2s beat Farningham 1.5s

Bearsted welcome Farningham 2s to the Green. Fanrningham had beaten us easily earlier in the season and are in a similar position to us in the League so we were expecting a tough fixture.

Valiant work by Simon Barker had meant the pitch was covered during the overnight rain.

The skipper had lost the toss even before your match reporter arrived at the ground. The opposition put us in to bat on what looked like it might be a sticky wicket.

Indeed it became apparent that the pitch was not going to be as true as normal with balls popping up suddenly or not coming through to the batsman.

Croom and Leo Charlton opened the batting and put on 27 in tricky circumstances. The opposition openers were making good use of the conditions. Scott was tall and lacy (if a tad excitable) and it can’t have been fun facing him. Having softened up Charlton with a short one that reared nastily he carefully set a leg side trap for what he announced was the hook shot. Everyone except Charlton knew what was coming next. Yes, a full pitch delivery that clean bowled him for 9.

Latter came in at 3 but was unable to get out of the way of a ball that popped from a full length and brushed his gloves on the way to the keeper for a duck. He walked without waiting for a decision.
Croom had reached a hard fought 26 before he lofted one and was caught well by extra cover running round behind mid off.

Cottee-Jones departed quickly, missing a straight one from the quick first ball and seeing the figure of doom raised for l.b.w. Filmer was caught in the slips.

Barker arrived and soon received a ball that popped up off a length and caught him on the end of his thumb. Having not long recovered from a break it looks as though the same has happened again and he was unable to continue.

In essence we were 60 for 6 but it was reassuring to see we had a pair of old lags at the wicket in Pearce and Charlton senior.

At times Pearce looks like he finds it all too easy and does not need to concentrate. His approach though was spot on and he was fully focussed. He put his body on the line and took a few blows before he saw off the openers and got to grips with the wicket. One straight 6 looked effortless but landed you know where and meant we had to find a replacement match ball. Charlton supported him well for 6 runs.

Alex Lush came in at 9 and scored an unbeaten 29, batting and running well.

When Pearce finally departed, caught at square leg for a magnificent 60, the opposition thought they were finally through to the tail. Not so, when you have a batsman of the quality of Steve Horrocks coming in at number 10. He scored a very useful 13 not out. At one point, when Lush called him back for a risky second run he decided to amble knowing he was in trouble with a clean throw. The throw was in fact wild and when Lush suggested a third for the overthrows he gave the youngster a dirty look and stayed exactly where he was.

We reached 192 for 7 off our forty overs. An excellent total bearing in mind the difficult wicket and where we had been after 20 overs.

With Barker taking up scoring duties Pearce kept wicket and we roped in an enthusiastic youngester as substitute fielder. The opposition’s first team match had been called off early and they had called in some 1st teamers to strengthen their batting, including the openers.

Feehan took the ball first and was quickly into his stride. Lush opened from the other end. He bowled quickly and with good movement.

Early on one of the openers looped a chance up between Croom at mid off and Dave Charlton at extra cover. Both went for the ball, calls were too quiet and late there was an inevitable collision with the ball popping out of the captain’s hands. It was like watching Jonny May challenging Liam Williams for an up and under. The Englishman came off worse, with his tooth going straight his top lip. Fortunately his good lady wife has supported Dave through many years of rugby and was very sanguine about this latest disfigurement.

Lush continued to bowl excellently without luck. One clean bowled was chalked off for a no ball and nothing he tried seemed to work. He ended up wicketless off his 9 overs but conceded only 24 runs. He looked thoroughly depressed at the end of his spell but some cheery abuse from his team mates swiftly brought him round.

Feehan also bowled unchanged and took 4 excellent wickets for 41 runs. Some of the opposition strokes were a little carefree and he took full advantage. The opposition 4 had a wild swing first ball and fell to a good catch by the substitute fielder. The sub, shall we call him John Doe, did in fact field excellently throughout and took 3 catches. It seems such a shame that tradition requires that he remains anonymous.

Leo Charlton (6-2-12-2) and Horrocks (9-3-13-1) came on to bowl and were very tidy. Once Charlton had the skipper caught by Mr A. nonymous we realised we were through to their tail.

The last dozen overs were not the most exciting as it became apparent the opposition were not able to chase down the total. Latter took 2 wickets for 17 runs off his 5 overs.

Charlton senior came on for 2 overs at the death.

Minor controversy arose at the end of the match. With all the players having carefully counted down 6 balls, as did this umpire and match reporter, everyone started to leave the field. The two scorers insisted there had only been 5 balls and we all went out for one more. The No 11, no doubt confused by the comings and goings played one behind his wicket, lost track of the ball and was out of his ground when Pearce took the bails off. The scorers then decide further to upset the bowler and keeper by wrongly recording it a run out (Law 39 being quite clear it is a stumping as there was no intervention from another fielder and the batsman was not attempting a run)

The opposition were thus all out for 116. An excellent victory in difficult circumstances against a strong opposition.