In actual fact no roads lead to Four Elms so the 1st team embarked on the longest away journey of them all, and for the 95th time in a row, we found ourselves with an away fixture for our last game of the season. A picturesque ground greeted us along with a nice sunny day, both of which were accompanied by a chorus of “bowl first and get home”, “if you bat first I’m going home”, “bowl ‘em out and let’s get back early”. With the pressure on the skipper, who is the author, the wicket keeper and also the hero of Meopham, he strode out to the middle and won his 16th toss of the season. We will have a bowl.

Alex Lush opened down the hill desperate to claim the league’s top wicket taker title, likely needing 3 to secure it. End of over 1 and their opener plays on. 4/1 and the beers were already being cracked open in everyone’s mind. Out to the middle came their number 3 having only played 1 previous game for them. Whack 4. Whack 6. Whack 4. The guy could bat. Why hadn’t he played more games and why did none of their team seem to know him? Interesting questions but with Lushy shedding a few runs in the chase of the title Milo was bowling very nicely at the other and was difficult for either batsmen to get away. In frustration their opener darted down the wicket only for Milo to flight the ball, drop it a little shorter and turn the ball sharply (for the second time this season) leaving Shutt to take his 8th stumping of campaign. 47/2 off some overs.

With their number 3 batting very well and their number 4 batting averagely whilst running directly down the middle of the pitch and screaming “LOOKING” when 2 feet away from the keeper as the ball hit his gloves frustrations were growing. Both Benj and Westy had spells from either end and with drinks taken (possibly mango squash which was a nice touch) Lewis was on down the hill and Dan Seaman up the hill. Lewis, bowling off his full run up for the first time since nets during the solar eclipse when he was, in his own words, too quick for everyone (no mention of the total lack of sunlight), puts down an absolute beauty, quick, full of length and a ball that nipped back just enough to take the top of off stump. Dan followed up next over initially with an LBW, which was absolutely dead, but their umpire did not give it, and then with a juicy full toss that their skipper clothed to Lushy in the covers taking a sharp catch as the ball died. At least it wasn’t the same umpire that gave Dan out LBW in the home fixture when he clearly wasn’t out. Oh no it was the same umpire. Surely he will give the next LBW shout for Dan in recompense?

Dan is in, bowls a lovely off cutter, the batsman goes back (inexplicably) and then shoulders arms (even more inexplicably), the ball hits him outside the line but it is surely hitting off stump? Huge appeal! Huge! Not out says the umpire, hit him outside the line. Outrageous! No shot played muttered Dan. Lets just hope Dan doesn’t get hit on the pad when he is batting….

At the other end Lewis is bowling sharp to their number 5 who (even more inexplicably than the other inexplicable decisions) has no helmet on which is clearly ridiculous. Despite this Lewis bowls full (to everyone’s surprise) and quick taking the edge resulting in, quite honestly a huge deflection, that Shutt, destroyer of Meopham, takes at full stretch one handed with the tips of his fingers. What a catch by the named keeper. Legend.

Looking back now it is clear the opposition had lost all track of scoring so there is no indication on what the score was but we had performed well since drinks taking 3 wickets, however their dangerous number 3, that no one knew, was scoring quickly. Fortunately, Lewis struck again as he tried to drive him for 6 over long off only for Lushy to take a very good catch whilst staying just inside the boundary. An excellent catch and 3 wickets for Lewis and hopefully the game?

Benj had replaced Dan up the hill and their unconventional back foot, shoulderer of arms outside the line despite not playing a shot, number 7 heaved one high into the clouds towards cow corner. The safe hands of Milo were galloping round from deep mid wicket and the safe hands of Keagan Luke were flying round from long on. Someone call for it! Milo shouted to Keagan that it was his and with real confidence Keagan steadied himself and made a difficult catch look very very easy. Top effort. Their number 8 was still giving it a biff and heavily reliant on the pull shot (clearly a serious player). Despite this Lush was frothing at the bit trying to convince the skipper to get him on so that he could pick up the vital wickets to secure top wicket taker. Not yet the skipper said. Benj and Lewis are gong well. In comes Benj and another pull shot from their number 8 that goes straight up, higher and higher. Fortunately, no player yelled unhelpfully “catch it” allowing Shutt behind the stumps to calmly take his 21st catch of the season. Next ball in and that has to be LBW this time? Surely? It is! A 3rd wicket for Benj! 1 more to go. Hat trick? Please no pleaded Lush who was now almost in a frenzy looking for any possible way to get himself back on. Luckily Lewis was open to the bribe of free beers later in the evening and on he came managing to take the final wicket of the innings. 208 all out with wickets for Benj (3), Milo (1), Dan (1), Lewis (3) and Lush (2). Will that be enough for Lush to take the title? It was just enough! Lushy had done it and crowned the league’s top wicket taker with 32 and with Benj’s 3 wickets he ended on 22 for the season and 10th overall in the league. Superb from both

