1st XI v Outwood

This week the 1s hosted Outwood CC who had ventured to the parish of Bearsted via the Tran Siberian Railway network across 2 counties from Surrey for Round 13 of the KENT County Village League fixtures. Fun fact, Outwood themselves are nicknamed “The Millermen” due to the village being home to Outwood Mill, which is one of the oldest working post windmills in England. I did attempt to look for more fun facts about the town, but that was about as much fun as could be found in the town. Outwood were sitting merry at the top of the table having only lost 1 from 12 fixtures this season and looking to make it 2 league titles on the bounce this season.

4 changes for the Bears this week from the team that travelled to the rain effected abandonment at Speldhurst. L.Brookman was visiting Legoland Windsor on some Tesco Clubcard Vouchers. J.West had dropped down into the 2s having been in the vicinity of Surrey fishing for local yellow fin tunas. S.Davies was AWOL, most likely spending his afternoon in a pub in Islington. A.Lush had got the invite to what he described as a boys weekend away in a cottage in Somerset...hmm. This brought D.Charlton, N.Johnston, P.Manktelow and the return of XL.Tripod…. Sorry D.Dawson into the 11 for his first fixture of the year.

M.Sandhu tossed up at 12:47pm with the Outwood skipper and managed to actually managed to WIN (yes WIN) a toss. This was a shock to the team and also the team statistician Andy Zaltzman who noted this was only the 2nd toss out of 12 this season won by the skipper. Coin tossing certainly isn't M.Sandhu's forte (a thing in which someone excels in) instead I'd pin that on Peroni or Asahi consumption past 8pm on Saturday evenings. Having won the toss the skipper put us into bat first on what must be said and paid evident credit to groundsman Simon Barker was a good wicket and extremely aesthetically pleasing outfield considering the volumn of rain during the week. A good addition to the scoring this week was the Outwood iPad which had downloaded a play cricket app to score digitially and straight onto the website. The regular scoring No.11 swapped his crayons for a portable charger and took his seat for what was to persue.

Ben Duckett sorry... D.Shutt opened the batting and was accompanied by his 5th different opening batting partner in consecutive game (N.Johnston, D.Latter, M.Hodges, M.Sandhu) and now P.Manktelow for an afternoon in the sunshine. Both openers negotiated the early encounters well and steadily started to tick the scoreboard over. P.Manktelow departed for 1 having got a good straight ball clean bowled by the Outwood opener who appeared to be running the 100m sprint down the hill into the wind (to the discredit of his thin blonde hair). This brought Mr Forearms D.Charlton to the crease to accompany a well set D.Shutt. D.Charlton had done the good deed of padding up in place of B.Johnston who was late for the arrival time due to getting in late the night before and needing his beauty sleep before leaving his humble abode for the cockpit of Bearsted Pavilion. D.Charlton looked in really good touch and hit some booming early boundaries looking to up the scoring rate. D.Shutt nicely went about his work at the other end to get through the opening spells before the change bowlers come on. D.Shutt in particular took a liking to the change bowler from the Fish on the Green End and hit him for 20 (5 consequtive fours) in his first over. The two brought up a fifty partnership in the 15th over and looked in great shape before D.Shutt departed for a very well made 39 runs to a good delivery from the Outwood change bowler. The arrival of B.Johnston to the crease at No.4 seemed to spur D.Charlton into hitting the boundary toblerones with great consistency, putting on a good partnership of 40 runs, Bearsted got to drinks at 98-2 from 20 overs. Shortly after drinks, D.Charlton got an extremely good delivery clipping the off stump bail and sending the bail for 6 into one of the local houses front gardens (the first time i think that has ever been seen on the Green!). D.Charlton departed for an excellent 45 runs having set a great launch pad for Bearsted to explode from.

