Early defeat on the final day

Bearsted welcomed Shoreham in optimistic mood having chased down a big total in the reverse fixture.

Heavy overnight rain had left the wicket damp and looking unfriendly. The away skipper won the toss and unsurprisingly inserted Bearsted.
It quickly became apparent that Shoreham had a much stronger and younger team than previously.

The wicket was indeed very difficult to bat on. Dan Skinner looked in good form striking a few early boundaries until a ball held up and popped on him and took a top edge. Tim Lush battled valiantly for almost twenty overs but his score of 1 shows the nature of the conditions. Their experienced opener bowled 9 overs on the trot taking 4 wickets and conceding just 8 runs. Skipper Croom hit some boundaries including a lovely pulled six but finely gloved one to their keeper before promptly walking. James Kersey hit out but with only three batsman in double figures (and none reaching twenty) we were struggling to post a total. Young Harry Slevin refused to buckle under some intimatory bowling and remained undefeated. A total of 80 looked about half of what we needed especially with the sun drying out the wicket.

Ben Lush opened the bowling and when he put it on the spot his pace and swing meant they were almost unplayable. Harry Slevin opened from the other end and has a fine natural shape to his bowling causing the batsmen some problems. Ben Lush forced one opener into an edge, excellently taken by John Savage behind the stumps. The following over the same thing happened with the other opener but sadly the umpire did not agree. It would have made little difference however.

The Shoreham number three rode his luck playing and missing regularly but batted impressively reaching a swift 50. He was admittedly helped when he was dropped on 46 with the anonymous fielder managing to throw the ball sideways over the boundary. We shortly afterwards got him out when a ball from Chris Filmer popped up and was fended to Tim Croom at short extra cover. However the damage was long since done and we quickly lost by 8 wickets. A disappointing end to a season that has been enjoyable with some notable victories.