Meopham 1st XI CC vs Bearsted 1st XI CC Kent County Village League – GW 5

Game week 5 of the Kent County Village League season and Bearsted kicked off the Saturday with their travels to Meopham, looking to keep up some strong early season form.

Conditions were Nivea Factor 30 sun cream time after heavy downpour the night before. Unfortunately, although the sun was out and belting down on Meopham Green, the heavy rain the evening before had left some impact on the strip for the day (also known as the Dualit NewGen 4-Slice Toaster with complementary crust collection cap attachment). Essentially the strip seemed to have a mind of its own as we found out for most of the afternoon with the Hovis 50-50 wholemeal popping up at any point. With that in mind, skipper P. Cottee-Jones did the remarkable job of loosing the toss and having Bearsted being asked to go into bat first.
N. Johnston opened up with P. Cottee-Jones and started off slowly, being warry of the odd one that actually carried through usually and playing for the unusual bounce for the most part. P. Cottee-Jones then started to find some rhythm making use of the short leg side boundary with a flurry of boundaries before getting a one that popped for a simple caught and bowled for 20 to the Meopham opening bowler. That brought Bearsted’ s top run scorer in the league this season to the crease - B. Johnston averaging 67 at the time. Unfortunately, he did what he had not done all season and played a genuine snick to first slip to depart without troubling Crossy’s scorebook. That brought C. Luxton to the crease whom had to be patient alongside the ever assured N. Johnston as they looked to slowly see off the opening bowling as the strip started to dry up looking better to bat on as the innings progressed. C. Luxton, similarly to P. Cottee -Jones, was unfortunate to get one that popped and was caught in close to depart for 9.

That brought the game changer D. Charlton to the crease who steadily built alongside N. Johnston to get Bearsted to 58-3 off 21 overs. It was at that point that Mr ForeArms started his embargo into the Meopham Outfield Embassy hitting a succession of huge sixes around the ground alongside some classy stroke play from N. Johnston at the other end. D. Charlton then brought up a his fifty off 44 balls with a huge six that cleared both the pavilion and the car park. He then departed for a well made 62 runs with Bearsted sitting at 149-4 in 32 overs. With 8 overs to go, Bearsted started to try and see ball hit ball with L. Bedwell coming in and making a swift 11 followed by M. Henslow departing for 1 which then graced Meopham Green with one of the greatest dismissals to be seen…. A. Lush. A. Lush strolled out to the crease with a few nice high elbow shots before proceeding to essentially tap the ball in the air for the simplest catches at short cover ever. This was greeted with applaud, laughter and somewhat amazement from the Bearsted hut as well as N. Johnston at the non-striker’s end. A. Lush slowly walked back to the pavilion angered by the fact that this would damage his somewhat world class average of 12 for the season. N. Johnston then brought up a truly world played fifty which had anchored the Bearsted innings and ensured that a collapse in the middle order did not occur. Some late striking allowed Bearsted to reach a total of 190-8 off 40 overs.

S. Benjamin then proceeded to open the bowling down the hill with C. Luxton coming up Mt Kilimanjaro from the opposing end. Meopham started well reaching 51-0 off 10 overs and looking in good form. However it was B. Johnston who had replaced C. Luxton from Kilimanjaro end that made the first breakthrough a catch at long off by a nervous looking A. Lush, starting a positive spell of bowling from both ends. S. Benjamin followed this up in the next over with 2 wickets in the over, a clean bowled and LBW the very next ball which left him on a hattrick ball, narrowly missing the off stump. This left Meopham at 52-3 and Bearsted looking to seize the opportunity in the middle order.
S. Benjamin then bowled through for cracking figures of 9 overs 3-30 runs and B. Johnston providing great support from the other end with figures of 9 overs 3-37. It was at this point that A. Lush was introduced into the attack from the top end and first ball clean bowled the Meopham opener to leave Bearsted in a strong position with Meopham 7 wickets down. Lush then bowled tight from his end, getting another wicket in his 4th over to leave him with figures of 2-17 off 4 overs, which of course contained the usual NO BALL. W. Terry was then introduced from Mt Kilimanjaro end for an extremely interesting 1 over spell which contained a clean bowled, stumping off a wide and a flurry of boundaries from the expansive hitting Meopham lower order to leave with figures 2-14 and Meopham all out for 111 to hand Bearsted a 79 run victory and make it 4 on the bounce in the league.

Onto the next week which sees Bearsted welcome Locksbottom CC to The Green, looking to continue the fine early season form.

Batting: Bowling
N. Johnston 63* S. Benjamin 3-30
D Charlton 62 B. Johnston 3-37
P-Cottee Jones 20 A. Lush 2-17
L. Bedwell 11 W. Terry 2-14