Concorde v Kensington and Chelsea

Match Report

TOPSY TURVY CONTEST ENDS IN TIGHT DRAW

Our annual clash with Kensington & Chelsea followed a very familiar pattern. The visitors batting first, got off to an absolute ‘flyer’ paying no respect to the pace, line or length of any of our bowlers, and built a strong platform but then got reined back in by some tight home bowling and a mid innings collapse saw them finally post 213 at tea. In reply our innings went along similar lines and after a tumble of wickets in the middle order, we were happy to hold out for a draw, in the end falling 18 runs short of our target on 195-9.

With Jerry away, Jordy led the side and sensibly inserted the visitors on winning the toss. Although we had 7 specialist batters, we only had very limited bowling options so
Jordy asked Nikhil, our stand out bowler this season, to take the new ball along with Adam. The Kensington openers led by their diminutive skipper Naz, adopted their normal 20:20 approach and from the first over anything pitched up was ruthlessly blasted down the ground , whilst anything with width was flayed through the covers. Young Adam in particular suffered at the beginning, not helped by several outside edges to wild slashes edged over or through the slips to the boundary in a blink of an eye. Matt Harris of Walton made his debut for us and on replacing Adam at the pavilion end with his off spin he broke the deadlock when the opening bat departed for a rapid 45 as he sliced a drive which skied to cover where Adam took the catch. However runs continued to flow and at one point K&C reached 140-1. However our fortunes changed as Naz was caught at cover for 75 by their Australian sub fielder (we only had 10 men and Pat Wells ‘overslept’ so they lent us a fielder) and a clatter of wickets turned things round as Nikhil began to make in-roads into the visitors ranks ,supported by the writer and at tea we were happy to have bowled them out for 203, off just 37 overs. Nikhil bagged another 5 wkt haul with 5-62, the writer 3-32 and their were 2 catches behind the sticks for a somewhat ‘jaded’ Nick Freeman (following his 50th Birthday bash the night before) and good running catches by Nigel, Paddy and Nikhil diving forward to pick up a difficult caught & bowled.

Jordy opened our reply with Paddy and they looked in no trouble building the score to around 30 until Paddy was surprisingly bowled for 16 by one that kept a little low as he went for a cover drive when a forward defensive was probably required. Richard Ingham joined Jordy and looked very comfortable with good technique against the visitors pace attack, but just after the writer (who was umpiring at the time) said ‘take your time’, he inexplicably aimed an expansive off drive at a good length ball and the resulting towering skier off a top edge was safely pouched at mid off by our Australian sub from earlier! Richard trudged off for 2, and was soon followed by young Adam for 8 when a firm drive was ‘snaffled’ off his toes by short extra cover slightly to his teammates surprise! Jordy was batting superbly but he lost another partner when debutant Matt Harris was unluckily run out at the non- strikers end for 9, when the bowler deflected Jordy’s straight drive onto the stumps! Worse was to follow as Nikhil was aghast to be adjudged lbw by a ball that he felt pitched well outside the leg stump, departing for just a single. Although still slightly jaded , our ‘birthday boy’ wicket keeper came in under the tag the best no.7 we’ve ever had, and together with Jordy the score began to mount. Just as we were getting quite close, Jordy who had looked ‘nailed on’ for his century, suddenly ‘holed out’ at long off aiming for another flat six ,departing for an excellent 85. Nick then had Pat Wells, Nigel and myself as supporting cast and batted very sensibly combining watchful defence with a number of well timed blows and quick singles. Pat was caught at mid on for a single, Nigel run out for 2 trying to give Nick back the strike, but undaunted Nick racked up an excellent 50 (to go with the one he’d got on Saturday night) before the writer saw out the final over.

All in all , an enjoyable game which could have gone either way.

We ultimately fell 18 runs short but this was a game of fine margins, and if Matt hadn’t been tragically run out, or if just one of our middle order had scored 25 or so, we could easily have won it!