Good game. I'm just amazed to see that St Peters managed to get 4 points from such an abject performance!
Bloody hell, and I thought the Dartford match I watched last Sunday was a mismatch !!!
And the big difference is that this was a League game and not a friendly so the teams should be relatively close in ability.
Have you been following OCs' League results this season?
I must admit I hadn't been but even though all the teams are seemingly struggling, none have lost by anything like 290 runs. Have you lost a few players at the top which has then fed down through the teams?
Well, we've still not recovered from losing our entire second team, but we have lost players from the top too. We have a LOT of (good) third-team-standard players at the club now. Didn't help that at least 4 first-teamers were at Wembley to cheer on their mate (the losing goalkeeper)
The one was once in the Kent Cricket Academy
Yes, Nathan Baxter, who opened the batting with Zak Crawley in the Kent age groups - until Chelsea banned him from playing cricket at age 15 or so. Maybe he’ll return one day as a 35 year old veteran!
I played against a precocious 14 year old bowler on Friday, Evan N’da-Koffi, who is in Kent’s emerging player programme. Evan, playing for his school St Dunstan’s, had us (the Forty Club) in all sorts of trouble at 24-5 in an all day match, including me to an outrageous delivery that pitched well outside off, cut me in half and hit the top of middle, breaking a stump and bail in the process. I remember he also got me out last year, with the slight difference that I had scored 78 by then rather than 4. One to watch for the future.
8 not out yesterday we chased a guff 86 for the loss of 2 wickets to go second in the league 10 and out today where we only managed 110 all out oppo got there easily first time I’ve been out in 9 innings (6 of them were moody indoor cricket 🙄 )
all of a sudden I don’t bowl anymore Ffs cos I’ve batted a bit Made an easy catch look hard , bad eyesight , slightly arthritic hands , fuck getting old
A case of déjà vu for Bickley 1s yesterday - so many good aspects but not quite good enough to get across the line.
Asked to bat by Lordswood, the openers, for the second week in a row, enjoyed a 50 run opening partnership before one of those communication breakdowns that resulted in the two shaking hands in the middle as a result of one of those classic "yes/no/sorry" moments. With the score at 132-1 and even 170-3 (Hooper 83), the platform was set for a score in the region of 230 and then disaster - 5 wickets, including 4 ducks, for 3 runs and Bickley found themselves 173-8. Seb stuck around for a bit longer before he was cleaned up trying to hit Ntini (SA U19, KZN and son of Makhaya) over the top for 29 (33). Bickley managed to crawl over the maximum batting bonus line with a score of 202-9.
It was a similar tale for Lordswood in their innings. At one point they were 146-2 but then lost wickets steadily (including Calum MacLeod for a second ball duck) and the game was in the balance with the score on 172-7. However, an unbeaten 31 off 23 from Taylor got them over the line with a little over 3 overs to spare.
So, no cigar, but competitive for the second week on the trot as reflected by the fact that they have picked up 13/16 bonus points to date. At the Nevill next week to face a somewhat wounded animal in the shape of Tunbridge Wells. Who would have predicted that one of a lot people's favourites to win would have just 6 points after 2 matches?
We did have one slightly controversial thing happen. After about 12 overs and 50 runs on the board, one of the Umpires said that the ball wouldn't go through the gauge i.e. as a result of the residual water from morning rain, it had swollen. Now, unlike international matches, clubs don't have a box of replacement balls available for all overs it has been used for and certainly not one that old. The fact that the ball had gone soft was as a result of the conditions (remember Lordswood elected to bowl) but there was no way they were going to accept a ball that had already been played with for any duration. Equally, Bickley won't going to allow them to have a brand new cherry. So a new ball was picked and the Bickley captain spent 5 minutes smashing it into the ground to replicate the one that had been discarded. But, of course, there's no way that would be in a similar state, bearing the mind the number of times that it had been hit and the prevalent wet conditions on the day.
A case of déjà vu for Bickley 1s yesterday - so many good aspects but not quite good enough to get across the line.
