2s beaten by the rain

Bearsted 2s travelled to Horsmonden for the penultimate league match of the season with a strong side and in optimistic spirits.

In the absence of your trusted match reporter, skipper Croom had claimed to have the won toss for two weeks on the trot. Clearly that fanciful suggestion was the captain being mendacious as, true to form, he promptly lost the toss.

The pitch had a decent covering of grass but looked in good condition and indeed played very well all game.
The track was cut on the near side of the square meaning a short boundary down to the club house looked problematic. Rather oddly, having set the boundary rope the home team brought it in at least ten yards (before the toss) making that far boundary short as well.

Horsmonden chose to bat and started well. Feehan (5-0-30-0) opened the bowling but was perhaps a little too variable with his length. One early ball was cut gently and shot rapidly to the boundary. This right from the start it was obvious you would need a big total to win the game. Alex Lush (9-2-37-2) bowled well from the other end, getting some pace and away swing. He was unlucky not to get a wicket in his first spell. The opposition were good enough to punish any poor balls of which we bowled a few too many.

Latter (9-0-67-3) was more wayward than usual but did pick up wickets courtesy of catches from Horrocks, West and A Lush. The Lush catch came after Alex’s dad had found himself close to the wicket in the covers. Fearing the ball might rocket towards him he wisely sacrificed his expendable son and volunteered to swap. In fact the catch was looped up very gently. Horrocks’ catch also seemed to take an age to reach him in the slips. Fortunately his dive was executed at a similar speed to the ball which he safely grabbed.

Ben Lush (4-0-34-1) bowled ok but it was really a day to be a batsman. We fielded well, Filmer throwing himself twice to make excellent efforts at dramatic catches.

Mention should perhaps be made though of Ben Lush collecting the ball. On one occasion he screamed “bowler’s end” quite unnecessarily. When the ball arrived he completely missed it and with no-one able to back him up the opposition gladly claimed the overthrows. Later on, he was in position to execute a run out but, in a scenario reminiscent of Nathan Lyon, he again failed to collect the throw.

The scorebook was full of singles and boundaries, sadly more of the latter.

After their talented opener had scored a fine 52 the opposition skipper came in and hit a fast and destructive 74. His technique at times was a little unorthodox but he gave it a fair old whack. He was eventually clean bowled by Horrocks (7-0-52-2). Leo Charlton bowled not too badly but still went for 33 off his two overs.

It took the return of Alex Lush and the arrival of Chris Filmer (4-0-17-1) to slow the run rate. At one point it looked as though we would be chasing 300 but the opposition reached 274 for 9 off their overs.

After tea Croom and Lush opened the batting. Horsmonden had a radically different side from earlier in the season and they opened with two young quicks. Croom, who rather likes the ball coming onto him, had scored two boundaries off their left hander in one over before he dug one in. It was fast and aggressive but perfectly legal. Unfortunately the captain missed it and was hit full in the face. His glasses took the impact but they in turn caused a fair amount of damage to Croom. The Welshman has a face only a mother could love but it looked even more of a mess than usual. He had to leave the field retired hurt. Fortunately the ball went for four so at least the score was ticking over.

Andy West came in to replace him but edged a fine delivery behind the wicket for 5. Lush was clean bowled for 1. Filmer and Barker found themselves at the crease. The opposition right hander seemed to take a dislike to Barker (and frankly who can blame them) and after two beamers was given a formal warning by the umpires (a fine stout pair of Kentish rugby aficionados). The bowler was withdrawn from the fray by his skipper but not before firing in one last bouncer that went miles over Barker’s head for a wide.

Barker hit three fours before missing a straight one. Filmer was joined by Latter.
We were scoring at above 5 an over but it looked like we would fall well short. However with one of the opposition off the field to go to work it also became apparent that they did not have great depth in their bowling attack beyond the three youngsters.

One wayward over to Filmer went for 4,4,4,4,6,1. You can say what you like about Filmer (and many do) but you can’t argue about his ability to count to 6. Suddenly the large total looked achievable.

Sadly though the clouds, which had been darkening since tea, opened. The covers came on and then, when it stopped briefly, came back off. However it started raining again and the captains took the decision themselves and wisely called it off. Latter finished unbeaten on 19 along with Filmer was 74 not out.

The journey home was actually fairly quick but seemed to take an eternity after Filmer excitedly realised he had been not out in his last three innings and insisted on trying to calculate his average. Having removed his own shoes and socks to help count he then insisted that the wounded captain and your match reporter also do likewise to assist with his mathematics.

Next week we face Penshurst in the last league match of the season.