Concorde v Kensington and Chelsea

Match Report

BAD START THWARTS VICTORY CHASE DESPITE YOUNG GUNS FIGHTBACK

Our annual game against Kensington & Chelsea started earlier at 12:30, and with the Captain running late, Adam was tasked with completing the toss, and although briefly tempted under pressure by his mates to bat first, he followed orders and elected to bowl.

With Josh taking the gloves again, Adam opened the bowling from the mansion end with the benefit of a heavy ‘tail wind’ assisting him, although at the pavilion end, Brandon was struggling with both the wind and the uneven ground leading up to the square. After 2 tidy overs Brandon asked to be taken off and Ian was bought into the attack but only managed 3 overs into the gale before a flurry of boundaries made the skipper turn to spin.The bowling change bought about instant success with George enticing the opener to chip a catch to short extra cover where Will Stewart took a smart catch, his first for the club, with the score at 31. After another good spell Adam gave way to Brandon who made the next breakthrough bowling the other opener for 34. Both George and Brandon kept the scoring rate down before Jerry decided to switch to a new spin combination of Edgar’s leg spin from one end and Nikhil’s slow left arm from the other. In his first appearance of the season Edgar soon clean bowled the number three, bringing Zain to the wicket. He should have gone cheaply when George failed to grasp a routine slip catch off Edgar, and three successive boundaries followed to compound the misery. However the regret was short lived as Edgar then produced a great ball, bowling him around his legs, Enter Nikhil from the mansion end, with a prolonged spell of great control & length which ‘strangled’ the visitors scoring rate. In no time at all he had clean bowled one, secured two plumb lbw appeals and pouched a skied catch off his own bowling leaving him with the impressive figures of 10 – 5 – 19 – 4.

To put the icing on the cake,the skipper brought himself on in search of his 500th club wicket, and he didn’t have long to wait, as the no.10 played ‘all around’ a straight one and was bowled. A great achievement fully recognised by all of his team mates, soon got better as the visiting skipper fell lbw to the last ball before tea for 40, giving Jerry his 501st, and K&C were all out for 182.

For the record, Jerry Wright began his Concorde career in 1989 and his stats are:

Played: 385 games

Overs Bowled: 2,634

Wickets: 501

Five wicket hauls: 11

Average: 19.60

Strike rate: 31.00

We started our reply with a new opening pair of Nikhil and Edgar facing some quite decent pace from the opening bowlers Nama and Marak. Unfortunately both departed quickly with Nikhil turning a tame ball into the hands of backward square leg & Edgar bowled by one that nipped back through ‘the gate’ in the following over to make us 5-2. Paddy Haddow started well playing a couple of beautiful shots past mid on before he was the next to fall, caught at cover off a mistimed drive to reduce us to 18-3.

We have seen in recent weeks the emerging talent of the young Camberley boys and once again we saw the great temperament & application they possess as Adam & Brandon put together a brilliant partnership over the next hour & a half adding 117 with some clean hitting, and brilliant running between the wickets before Brandon was caught for 42, just failing to secure his second successive half century, but Adam continued to his fifty and beyond before finally falling for a superb 72. Rob who had been padded up throughout the 4th wicket stand, belatedly got to the crease but nicked one behind for just a single, and despite a late flurry between Josh Griffiths and Will Stewart (who, after a mid week net session and some coaching, hit a huge six into the tree) finishing on 12 n.o. & 10 n.o. respectively, we came up short by 15 runs, as again we had to settle for a draw. A frustrating end but another very enjoyable match.