Asked to bat by Lordswood, the openers, for the second week in a row, enjoyed a 50 run opening partnership before one of those communication breakdowns that resulted in the two shaking hands in the middle as a result of one of those classic "yes/no/sorry" moments. With the score at 132-1 and even 170-3 (Hooper 83), the platform was set for a score in the region of 230 and then disaster - 5 wickets, including 4 ducks, for 3 runs and Bickley found themselves 173-8. Seb stuck around for a bit longer before he was cleaned up trying to hit Ntini (SA U19, KZN and son of Makhaya) over the top for 29 (33). Bickley managed to crawl over the maximum batting bonus line with a score of 202-9.
It was a similar tale for Lordswood in their innings. At one point they were 146-2 but then lost wickets steadily (including Calum MacLeod for a second ball duck) and the game was in the balance with the score on 172-7. However, an unbeaten 31 off 23 from Taylor got them over the line with a little over 3 overs to spare.
So, no cigar, but competitive for the second week on the trot as reflected by the fact that they have picked up 13/16 bonus points to date. At the Nevill next week to face a somewhat wounded animal in the shape of Tunbridge Wells. Who would have predicted that one of a lot people's favourites to win would have just 6 points after 2 matches?
We did have one slightly controversial thing happen. After about 12 overs and 50 runs on the board, one of the Umpires said that the ball wouldn't go through the gauge i.e. as a result of the residual water from morning rain, it had swollen. Now, unlike international matches, clubs don't have a box of replacement balls available for all overs it has been used for and certainly not one that old. The fact that the ball had gone soft was as a result of the conditions (remember Lordswood elected to bowl) but there was no way they were going to accept a ball that had already been played with for any duration. Equally, Bickley won't going to allow them to have a brand new cherry. So a new ball was picked and the Bickley captain spent 5 minutes smashing it into the ground to replicate the one that had been discarded. But, of course, there's no way that would be in a similar state, bearing the mind the number of times that it had been hit and the prevalent wet conditions on the day.
Did I read somewhere that there are time limits in the prem this year to bowl the overs ? How’s this going ?
A case of déjà vu for Bickley 1s yesterday - so many good aspects but not quite good enough to get across the line.
Asked to bat by Lordswood, the openers, for the second week in a row, enjoyed a 50 run opening partnership before one of those communication breakdowns that resulted in the two shaking hands in the middle as a result of one of those classic "yes/no/sorry" moments. With the score at 132-1 and even 170-3 (Hooper 83), the platform was set for a score in the region of 230 and then disaster - 5 wickets, including 4 ducks, for 3 runs and Bickley found themselves 173-8. Seb stuck around for a bit longer before he was cleaned up trying to hit Ntini (SA U19, KZN and son of Makhaya) over the top for 29 (33). Bickley managed to crawl over the maximum batting bonus line with a score of 202-9.
It was a similar tale for Lordswood in their innings. At one point they were 146-2 but then lost wickets steadily (including Calum MacLeod for a second ball duck) and the game was in the balance with the score on 172-7. However, an unbeaten 31 off 23 from Taylor got them over the line with a little over 3 overs to spare.
So, no cigar, but competitive for the second week on the trot as reflected by the fact that they have picked up 13/16 bonus points to date. At the Nevill next week to face a somewhat wounded animal in the shape of Tunbridge Wells. Who would have predicted that one of a lot people's favourites to win would have just 6 points after 2 matches?
We did have one slightly controversial thing happen. After about 12 overs and 50 runs on the board, one of the Umpires said that the ball wouldn't go through the gauge i.e. as a result of the residual water from morning rain, it had swollen. Now, unlike international matches, clubs don't have a box of replacement balls available for all overs it has been used for and certainly not one that old. The fact that the ball had gone soft was as a result of the conditions (remember Lordswood elected to bowl) but there was no way they were going to accept a ball that had already been played with for any duration. Equally, Bickley won't going to allow them to have a brand new cherry. So a new ball was picked and the Bickley captain spent 5 minutes smashing it into the ground to replicate the one that had been discarded. But, of course, there's no way that would be in a similar state, bearing the mind the number of times that it had been hit and the prevalent wet conditions on the day.
Did I read somewhere that there are time limits in the prem this year to bowl the overs ? How’s this going ?
I haven't noticed anything different in the two games I've watched presumably because the overs have been bowled in due time. Up to two thirds of Bickley's overs are bowled by spinners and allowances for incidents such as the above one would need to be made in any event.
