2s lose at The Hollies

Having beaten Bidborough 4s last week, Bearsted welcomed their 3rd XI.  With the Green partially flooded because of blocked drains, the match was moved up the hill to the picturesque and bucolic ground at Hollingbourne.

Croom as ever lost the toss and we were inserted.

There were two disadvantages to the change of venue. Firstly, the wind was whistling wildly up the hill.  Local weather experts reckoned they had not felt anything this dramatic since Jack Feehan ordered extra chillies on his Saag Paneer Jalfrezi.
Secondly, the local farmer was grazing his sheep in the field right by the pavilion.
Croom and Lush opened the batting. Croom, who has been in fine form all season, did not seem to want to be out there batting. Very first ball he directed the ball towards first slip who dropped a sitter.

Not long afterwards Tim angled the same bowler to second slip who parried the ball and then missed the rebound. Croom looked disgusted at the sheer incompetence of the fielders.

He was not to be denied however and decided to make sure third time round, by lobbing the ball high in the air and shouting “keeper’s”.  Safely out, our Welsh leader skipped back to the pavilion with a lupine grin on his face.  The RSPCA are currently investigating reports of what happened next.

The opposition bowling attack was very useful and the wicket was a little inconsistent. It was hard to score runs.

Latter came out at three but was soon back in the pavilion without troubling the scorers, shouldering arms to one that clipped off stump. Filmer looked in decent nick but fell to an excellent catch in the covers.

Sam Luxton was next in.  Unfortunately his alcohol levels were were still at 92 micro grams following a lengthy celebration of his GCSE results on Thursday/Friday with Mr & Mrs Chunderbus.  The effort of moving his feet was too much for the youngster and he was soon clean bowled for a duck.  Wandering back he was heard to mutter “I’m never drinking again”.

Tom Mullins drove a full toss to the same fielder who had done for Filmer.
Horrocks joined Lush and seemed keen to increase the scoring rate.  This was done by smiting some hefty blows but, in the main, by trying to run out Tim Lush.

Horrocks had reached 27 before apparently stepping back and being hit plumb in front of the wicket. He maintains he had got a thick bottom edge on it but with no deflection or sound noticed by the fielders, umpire or his batting partner he was shown the finger of doom.

Steve Benjamin joined the patient Lush and played some nice looking shots.
Lush was eventually bowled for an important 38.  We are unable to report how many balls he faced to accumulate that total, as we ran out of room in the score book to record it.

Ben Lush (0) and Jack Feehan (1) both came and went. Slevin came in at the death and supported Benjamin.  We ended up 9 wickets down off our 40 overs scoring a paltry 120.

With the wind seemingly stronger than ever the bowlers were all keen, for once, to bowl up the hill.  Once Croom had been found, and had all the dags removed from his whites, he decided to let Benjamin open the bowling up the slope. He was immediately in his rhythm and bowled 9 good overs unchanged.  Including 3 maidens he only conceded 17 runs, taking a wicket following a good catch by Slevin.

Slevin himself opened the bowling down the hill.  He did not quite get as much movement as normal and conceded 19 runs off his 4 overs. Feehan replaced him coming down the slope into the teeth of the gale.  His opening delivery, after he battled to the wickets, was a beauty and clipped the top of off stump.  He finished with with good figures of 5-1-12-1

The opposition were not scoring particularly quickly in the first half of their innings but crucially they were not losing as many wickets.
Latter replaced Benjamin and took two wickets for 20 runs off his 8.2 overs.  The highlight was undoubtedly an excellent one handed catch by Horrocks at first slip.

The Bidborough no 4, part of their large South African contingent, hit an excellent 51 before being bowled by Latter.  With wickets in hand he was able to play his shots and increase the scoring rate.

Wise counsel called for Horrocks to bowl.  He did indeed bowl one over but after a substantial bribe to the match reporter no further mention shall be made of it.

Ben Lush was unable to make a dent in the opposition line up.  Pick of the other bowlers was young Sam Luxton who bowled a great line and length conceding only 7 runs in his 3 overs.

Bidborough eased to the target for the loss of only 4 wickets with 6 overs to spare