3s beat Linton Park

Bearsted 3s found themselves away against Linton Park 3s at Teston CC. It’s a rather lovely rural ground with a positively equine feel, surrounded as it is by stables and paddocks.
Linton, like us, had a mix of ages.
Skinner won the toss and chose to bat.
(On the subject of winning the toss, in the scandalous absence of the dashing scribe who has written 2nd match reports for the past few years, it is incumbent on this author to record that Tim Croom has, incredibly, won 5 out of 6 tosses this season for the 2nd XI)
The ground and wicket looked in good condition but had a distinct slope. Good preparation for Detling away in a few weeks.
Keith Robertson and Leo Petty opened up. Keith looked in good nick and skilfully ducked under one that popped up. He hit two nice boundaries but inexplicably dangled a bat out and feathered one behind for 8.
Petty looks technically correct and it is to his credit that he put his hand up and offered to open. He was bowled for 4.
Nigel Baker was in at 3. He punished anything short and the RSPCA have expressed concerns about how often he bothered the horses in the field below the ground. He had advanced to 24, all in boundaries, before hitting the ground and ball at the same time and looping a catch up to point.
Matt Klimcke was in at 4. He is working hard on his footwork and hit one glorious straight 6 into the sightscreen before chipping one back to the bowler.
James Tank was next in the middle. His hard work at the nets is starting to pay off but he still is unsure when to play with soft hands and lobbed another catch.
Angus Kenny was our No 6. He can clearly bat and scored a careful 8 runs before holing out.
Ollie Marriner is another useful young all rounder. He scored 7 before being caught.
Rob Maughan played round a straight one for 4.
Jamie Baker was in No 10
Max Patton was quickly caught for 1.
The Linton Park attack was decent and their attack were moving the ball around. At 94 for 9 things looked pretty desperate for Bearsted, especially when the last man was a portly balding man who hadn’t batted for ages. But Skinner, after a few extravagant leaves, found his form and soon scored runs all around the wicket.
Jamie Baker stayed with him and grew in confidence.
It was genuinely pleasing for the captain, whose mentoring technique of the youngsters is to take the mickey out of them relentlessly, to hear them abusing him from the sideline and suggesting he may want to run a little faster, or indeed at all.
Highlights of the partnership were a late cut by Skinner, that would have had Chris Filmer salivating, and a glorious straight drive by Baker that so nearly went for a maximum.
An unbeaten partnership of 78 for the last wicket took us to 172 for 9 off our 40 overs. Baker was on 19* and Skinner 46*.
There is a suggestion that Skinner knew he was on that total and deliberately missed the last ball of the match.
After tea, Ollie Marriner and Max Patton opened up. The Linton openers were decidedly useful and Rawson has scored runs at a much higher level. He had moved smoothly to an imperious looking 14 before edging a beauty from Marriner behind to Klimcke behind the stumps.
Patton was struggling with the slope and went for 33 off his 4 overs. He was replaced by Maughan who also struggled with his line. He did though take two wickets through catches by Klimcke and Nigel Baker. Nigel, hard rugby man that he is, decided to use his chest to control the ball first. Maughan took 2 for 21 off his 4 overs
Jamie Baker replaced Marriner. Despite his batting exertions he was bowling well and seems to improve each week. He bowled 9 overs unchanged taking 1 for 24. It slowed the run rate down substantially.
Kenny replaced Maughan and helped steady the ship. He seems to have nice variations in his flight, he got one wicket clean bowled and conceded only 18 from his 5 overs.
Klimcke somehow persuaded the captain to let him bowl and Leo Petty took over the gloves after drinks. It proved to be an inspired change. Klimcke hits the wicket hard and took 3 for 9 from his 3 overs. Two were to good catches by James Tank, who may just be the nicest bloke ever to play cricket for Bearsted. Great reward for a man who kindly agreed to play at very short notice, after a cry off.
Generally we fielded better than last week. Keith Robertson, in a desperate attempt to feature in the match report, flung himself full length at one that did not quite stick. Fearing that would not be enough, he then took a great running catch.
With the Linton skipper coming in at 11, we knew it was a game that we could easily still lose. Especially with the number of wides the umpires were awarding. When two separate batsmen comment that they were “never wide” you do wonder if the umpires had quite judged the nature of the 3rd XI cricket.
Ollie Marriner (7.2-0-36-3) returned to put the game beyond doubt. He forced their No 4, who had reached 40, to play on and we had bowled them out for 151. A really excellent and unexpected victory.