A case of déjà vu for Bickley 1s yesterday - so many good aspects but not quite good enough to get across the line.
Asked to bat by Lordswood, the openers, for the second week in a row, enjoyed a 50 run opening partnership before one of those communication breakdowns that resulted in the two shaking hands in the middle as a result of one of those classic "yes/no/sorry" moments. With the score at 132-1 and even 170-3 (Hooper 83), the platform was set for a score in the region of 230 and then disaster - 5 wickets, including 4 ducks, for 3 runs and Bickley found themselves 173-8. Seb stuck around for a bit longer before he was cleaned up trying to hit Ntini (SA U19, KZN and son of Makhaya) over the top for 29 (33). Bickley managed to crawl over the maximum batting bonus line with a score of 202-9.
It was a similar tale for Lordswood in their innings. At one point they were 146-2 but then lost wickets steadily (including Calum MacLeod for a second ball duck) and the game was in the balance with the score on 172-7. However, an unbeaten 31 off 23 from Taylor got them over the line with a little over 3 overs to spare.
So, no cigar, but competitive for the second week on the trot as reflected by the fact that they have picked up 13/16 bonus points to date. At the Nevill next week to face a somewhat wounded animal in the shape of Tunbridge Wells. Who would have predicted that one of a lot people's favourites to win would have just 6 points after 2 matches?
We did have one slightly controversial thing happen. After about 12 overs and 50 runs on the board, one of the Umpires said that the ball wouldn't go through the gauge i.e. as a result of the residual water from morning rain, it had swollen. Now, unlike international matches, clubs don't have a box of replacement balls available for all overs it has been used for and certainly not one that old. The fact that the ball had gone soft was as a result of the conditions (remember Lordswood elected to bowl) but there was no way they were going to accept a ball that had already been played with for any duration. Equally, Bickley won't going to allow them to have a brand new cherry. So a new ball was picked and the Bickley captain spent 5 minutes smashing it into the ground to replicate the one that had been discarded. But, of course, there's no way that would be in a similar state, bearing the mind the number of times that it had been hit and the prevalent wet conditions on the day.
Did I read somewhere that there are time limits in the prem this year to bowl the overs ? How’s this going ?
Yes, the usual 3hrs 10 mins, but drinks are now included in that. Any additional time lost is added at the umpires discretion. Whereas previously teams were reported (or not) if they exceeded playing time and lost a point, now once you reach the cut off time then an additional player has to remain inside the circle for the duration. It's instant action and the cut off time as it adjusts is informed to the captain at the end of each over when it changes.
I was shocked last week when umpiring Blackheath to find they were actually inside the time limit at halfway! A big change from last year!
No teams have fallen foul of the new reg so far as far as I know.
I've said about The Nevill on the Kent thread but, suffice to say, the deck isn't great and the outfield is poor - a combination of a number of factors including rain and drainage. A real shame.
So far as the game is concerned, Bickley won the toss and elected to bowl. When TW's dangerous opener, Chris Williams, was dropped early on, the fear was that he would take the game away. In the 8th over and with the score on 46, Seb decided to stand up to the opening bowler to stop Williams coming down the track and first ball the batter knicked off into Seb's gloves. Williams out for 32 off just 22 balls. The other opener, Sahil Shah, acted as the anchor of the innings with 61 off 119 balls but none of his partners managed a meaningful contribution and TW crawled to 176 all out off the penultimate ball of the final over. They managed just 123-9 off the final 40 overs.
BP lost one of their openers early on but the PL's top run maker, Elliott Hooper, helped himself to another 66. Michael Mitchell re-enacted Sahil Shah's role with 48 off 116 balls but it wouldn't be a BP innings without some cause for concern and it took them 'til the final ball of the penultimate over to secure victory by 3 wickets.
That means that TW are the only side to have lost all three of their matches but they are better than that. They have to start proving that though. Lordswood are the only team to have won them all and they do look the ones most equipped to win it. The rest are all capable of beating each other.
Mark Twain once said, "Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."
Well, the cricketing equivalent of that happened on Monday for me. In a game that was eventually abandoned due to rain, I snagged the Beckenham 2nd XI's overseas, Cal Gabriel, with the rankest, slowest full toss I've bowled in about two years. After some admittedly decent stuff from me, he quite rightly tried to hit this ball into the next decade, but got through it too early, top edging and succeeding in dollying it up over the shoulder of one Jas Bassan (Blackheath 1s), turning out for the Waggoners in a rare appearance, who took a good catch at mid-wicket.
