1st XI v Limpsfield Chart

The 1s entertained Limpsfield Chart on the green. Regulars, Charlie Luxton and Will Terry were unavailable this week. Luxton was arrested on a night out in Leeds whilst Terry had been called as his character witness. The side also welcomed back Lucas Brookman. After a prolonged spell on the sidelines, Brookers had managed to recover from a nasty case of the ‘boo boos’. There was also a change in umpires this week as Jerry came in for Barry, whilst Robin Cross had come out of retirement and started identifying as a 25 year old woman. No wait, that’s Ellie, the scorer we poached from Marden after winning her over in the White Horse after we played them a few weeks backs.

The deck was soft in places and some heavy rain Friday night meant we wanted to bowl first. This didn’t matter though after skipper Mark Sandhu lost his 37th toss in a row. However, Limpsfield opted to have a bat. Alex Lush opened from the top end and found his usual line and length whilst Sandhu came in from White House end. Sandhu’s first over included a couple of balls pitched at his own feet but quickly found his rhythm after that and started bowling well. Limpsfield’s aggressive opening bat took advantage of some over pitched balls from Lush and got Limpsfield’s innings off to a bit of a flyer. Lush and Sandhu were both unlucky not to get him but luck was falling his way and he was swinging hard.

It was clear pace off was the way to go so Ben Johnston replaced Lush down the hill at the 10 over mark. This should have paid dividends on Johnston’s 2nd ball as he skied one high in the air to mid wicket. Dave Shutt behind the stumps should’ve run round and snaffled it, however, upon realising it would’ve required just short of 5k steps for him to reach it, he left it to Brookman who failed to hold on. Fortunately, Benj slipped one through him not long after that and then bowled him as well. Miles Henslow replaced Sandhu (7-0-0-28) up the hill with his left arm off-breaks. Henslow struck immediately after Benj, trapping their other opener in front and then again just before drinks to remove their number 3. Milo took a 3rd wicket as another tough catch was made to look easy by Boss at slip. Benj (9-2-57-1) and Milo (7-1-32-3) bowled tidily with the odd bad ball here and there, but they took key wickets at the top of the order to help wrestle back some control.

Brookman (5-0-2-21) replaced Henslow up the hill and certainly didn’t seem as though he’d been out for a month, hitting a good line and length early on. Sam Davies (2-0-0-22) replaced Benj down the hill and was inconsistent, but still bowled better than his figures suggest. Limpsfield looked well set to push on past 200 at this point. 180-4 off of 32 overs. Lush came back into the attack as he looked to burgle a few wickets at the death. And that he did. Taking the pace off and using his variations allowed him to take 3 wickets in an over whilst Lucas wrapped up the tail with 2 wickets of his own at the other end. A second spell from Lush (8-1-4-34) made for impressive reading, 3 overs, 4 wickets for 4 runs which certainly helped bring his economy down after going for a few up top. Limpsfield Chart were all out for 203. A score we would’ve taken after impressive starts from both their openers, yet we also felt we should’ve kept them down to 180.

The tea break was its usual civilised affair, Milo had a nap on the sofa, Lush put some cream into Noel and Benj’s coffees and everyone debated whether the White Horse had given us cat food or pattè as a choice of dip. Results are still inconclusive, but safe to say it went largely untouched.

Mark ‘Boss’ Hodges and Dave Shutt opened up. It was a good deck to bat on but, Limpsfield’s skipper was proving to be a tricky mystery spinner from the bottom end and varied his pace very well. Shuttsy and Boss were negotiating him well, until Boss chipped one up to mid on. Benj was in at 3, looked solid for his first 3 balls and then played a cracking forward defence on his 4th ball on which was given out LBW. Benj has said that he didn’t have the heart to tell Jerry he hit it as he sees Jerry like a second Dad (a younger and slightly fitter version of Noel). Sorry to be the bearer of bad news Jerry. Meanwhile, Shuttsy was playing some fantastic shots at the other end, including a sublime pull shot for 6 (half volley on their legs to anyone else) and a sumptuous late cut for 4. He has taken to the role of an opener like a Sandhu takes to a pint of Asahi.

Sam ‘yellow helmet’ Prideaux was in at 4. There’s no immature innuendo behind that name by the way, he for some bizarre reason actually decides to bat in a yellow helmet. He saw off their mystery spinner well but was trapped in front at the other end for just 6 runs. Noel, in at 5, joined Shuttsy at the crease. Shuttsy had raced onto 41 by now and was looking set for a big one until he clipped one straight down deep midwickets throat. The 1st over from a change bowler. HE CLEARLY HAS NOT PAID ATTENTION TO THE ‘KEY PERIODS WHILST BATTING’ ON THE WHITEBOARD!!!!!

Milo was woken up from his nap and told he had to go and bat now. He was clearly not feeling 100% but that didn’t stop him from finding the boundary from the off as he hit five 4s from his first 8 balls. Noel and Milo began to build a good partnership following the drinks break and we began to look in control. However, the game turned again as Milo just failed to clear the boundary as long off took a great catch above his head. An excellent 45 off 27 balls from Milo. Imagine what he could do if he actually liked cricket! Sandhu was in at 7. He had a look for first few balls and then decided he was following the rules of backyard cricket by hitting a 6 then getting out. This brought Lush to the crease at 8. Upon joining Noel at the crease, Noel said to Lush “let’s do what we do best”. My first thought was…flirt with each other in the showers in front of your son? Turns out it was “be busy and look for the quick singles”. They did this successfully for a couple overs, before Lush was also given out LBW after blocking one to extra cover.

Davies was in at 9 and didn’t last long after top edging one, adding just 3 runs to the score. James West joined Noel at the crease next as we required 36 from the remaining 4 overs. Westy did well supporting Noel and hitting a 4 of his own through cow corner. The 3rd to last over looked to have put us in control as Noel took it for 14. Back to back boundaries to finish it which included an emphatic cover drive followed immediately by a clip over mid wicket for another boundary. The scenario was 11 off 12 balls. The penultimate over was a wicket maiden. Westy fell and Lucas came in at 11. Less said about that over the better. A quickly run 2 and some singles meant it was 6 needed off the last ball with Lucas on strike. The green held its breath as the bowler began his run up. Lucas moved over onto off stump to target the short leg side boundary and looked to have done it for half a second. The ball went high in the air but straight up and fell into the arms of the bowler. A tough ask for a 7ft2 15 year old but a valiant effort nonetheless. We fell 4 runs short in the end.

Great knocks from Shuttsy, Milo and especially Noel (47*), who has been struggling for runs this season but appeared to be back to his best and deserved to be on the winning side.

All in all, it was a game we should not have lost against an inferior side. It’s hard to pin point specific points in the match but, to put it simply we are a side out of form who are searching for a win. However, we still have 8 games to go and it is just a matter of time until results take a turn for us. We take the positives from the game and move onto Speldhurst away next week.

Special thanks go to Jerry for umpiring, Ellie for scoring and some of the 3s side who came down to support after their fixture was called off.

Cheers,

Lushy