2s beat Bidborough

Bearsted welcomed Bidborough 3s to the Green. On days like this, with the sun shining, it is a magnificent setting for cricket. That is mainly down to the incessant hard work of Si Barker who spent at least 4 hours preparing the ground on Friday afternoon.

The stripes on the square were perfect, the outfield beauftifully mown and the track looked good and played well. Constable and Gainsborough would have whipped out their easels and brushes and spent the day enraptured by the Kentish village at its finest.

During the week, a genuine conversation was had between captain, Tim Croom, and your match reporter over what he would do if he won the toss. Whether he would rather watch the Lions v Japan or Wales v Denmark. In a display of prescience and honesty the skipper said “It matters not, it’s not like I am going to win it”.
So indeed, Bidborough won the toss and asked us to bat.

Croom himself and Dave Latter went out to open.

Tim himself appeared be auditioning for a cricketing version of Stars In Their Eyes. “Today Matthew I am going to be Chris Filmer”. Particularly against the young opener, Van Der Westhazen, he started playing a series of shots between Slip and Backward Point. The usual booming lofted drives so prominent in his repertoire were tucked away, not to be used. Croom had reached 16 before being adjudged l.b.w. He looked a little disgruntled but then remembered the rugby was on, so he hurried off the pitch without demur.

Horrocks went out to join Latter who was looking comfortable. It was not the strongest attack we faced but he was despatching bad balls with some wonderfully sharp shots.

Horrocks, despite struggling with a knee injury, started well and ran some better singles than we normally do.
Steve was struggling to put away a young leggie, who was erratic and bowled a lot down the leg side. When he finally fetched two consecutive deliveries for boundaries his joy was manifest to be seen.

On a hot day, the pair put on a magnificent 168.
Bidborough heads started to drop and their fielding was at times generous.
Horrocks was finally bowled for a really good 66.

Pearce was elevated up the order with only a few overs left and hit a crisp 19 before holing out.
Steve Benjamin was in next with instructions to hit some big boundaries. He actually hit 6 singles in his short unbeaten knock.

Throughout this all, Latter had carried on accumulating runs with an increasingly gorgeous array of shots all around the wicket. When the 40 overs were up he was still unbeaten with a magnificent score of 139.
We finished with a useful looking total of 258 for 3.

We knew though that the pitch was good, the outfield fast and that Bidborough had some big hitters.
In a cunning tactical plan we opened the bowling with Chris Filmer. He is known for his metronomic accuracy. It allowed the skipper to set a 7-2 field. Kev Mullins and Dan Skinner were the only occupants of the leg side. With a combined age of 173 it was felt they could be hidden there safely.

Sadly Filmer’s line had deserted him and the ageing pair spent a lot of time retrieving balls from from gardens.
Filmer was promptly taken off after two expensive overs to be replaced by Terlicki. Unfortunately he started in a similar vein and Bidborough were comfortably keeping up with required run rate.

Fortunately for us, Tom Mullins was making his first Saturday appearance of the season after A Levels and bowled very tidily from the other end. He realised if he bowled a good line and length the opposition would have to play some risky shots. He accounted for the first three dangerous batsmen, all clean bowled.
His fourth wicket was courtesy of a steepling lofted drive to long off where his Dad was waiting. Mullins senior did not quite read it right but held onto a good catch at knee height.

Pearce was keeping wicket, as the 1st XI had about 5 keepers. He did stick out out a glove to one edge from Mullins jnr that was heading straight into Horrocks’ hands at first slip. The ball was deflected down to third man. Tom looked happy not to have to buy a jug. But not as happy as his Dad who realised he would have had to fund it. Mullins finished with excellent figures of 9-3-22-4.

Terlicki got into his rhythm and started bowling much better. He got one wicket off a top edge that hit the batsman in the face, dislodging his cap and looping to a grateful Horrocks.
The other was courtesy of a catch by the captain at mid off. Not initially picking up the line of the ball he made a stupendous diving catch low to his right. Terlicki finished with figures of 9-0-42-2.

Horrocks replaced him and was accurate, keeping the ball outside off stump. His first wicket came from a drive that looped up over his head. Croom clearly satisfied that he had done enough heroics in the field decided not to move, so it was left to Skinner to run around from mid on and safely pouch the ball.

Lush (6-2-12-1) replaced Mullins and also bowled well. His wicket was a tidy low catch by Pearce.
With the opposition batting starting to struggle it meant that we could rest Benjamin who was carrying a knee injury.

Horrocks clean bowled the last man and finished with figures of 4.1-1-21-2.

The opposition were all out for 122.
A good win against a pleasant Bidborough team who stayed for a few beers in the sunshine.