2s win at Withyham

Bearsted travelled to gloriously picturesque Withyham with the sun shining and confidence high after last week’s win. With the skippper and vice skipper both away Tim Lush led the side. He clearly does not understand the role of a Bearsted 2nd XI captain and won the toss.

Tim Lush and Simon Barker opened the batting. Barker top edged a shot high into the air. It was going straight to their keeper but he literally failed to get a hand on the ball. Barker was similarly lucky later on when the midwicket fielder failed to move towards the ball from the boundary and missed what should have been a simple catch. He eventually departed for an entertaining 55 caught by his nemesis Lucy Knott.

Skipper Lush was joined by Dave Patton. He started with a glorious late cut down to third man. Sadly he so enjoyed it he tried to repeat it virtually every shot and soon departed for 7.

Alex Lush came out to join his Dad and the pair looked in good nick on a bakingly hot day. Tim Lush was eventually caught at point by a stunning diving effort for 74.

Steve Horrocks looked relieved to be stumped for 10 after he missed a loopy effort and headed promptly back to find some shade.

Dan Skinner joined Alex Lush for the last few overs and surprised everyone including himself by remembering he can bat, scoring 7 not out off 5 balls. Lush also returned unbeaten on 59 and we closed with a decent total of 247.

Refreshed by another good tea we opened with Harry Slevin (9-1-28-1) and Alex Lush (9-0-21-3) both bowling well. Young Slevin is a joy to watch for the old gits gathered behind the wicket. He has a naturally smooth action, moves it both ways and hits the seam. He is also remarkably calm even in the face of aggressive batting. At one point he was bowling to good batsman with a 7-2 offside field.

Ben Lush (4-1-11-1) and Ian Gutteridge (6-1-16-1) took over bowling duties keeping the run rate down. Ben bowled really well despite struggling with his run up.

Dave Patton who had taken an early catch let himself down by having a tantrum at being asked to field Long Off at both ends. To be fair it was a big old hike from one end to the other but, to stop his sulks and tears, he was positioned in the gully where he promptly dropped a sitter.

Keeper Barker was in the wars struggling with various balls hitting his injured finger. He then got a bail in the face whilst standing up. It left a perfectly circular mark in his left cheek. He was also getting a large amount of abuse from young Alex Lush.

That was not the only injury. The opposition No 3 got one from Gutteridge that jagged back straight into his Crown Jewels. In some discomfort he was a little embarrassed when his attractive partner ran onto the pitch to check he was alright. We were all a little jealous, mainly because we realised our partners would have been too busy laughing at us.

Steve Horrocks (7-3-13-3) and Paul Tinker (5-3-9-0) both bowled well. Horrocks bamboozled the batsmen with a variety of slow arm balls. His claim to have got one wicket with a Bedser like Leg Cutter was greeted with some scepticism by team mates who had been unable to discern any such movement.

Alex Lush returned at the death and thought he had wrapped up the tail when he induced a clear edge that travelled straight through to the keeper. Simon Barker seemed unconcerned by traditional requirements such as catching the ball, letting it hit his glove before dropping to the ground. Whether that is related to the two hours of abuse he had just received from the bowler is a matter of supposition.

The opposition finished 111-9 off their 40 overs. We then decanted to the very pleasant Dorset Arms to share a few shandies with the opposition.