With the summer holidays in full swing the possibility of getting a 4th team out was thought to be an impossibility. But somehow the planets aligned and with 18 players unavailable we still managed to field a young but skilled 4th 11. An opposition was found and we headed to Bilsington. Bilsington is a small village overlooking the Romney marsh. It's an extremely picturesque ground in the shadow of the Cosway Monument.

When we arrived there were mild concerns when it actually started to rain, Salisbury put his jumper on and started to prepare for winter. Fortunately the rain was extremely short lived and more likely running through a sprinkler rather than actual rain. We won the toss and elected to have a bowl.

We opened with Ben Lush and Jez Trott. The inconsistent pitch wasn't quite the quality that Lush (or the keeper) was used to. The first ball bounced fully over the keeper's outstretched arm, the second hit the keeper's ankle. At this point we realised that this was going to be tougher than first thought. Bilsington had an awful lot of experience and knew exactly how to play on their pitch. Lush bowled well with a maiden in his 1st and 3rd over. 6-2-17-0. Trott was landing some extremely tempting balls in some dangerous places, unfortunately their experience showed and they picked their shots well. 6-0-30-0. We then bought on Adam Church and Jacob West. Church was looking good and had their opener looking extremely concerned. The ball was wobbling in all sorts of ways. 5-0-26-0. Westy was in top form. With Lush in the mid on position they worked together to hatch a plan. It worked and after a couple of overs their very strong opener (on 54) sent West's ball directly into Lush's hand. West continued with good accuracy finishing with 6-0-16-1. Simpson and Ludders were up next. Simpson struggled with consistency at the start but then dialed it in and showed what he could do taking out their second opener with another catch from Lush. Simpson continued and took another wicket in his final over. 5-0-32-2. Ludders came on just as their captain joined the batting lineup. The experience of their captain showed scoring a quick 54 and then retiring. Ladders bowled well with a little bit of inconsistency. His new spin action is starting to take shape, unfortunately the captain took full advantage of the balls that were not landing in a dangerous areas, sending them into the adjacent field. Ludders had a breakthrough in his 3rd over with the batsman sending it up to Salisbury for a very calm catch. Blythin was up next. Unfortunately Blythin wasn't really feeling it and the batsman could tell. Jack Cutts and Ted Gagg came on next. Cutts was looking good and landing the ball in some nice areas. Gagg was in great form, making the captain question whether he should have been brought on earlier. He took 2 wickets in his first over. The first a clip to the keeper, the second clean bowling their new batsman. Gagg could have had 4 but one was dropped. He's accurate and consistent which resulted in another wicket. Finishing on 4-0-12-3. Bilsington finished on 204 which was possibly higher than we hoped for.

We enjoyed the delicious teas, which included a very good selection of sandwiches and cakes. The team tucked in and out thoughts moved on to batting.

Salisbury and Blythin opened and started at a steady pace. They possibly overestimated the speed of the opposition. Given that Salisbury and Gagg could easily run one in the time the opposition might have picked the ball up. That said, both Salisbury and Blythin batted well with Blythin taking advantage of the bad balls. Salisbury eventually defended his wicket with a swift kick out of his pad giving the umpire no option but to give LBW. Simpson was supposed to be in at 3. However he was “otherwise engaged”, so Church was in. Church played a few lovely shots but fell to the inswinging left hander, it clipped off the bat to the keeper. Gagg came on and was looking good forming a good partnership with Blythin, this built the score up to 55. Sadly just before drinks Blythin knocked the ball onto his stumps. Tank was up next. Realising that with only 55 on the board and 20 overs down there was a bit of work to do. The first ball came down from space and popped up in Tanky's favourite spot. It was sent to the boundary at quite a pace. His second ball looked tempting too. However the field had been adjusted to cater for an idiot, the ball landed into the outstretched hands of the captain. Ludders came on and was looking good, only suffering where his equipment isn't helping him to achieve his full potential. His ones could easily have been fours. Simpson eventually reappeared from his appointment and fully refreshed showed what he's capable of. Sending the ball into the field for 6s and one bounce 4s on several occasions. They got fed up with searching for the ball and decided to bring on a different bowler to cater for Simpsons attack. Sadly Simpson decided to attack the wrong ball and sent it to one of the fielders. Interestingly this was the bat’s fault according to young Simpson. With Cutts, Lush, West and Trott following in the footsteps of the others we were unable to reach the target, finishing on 111. Unfortunately for us experience won the day.