2s win at Linton Park

Bearsted 2s had the short trip up to local rivals Linton Park. The ground, as large as ever, looked in good nick and the wicket played well throughout. They have a fine specimen of Fagus Sylvatica f. purpurea to the right of their clubhouse. The copper beech though makes a ruddy useless sight screen.

Somewhat remarkably, perhaps revelling in the Welsh football team getting a point, our leader Tim Croom won the toss. On a hot day he wisely chose to bat.

Croom and Latter opened up. The opposition opening attack looked sharp. Croom quickly edged behind.

Horrocks joined Latter. Both looked in good form playing some lovely shots. As usual though, we did not play with a great deal of urgency and rarely put their fielders under much pressure until the end of the innings.
Horrocks was trapped lbw low in front of his stumps but felt aggrieved as he thought he had hit the ball first. It was a good 27 runs though. If he was perhaps unlucky, that levelled out the decisions as Latter was possibly fortunate not to be given out caught down the leg side.

Latter was joined by Chris Filmer who looked comfortable, before trying an ambitious shot and getting bowled for 11.

Barker was next in to accompany Latter. He was dropped almost immediately but went on to score 19 before being given out l.b.w. In the meanwhile he managed to injure his thumb by taking his eyes off a throw as it came into the wicket and bounced straight up into his hand.

The score had been ticking along at about 4 runs an over. We needed an increase in the rate and we finally started taking a few more risks and pushing the fielders.

Haggart was in next and Latter agreed to a second run but was some yards out, after a fine throw from the boundary. An excellent and crucial 89 for Latter who is in the runs this season.

At the death Haggart ran himself out for 11 trying to sneak a single after the ball went through to the keeper.
We finished on 183. A decent total but not a great one.

Slevin (9-0-35-1) opened the bowling and got some good swing as ever. He bowled through unchanged on a hot day.

Feehan also looked good and would finish conceding only 18 runs off his five overs. He did tire at one point but the encouragement from his team mates kept him going. Admittedly that was after his very first delivery.

The openers put on 50 before Slevin deservedly clean bowled one.

We fielded pretty well and did not for once put down any chances in the outfield. Barker did put down 4 chances but two were very difficult.

Terlecki replaced Feehan and finished with figures of 8-0-49-1. After a long break from cricket he is perhaps a little rusty and needs to work more on his stock ball, a canny little away swinger. His too frequent variations inevitably went wrong.

It was the arrival of Horrocks that changed the momentum of the game. He finished with excellent figures of 9-1-27-1. Notably he was the only bowler not to concede a wide. We gave away 27 in total, which is far too many and rather reminiscent of U11 cricket.

Latter bowled two overs for 14 runs.

Ben Lush came on late in the innings and bowled really well in a pressure situation. He accounted for the opener who departed for 61 after pulling a ball straight into the hands of a grateful Horrocks at Square Leg.
He also had another caught behind by Barker.

There were fine fielding performances from O’Brien and Slevin. Terlecki has a great arm. We do sometimes take too long to get the ball back into the keeper’s gloves though and almost invite people to take the extra run.

Lush had to bowl the last over with Linton needing 11 to win. He bowled a good line and length and conceded only 3 off the first three deliveries. With boundaries needed by the opposition, the fourth ball was hoiked towards cow corner and looked to be sailing over the ropes. A magnificent run and leap by Terlecki meant he got two hands to the ball. It did not stick but only two runs were added to the total.
Two more good deliveries from Lush meant we won by 4 runs with the home side finishing on 179 for 5.
Veritably exciting stuff

Next week we travel away to Farningham