My figures of 7-0-19-3 were very flattering considering I spent much of my spell bowling at Rithik Hari and the aforementioned Gabriel, and then the slog machine Las Dissanayake, who I fully expected to cart me everywhere. Turns out there was a lot of respect for me, but Jas (a fellow SLA) got hit for one of the cleanest sixes I've ever seen by Rithik.
Sunday wasn't too bad at New Beckenham either: 3-43 off my 8 in another abandoned game where we needed two wickets to win. My brand of pie-chucking is still doing the job it seems. Roll on Saturday!
All done and dusted in 3 hours we bowled oppo out for 60 and knocked them off in 10 overs and a bit without loss a TFC again for me we’ve rolled teams and knocked em off 3 or 4 times this year but we don’t get max points cos we haven’t batted and scored 200+
All done and dusted in 3 hours we bowled oppo out for 60 and knocked them off in 10 overs and a bit without loss a TFC again for me we’ve rolled teams and knocked em off 3 or 4 times this year but we don’t get max points cos we haven’t batted and scored 200+
It was the meeting of two of the three clubs that Seb and I are current members of namely Bickley Park at home to Bexley (the third one being Sidcup). Always good to see old friends. And what a game we had!
Bexley won the toss and elected to bat. The general feeling was 200 would be par so Bexley's 190-9 wasn't too far short although, having been 146-4 off 40 overs, they might have felt slightly disappointed. In reply, Bickley looked like cruising to victory at 110-1 off 23 overs. However a Bickley innings wouldn't be an entertaining one without their usual collapse (including Seb who was bowled by his mate Jas Singh for half a dozen runs) and at 161-8 and then 173-9, it looked all over for them. But an undefeated last wicket stand of 21 saw Bickley home by 1 wicket with just 3 balls to spare!
The KPL is ridiculously tight this season and unpredictable. For example, undefeated top of the table, Lordswood, hosted winless Tunbridge Wells and of course TW ran out winners by 6 wickets with more than 15 overs to go! So we now have the situation with three lots of three teams having won three, two and one games respectively. Or, put another way, three lots of three times having lost three, two and one games respectively. Total symmetry albeit that bonus points have had their way with Minster top (Bickley's opponents next week) and TW still bottom but a lot closer to safety than they were prior to today.
The KCL Prem is close this year. I've done Minster twice now (won both) and Bexley, Canterbury, Hayes and Blackheath. I have Tunbridge Wells against Sandwich next week.
Absolute agony for our 2s yesterday (I was in the 3s on the adjoining pitch and we won easily). They had the game in the bag with the opposition 23-4 chasing 180. Then the opposition had the game in the bag at about 130-4. Then a bizarre collapse, resulting in 10 and 11 in, both on nought, with 6 needed to win. Neither of them scored a single run off the bat. Over the course of five horrendously tense overs, they did it in wides
In case anyone hasn't heard about this, yes this is the former SL legend playing in the 5th Tier of the Dorset Cricket League. He also returned bowling figures of 7-0-32-1
I've never seen a team win a game having faced one ball before!!! Checkely managed 3 off the bat in 10.1 overs and then bowled a "no ball" that went for 4 followed by the free hit getting the same treatment.
I've never seen a team win a game having faced one ball before!!! Checkely managed 3 off the bat in 10.1 overs and then bowled a "no ball" that went for 4 followed by the free hit getting the same treatment.
That was a cup game! The previous day I see 5 of them were involved in the league as they scored over 200 and won handsomely (which they seem to do every week), so I suspect some sort of drinking may have been involved here, perhaps even from before the outset
Bickley Park travelled to joint top of the table Minster yesterday. And were trounced.
Things might have been so much different had the man with 8,118 League runs, Dan Sticklels, not been dropped twice and then "caught" by Seb off a "no ball" before he had made 20. Stickels made Bickley well and truly suffer with 125 off 89 balls, backed up by 68 from David Masters and 71* from Kai Appelby with Minster accumulating a massive 354-6. Bickley gave it a good go and reached their 100 inside 14 overs but eventually ran out of steam to be 180 all out off 31.5. Seb was top scorer with 49 including 4 fours and 4 sixes.
