all maidens. He finished with fine figures of 5-3-7-1 including bowling the attacking opener who might otherwise have gone on and caused a lot of damage.

Dave Charlton was brought on to bowl. Followers of Kent cricket will fondly recall the glorious sight of Charlton pounding into the wicket bowling sharp medium-fast and surprising batsman with his pace. Sadly those days are long gone and he now bowls gentle off-spin. In the few weeks since we were allowed to practice Charlton has been leading training and reducing several experienced cricketers to tears with his fielding drills. It seems to be a case of “Do what I say not what I do” as Charlton himself was rooted to the spot for too long when the batsman looped up an easy return chance.

He did take wickets though, including a sharp stumping by Barker behind the wicket. He would have more, if not for an interesting piece of umpiring. The new batsman completely missed the next ball and stepped in front of his stumps being rapped on his pads. An excited appeal was turned down by the umpire. When Charlton politely enquired, the umpire confirmed it was plumb but he did not want to give the batsman out for a golden duck in his first innings. One but had to admire the honesty. Charlton finished with excellent figures of 4-0-15-3.

Sam Luxton bowled well, with a smooth rhythm, taking a wicket with one of two catches by Feehan.
It became even more apparent the rest of opposition batting line up was not very strong. And once the proper bowlers had done all the hard work the likes of Filmer, Horrocks and Latter suddenly popped their heads over the parapet and started badgering the skipper demanding to be given a bowl.

Horrocks bowled a fine line. Well it would have been a fine line if the batsman had been left handed. The rather debonair umpire eventually got fed up with that approach and called several wides, much to the disgust of Horrocks. But his tactics did work, in that when he finally bowled a straight one the batsman was so surprised he missed it and was plumb in front. Keeper Barker, who has done wonders up at the Hollingbourne ground throughout the lockdown along with Steve Pearce, clearly cannot judge the line and pronounced it was definitely missing leg again.

Ben Lush returned and bowled a much better line and length, his second set of three overs producing 3 wickets for 5 runs including finally getting rid of the other opener who had batted steadily for most of the innings.
The opposition finished their 36 overs on 169.

The Bearsted players then ran to the clubhouse to check what damage had been done by the spectators. It had been noticed, with increasing concern, throughout our stint in the field that some of the crowd, notably Messrs Haggert, Bedwell and Patton, had been making repeated visits to the clubhouse. As feared, the beer fridge had indeed taken a bit of a hammering.

A fine start to the season.

It’s good to be back.