After a long ish lunch out to the middle strode the reliable pairing of Noel and Lewis with an air of confidence. Unfortunately, Noel fell for 7 taking his total league runs for the season to 534 and the 8th top run scorer in the league. A brilliant effort including at least 2 match winning knocks. Dan joined Lewis in the middle and the pair played some glorious shots. Dan played some beautiful late cuts for 3s and 4s whilst Lewis hit some clean blows for 6 including one massive 6 flicked over mid wicket. The pair put on 59 for the 2nd wicket before Dan fell for 25 with the score on 88/2. How was Dan out I hear you cry? Yes, that is right. LBW from their umpire. Was it out? Of course not. Not Dan’s favourite umpire should we say. Or perhaps Dan is not his favourite player?

Benj and Lewis together now and we were all licking our lips about the potential partnership that could happen. 121 runs to get, plenty of time. Sit back and watch the show. The pair looked very good, as they always do, and put on a partnership of 3 before Lewis was caught deep on the very long boundary for very good 46 taking his total for the season to 665 (4th in the league and only 10 runs behind 1st) at a mind blowing strike rate of 147.41. What a season.

91/3 now and some rebuilding required with Milo joining Benj. Sadly Milo did not last long departing for 4 and with the score at 100/4 nerves were starting to fray. The opposition have not won many, and with Benj out shortly after for 15 (taking him to 486 runs for the season, 9th in the league) they sensed blood. We couldn’t lose our final game could we? The league was out of reach at this point with Shoreham already having won but we had to finish the season on a high! It was West and Lush in the middle now and at 111/5 we still needed another 98 to get over the line. The pressure was on.

Luckily for us Westy and Lush thrive on pressure and Westy thrives on dropped catches. After Westy was dropped 3 times, and Lush once and then Lush was not given run out by their umpire when he was very clearly run out the luck was being ridden well as in between these near calamities both batsman played some lovely shots. Westy was timing the ball beautifully with some lovely flicks off his legs and Lushy was playing some equally good shots. Westy was also battling through a knee injury that looked less and less injured with every boundary whilst Lushy, also battling a knee injury, ran well between the wickets almost as if the knee injury were not there. What absolute troopers and between them they sucked the life out of the opposition, who grew quieter and quieter. With a superb unbeaten 100 run partnership the West Lush axis took us home finishing on 211/5 from 36.2 overs, Westy finishing 49 not out and Lush 36 not out. A superb and very well judged partnership and cracking knocks from both batsmen. A very very good win.

And there we are. Another season complete. 18 games, 2 games cancelled, 13 wins and 3 losses which is only 5 games lost in the league in 2 years. It wasn’t our year to win the league but coming 3rd is still something to be very proud of. I would like to say thank you to Jerry for umpiring each week and to Simon for preparing some absolute belters and to all of the players for turning up each week (eventually in some cases) and giving it their all. As mentioned earlier there have been some outstanding performances that include:

Lewis Bedwell 665 runs, 2 hundreds (165 and 145), 3 fifties and a 147.41 strike rate
Noel Johnston 534 runs, 5 fifties
Benj Johnston 486 runs, 4 fifties
Joe Waylett 348 runs, 3 fifties
Alex Lush 32 wickets and the league’s top wicket taker for the 2nd time in 3 seasons
Benj Johnston 22 wickets from only 64.3 overs best figures of 6/55
Mark Sandhu 18 wickets best figures of 5/54
Joe Waylett 14 wickets
Miles Henslow 13 wickets at an economy of 3.80

Thank you all for another thoroughly enjoyable season with many memorable moments. See you in 6 months.