Minster remain unseparated at the head of the table with St Lawrence & HC and 14 points clear of third place Lordswood. There is then little more than one win between them and bottom placed Sandwich. Bickley host Blackheath next Saturday and everything still very much to play for.
Mark Twain once said, "Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."
Well, the cricketing equivalent of that happened on Monday for me. In a game that was eventually abandoned due to rain, I snagged the Beckenham 2nd XI's overseas, Cal Gabriel, with the rankest, slowest full toss I've bowled in about two years. After some admittedly decent stuff from me, he quite rightly tried to hit this ball into the next decade, but got through it too early, top edging and succeeding in dollying it up over the shoulder of one Jas Bassan (Blackheath 1s), turning out for the Waggoners in a rare appearance, who took a good catch at mid-wicket.
My figures of 7-0-19-3 were very flattering considering I spent much of my spell bowling at Rithik Hari and the aforementioned Gabriel, and then the slog machine Las Dissanayake, who I fully expected to cart me everywhere. Turns out there was a lot of respect for me, but Jas (a fellow SLA) got hit for one of the cleanest sixes I've ever seen by Rithik.
Sunday wasn't too bad at New Beckenham either: 3-43 off my 8 in another abandoned game where we needed two wickets to win. My brand of pie-chucking is still doing the job it seems. Roll on Saturday!
The wickets keep coming for you Paddy with, I see, 5 yesterday. Great to see!
PS Ask your Sunday team mate about his salmon like leaping catch for Bickley yesterday
Bickley Park travelled to joint top of the table Minster yesterday. And were trounced.
Things might have been so much different had the man with 8,118 League runs, Dan Sticklels, not been dropped twice and then "caught" by Seb off a "no ball" before he had made 20. Stickels made Bickley well and truly suffer with 125 off 89 balls, backed up by 68 from David Masters and 71* from Kai Appelby with Minster accumulating a massive 354-6. Bickley gave it a good go and reached their 100 inside 14 overs but eventually ran out of steam to be 180 all out off 31.5. Seb was top scorer with 49 including 4 fours and 4 sixes.
Minster remain unseparated at the head of the table with St Lawrence & HC and 14 points clear of third place Lordswood. There is then little more than one win between them and bottom placed Sandwich. Bickley host Blackheath next Saturday and everything still very much to play for.
I did the Tunbridge Wells vs Sandwich game, and was quite surprised to see that TW were not the top scorers on the day. Ben Dawkins (recently selected to play for England u19) set them off at a rattling pace, and was out in the eleventh over with the score on 101! He scored 66 in 39 balls. After that, things calmed down but with the 200 coming up in the 33rd over, an immense score seemed possible. Thankfully for the visitors, they bowled well in the latter overs with TW finishing on 294-6.
Sandwich never really got going, slipping to 38-3, before a solid 80-run partnership between Rory Smith (85) and Ryan Davies (39) gave a semblance of hope. When Davies was fourth out, the required run rate was over 8, and soon the heart was ripped out of the middle order by the three TW spinners (Huggett 4-27). It then became a different game with ST trying to reach 200 (maximum batting points), but they fell short in that respect too, losing their last wicket in the final over on 192.
We got set 161 against Basildon & pitsea 3rds and we knocked em off comfortably 5 down my eldest son unceremoniously dropped in to the 2s (to play with an old Cnut like me) cos he had a weekend off last week to study for his A levels (he’s pony anyway but has a brain unlike 90% of cricketers) was getting butchered by some of the biggest 6’s I’ve seen hit but he stayed brave and retuned 4-47 off his 8 overs I’m utter shit, got a lame 8 and out batting at 5
We’re top but playing 3rd and 2nd next two weekends , yesterdays victims were 3rd before we played them
Played Farningham last year with the Waggoners - recognise Gam, who guested for the Waggoners once a few years ago. Richard Pleydell my connection there, good fella, but we were a bit strong for them and I don't think they were too happy! Wasn't meant to be a mismatch given I went for millions while bowling, tbf
Top v second and having beaten our other top 4 rivals previous two weeks this was it with 6 changes from last week with a few on holiday and other commitments we lost the toss and batted first for the first time this season . Losing an early wicket made no difference as our 13 year old Essex prodigy Manveer Kathuria came in at 3 and steadied The ship with 27 (72) we reached drinks at the halfway stage 80-1 after 20 overs then the big guns came in and smashed it all around I was in at 6 and got a pathetic 7 off 6 balls but knew in next was an old first teamer who was helping out the twos cos he only likes to play Sundays atm , so I gave my wicket away trying an expansive shot Lloyd came in and smashed 48 off 20 balls getting out on The last ball of The innings we had racked up 250 Terling gave it a go but could only get to 202/8 in 40 overs I took a juggling catch having taken 5 catches last weekend . Not one of them comfortable with my deteriorating eyes and slightly arthritic hands . so basically we’ve won the league after 8 games of an 18 game season the ones also sit top of their league and the 3s are 3rd in spite of a -20 point reduction for not being able to put a team out .
