Weather fails to save the 2s

The 2s were due to be at home on the Green against visitors Penshurst Park. Heavy rain in the previous days had left the pitch distinctly damp and a late decision was made to switch to Hollingbourne.

Perhaps aided by the late arrival of the Penshurst skipper Tim Croom actually won the toss and chose to bowl.
With rain forecast it was agreed that the game would be reduced to 30 overs.

Harry Slevin opened down the hill, with Feehan bowling up from the Y Fronts end. The pitch was not bad in the circumstances but a bit sticky.

The usually reliable Simon Barker dropped an early chance off Slevin. The first wicket fell instead to Feehan, courtesy of a truly remarkable catch by Skinner. It was not a difficult chance at mid on but if he catches anything these days it is indeed truly remarkable.

Next to strike in the field was Ben Lush who ran out their No 3, after recovering a slight misfield a change of mind by the batsmen leaving one stranded. It makes a nice change for Lush to run out the opposition rather than his team mates.

Horrocks replaced Feehan and struck first ball. Barker taking a sharp catch off the Penshurst captain, standing up behind the stumps. The opposition no 4, Smith, was looking steady. Slevin did put down a difficult chance at backward point.

Horrocks continued bowling well and ended with figures of 7-2-40-4.

Feehan took one catch but despite his well known, and slightly spurious, claim to have never dropped a catch for the club he did put down a sitter. Fortunately Croom led by example and held his two chances.

With Lush replacing Slevin, Smith suddenly took a fancy to his bowling despatching one over for a lot of runs. Thereafter it became a masterclass of batting. Bad balls were hit very hard. And then good balls started getting hit very hard. Several were deposited into the farmer’s fields. Latter took a couple of wickets off his 5 overs and the rest of the opposition never really got going. However it mattered not to Smith, who reached his century with only 144 on the scoreboard.

He eventually holed out at long on, off the returning Feehan, for a wonderful 113. Filmer took the catch and promptly lost his footing nearly rolling into fence. Penshurst set us a tough target of 169 off 30 overs.

Latter and Croom opened up as usual. Apart from one wayward bowler the opposition did not give us many bad balls to hit. With the pitch and outfield slow, getting boundaries was not easy. Which made it even more apparent how good Smith’s innings had been.

Croom went first for 7. Perhaps upset by a ridiculous appeal by their keeper he got underneath the next delivery, a short ball, and lobbed it up to mid on.

Horrocks was in next but in trying to force the pace lost his balance and missed a straight one off Smith for a rare duck. Smith’s bowling was good and he definitely was not a one trick pony.

Filmer was in next. With little width being offered he struggled to score quickly and eventually gloved an attempted cut onto his stumps for 15. Barker came in at 5 but soon holed out in the deep for 3.

Steve Pearce came in at No 6. In a run chase he is surely the perfect man for the job but we were already well behind the required rate.

With grey clouds looming and a weather forecast making it clear we were going to get wet it was surprising that Penshurst did not seem to show any urgency. At one point, three of them engaged in a lengthy discussion about field placement before making no changes. It was only when there were about 5 overs left, when they were clearly on route to a victory, and it started raining that they decided to speed things up.

The rain got harder and it was suggested that we stopped and put the covers on.
They declined but eventually, in a downpour, the umpire took the players off.

The covers went on. The forecast was for clear skies but by now the pitch was distinctly damp.
When the rain stopped, the covers came off but it was clear there would be a delay before play could resume.

With only two overs left it was understandable that Penshurst were keen to get going. Most of their players were nice blokes and appreciated the reason for the delay but a few seemed reluctant to accept the umpire’s decision on when to restart.

One started filming the skies, as if that was relevant to the conditions underfoot. He then started marching towards the supporters filming them, including several children. They seemed even less relevant to the state of the pitch and the Safeguarding officer at Penshurst may have some concerns. Fortunately wiser heads in the Penshurst team told the player to behave himself.

We were soon able to complete the last two overs. Bearsted finished on a fairly paltry 120 for 4. Latter was unbeaten on 68 with Pearce on 22.

A well deserved victory for Penshurst who were better than us in all facets of the game. In Smith they had the stand out player, whose innings was a joy to behold.

Next week we are away at the picturesque Eynsford ground.