The departure of Mr Forearms brought in Mr I Skip Leg Day in, C.Luxton. B.Johnston at the other end did what he needed to do and nudge the ball around nicely and allow C.Luxton to swallow up most of the strike and spit out the ball to the boundary rope with consistency. A very good partnership of 62 runs was broken when the change left arm spinner from the White Horse End dismissed B.Johnston for 16. Whilst son departed, father strode out looking ready for business, N.Johnston came in at 6 to accompany C.Luxton. Soon after C.Luxton brought up his 50 of 28 balls, a really good knock in the circumstances and special acknowledgment must be paid to the one and only Outwood fielder who clapped this landmark, thank you for the appreciation. However, he departing shortly after, stumped for a very well made 64 from 47 balls to the left arm spinner in a shot selection I would describe as trying to hit inside out over cover for 6. N.Johnston showed him how to play this length delivery the over later with a brilliantly timed sweep shot which raced for 4 into the Oak on the green garden. This wicket brought a Liam Livingstone wannby M.Henslow to the crease looking to accelerate the scoreboard with 8 overs remaining. Having nudged around the first few balls, M.Henslow adopted the, if its up its off tactic and took particular liking to the opening bowler returning from the bottom end to hit him for 6,6,6,4 in one over. It must be said that the regular golfing outings are paying dividends as the hit over cow corner bares great success for M.Henslow. This expensive one and only over led to a bowling change at the bottom end for the final over which led to M.Henslow's departure for an extremely valuable 48 runs of 22 balls with 3 fours and 5 sixes, 87.5% of runs coming in the form of boundaries. M.Sandhu came in with one ball remaining and Bearsted closed the innings on 245-6 from 40 overs.

As usually with recent times, the teas were provided by the White Horse and were dug into by the players and umpires. It appeared that todays theme was BEIGE, and consisted of sandwiches, crisps and swiss roll. Having got stuck into the carbohydrate and fat fueled teas, the Bearsted team stuck their whites on and got ready to defend 245. With the team missing Lush (not actually missing him just without him available for this fixture) M.Sandhu chose to open the bowling with himself down the hill. This paid dividend straight away, with M.Sandhu dismissing the Outwood opener plum LBW first ball of the game, giving the Outwood umpire no hesitation in raising his finger. The Outwood opener took a disliking to the decision once back by the pavilion and explained that if this was a televised fixture he would have reviewed the decision. That came to the surprise of the match reporter as even for me fielding at backward point, the decision looked stone dead plum. C.Luxton accompanied M.Sandhu in opening the bowling from the bottom end and also struck in his first over to dismiss the No.3 bat for 0 well caught on the juggle by D.Charlton at gully, leaving Outwood 8-2 from 2 overs and in a spot of bother. A spot of bother became a mini collapse as C.Luxton then removed the No.4 batsman for 4 in his next over to a brilliant catch by wicket keeper D.Shutt behind the stumps and leaving outwood 12-3. Both bowlers accompanied each other nicely, M.Sandhu bowling great lines and moving the ball away from the bats with C.Luxton hitting a very hard length at great speeds. After fantastic opening spells from M.Sandhu and C.Luxton, the skipper turned to the "Spin Twins" Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid... oh no B.Johnston and M.Henslow to bowl in unison. B.Johnston went wicketless from his 9 overs (0-39) but bowled with great consistency and applied pressure to the Outwood middle order. M.Henslow bowled brilliantly and with great variety. The first of his wickets to dismiss the Outwood No.5 was a full toss attempted to be worked to leg but instead returned to M.Henslow for a caught and bowled. The 2nd a half volley smacked to cover into N.Johnston's buckets leaving Outwood in serious trouble at 53-5. However, there could be no jammyness with the final of his 3 wickets, a brilliant bowled arm ball at speed that cleaned up the Outwood remaining opener who was well set. This left Outwood 96-6 and in need of some serious partnerships. M.Henslow finished 9 overs (3-55) and was replaced by W.Terry at the bottom end and M.Sandhu replacing B.Johnston from the top end. M.Sandhu finished his spell with 2 overs to finish with great figures of 9 overs (1-23). W.Terry went about his work at the bottom end looking for a breakthrough, and getting one in his 2nd over, with the Outwood No.7 caught at square leg for a well made 57 runs. W.Terry's 3rd over paid more rewards with 2 wickets in the space of 3 balls, the first a slower ball off cutter that bamboozled the Outwood No.9 clean bowled, and the 2nd in the over edged to first slip and well taken by D.Dawson to leave Outwood 142-9. W.Terry was to bowl one more over which got the treatment from the No.8 pinch hitter and slightly ruined some nice looking figures being taken for 25 of his final over, finishing 5 overs (3-44). C.Luxton was to return & replace W.Terry from the bottom end and finish the game within 2 balls of his second spell, with the last batsman caught behind for 49, Outwood all out for 195,with Bearsted winning by a good margin of 50 runs!

A really well deserved victory for the 1s with a lot of contributions all round. Particular praise must be attributed to the 3x 50 run partnerships during the batting innings, and the bowlers bowling extremely well in unison with the partner from the other end to tie the opposition down for periods of the game. Special thanks go to Jerry for umpiring, Simon for preparing a really good wicket and pitch, and the White Horse for their beige teas! A really well deserved and rewarding 20 points in the bag!