today myself, boffin (just finished his exams) and Peter Kay are playing in a friendly where the oppo will smash us for 300 and we will trickle to 150 we have a 17 year old Essex (she’s in and around their first team) lady playing for us who I haven’t seen play for a couple of years so will be interesting to see how she has progressed and how it fares against what I’m guessing will be a strong Hertford side .
Comments
"Hands orf !" Surrey !
10 and out today where we only managed 110 all out oppo got there easily
first time I’ve been out in 9 innings (6 of them were moody indoor cricket 🙄 )
all of a sudden I don’t bowl anymore Ffs cos I’ve batted a bit
Made an easy catch look hard , bad eyesight , slightly arthritic hands , fuck getting old
https://bexley.play-cricket.com/website/results/6543298
When I tell him about Gritty it's like talking about the moon landing! Felt very old.
My 14yo nephew played for Meopham 1sts on Saturday too....
I was shocked last week when umpiring Blackheath to find they were actually inside the time limit at halfway! A big change from last year!
No teams have fallen foul of the new reg so far as far as I know.
So far as the game is concerned, Bickley won the toss and elected to bowl. When TW's dangerous opener, Chris Williams, was dropped early on, the fear was that he would take the game away. In the 8th over and with the score on 46, Seb decided to stand up to the opening bowler to stop Williams coming down the track and first ball the batter knicked off into Seb's gloves. Williams out for 32 off just 22 balls. The other opener, Sahil Shah, acted as the anchor of the innings with 61 off 119 balls but none of his partners managed a meaningful contribution and TW crawled to 176 all out off the penultimate ball of the final over. They managed just 123-9 off the final 40 overs.
BP lost one of their openers early on but the PL's top run maker, Elliott Hooper, helped himself to another 66. Michael Mitchell re-enacted Sahil Shah's role with 48 off 116 balls but it wouldn't be a BP innings without some cause for concern and it took them 'til the final ball of the penultimate over to secure victory by 3 wickets.
That means that TW are the only side to have lost all three of their matches but they are better than that. They have to start proving that though. Lordswood are the only team to have won them all and they do look the ones most equipped to win it. The rest are all capable of beating each other.
Well, the cricketing equivalent of that happened on Monday for me. In a game that was eventually abandoned due to rain, I snagged the Beckenham 2nd XI's overseas, Cal Gabriel, with the rankest, slowest full toss I've bowled in about two years. After some admittedly decent stuff from me, he quite rightly tried to hit this ball into the next decade, but got through it too early, top edging and succeeding in dollying it up over the shoulder of one Jas Bassan (Blackheath 1s), turning out for the Waggoners in a rare appearance, who took a good catch at mid-wicket.
My figures of 7-0-19-3 were very flattering considering I spent much of my spell bowling at Rithik Hari and the aforementioned Gabriel, and then the slog machine Las Dissanayake, who I fully expected to cart me everywhere. Turns out there was a lot of respect for me, but Jas (a fellow SLA) got hit for one of the cleanest sixes I've ever seen by Rithik.
Sunday wasn't too bad at New Beckenham either: 3-43 off my 8 in another abandoned game where we needed two wickets to win. My brand of pie-chucking is still doing the job it seems. Roll on Saturday!
we bowled oppo out for 60 and knocked them off in 10 overs and a bit without loss
a TFC again for me we’ve rolled teams and knocked em off 3 or 4 times this year but we don’t get max points cos we haven’t batted and scored 200+
Bexley won the toss and elected to bat. The general feeling was 200 would be par so Bexley's 190-9 wasn't too far short although, having been 146-4 off 40 overs, they might have felt slightly disappointed. In reply, Bickley looked like cruising to victory at 110-1 off 23 overs. However a Bickley innings wouldn't be an entertaining one without their usual collapse (including Seb who was bowled by his mate Jas Singh for half a dozen runs) and at 161-8 and then 173-9, it looked all over for them. But an undefeated last wicket stand of 21 saw Bickley home by 1 wicket with just 3 balls to spare!
The KPL is ridiculously tight this season and unpredictable. For example, undefeated top of the table, Lordswood, hosted winless Tunbridge Wells and of course TW ran out winners by 6 wickets with more than 15 overs to go! So we now have the situation with three lots of three teams having won three, two and one games respectively. Or, put another way, three lots of three times having lost three, two and one games respectively. Total symmetry albeit that bonus points have had their way with Minster top (Bickley's opponents next week) and TW still bottom but a lot closer to safety than they were prior to today.
Things might have been so much different had the man with 8,118 League runs, Dan Sticklels, not been dropped twice and then "caught" by Seb off a "no ball" before he had made 20. Stickels made Bickley well and truly suffer with 125 off 89 balls, backed up by 68 from David Masters and 71* from Kai Appelby with Minster accumulating a massive 354-6. Bickley gave it a good go and reached their 100 inside 14 overs but eventually ran out of steam to be 180 all out off 31.5. Seb was top scorer with 49 including 4 fours and 4 sixes.
Minster remain unseparated at the head of the table with St Lawrence & HC and 14 points clear of third place Lordswood. There is then little more than one win between them and bottom placed Sandwich. Bickley host Blackheath next Saturday and everything still very much to play for.
PS Ask your Sunday team mate about his salmon like leaping catch for Bickley yesterday
Sandwich never really got going, slipping to 38-3, before a solid 80-run partnership between Rory Smith (85) and Ryan Davies (39) gave a semblance of hope. When Davies was fourth out, the required run rate was over 8, and soon the heart was ripped out of the middle order by the three TW spinners (Huggett 4-27). It then became a different game with ST trying to reach 200 (maximum batting points), but they fell short in that respect too, losing their last wicket in the final over on 192.
my eldest son unceremoniously dropped in to the 2s (to play with an old Cnut like me) cos he had a weekend off last week to study for his A levels (he’s pony anyway but has a brain unlike 90% of cricketers) was getting butchered by some of the biggest 6’s I’ve seen hit but he stayed brave and retuned 4-47 off his 8 overs
I’m utter shit, got a lame 8 and out batting at 5
https://www.farninghamcc.co.uk/teams/77675/match-centre/1-14596052/scorecard
Sadly don't recognise any of their team now but do know 2 of the oppo !
with 6 changes from last week with a few on holiday and other commitments we lost the toss and batted first for the first time this season .
Losing an early wicket made no difference as our 13 year old Essex prodigy Manveer Kathuria came in at 3 and steadied The ship with 27 (72)
we reached drinks at the halfway stage 80-1 after 20 overs
then the big guns came in and smashed it all around
I was in at 6 and got a pathetic 7 off 6 balls but knew in next was an old first teamer who was helping out the twos cos he only likes to play Sundays atm , so I gave my wicket away trying an expansive shot
Lloyd came in and smashed 48 off 20 balls getting out on The last ball of The innings we had racked up 250
Terling gave it a go but could only get to 202/8 in 40 overs I took a juggling catch having taken 5 catches last weekend . Not one of them comfortable with my deteriorating eyes and slightly arthritic hands .
so basically we’ve won the league after 8 games of an 18 game season
the ones also sit top of their league and the 3s are 3rd in spite of a -20 point reduction for not being able to put a team out .
today myself, boffin (just finished his exams) and Peter Kay are playing in a friendly where the oppo will smash us for 300 and we will trickle to 150
we have a 17 year old Essex (she’s in and around their first team) lady playing for us who I haven’t seen play for a couple of years so will be interesting to see how she has progressed and how it fares against what I’m guessing will be a strong Hertford side .