Concorde v Kensington and Chelsea

Match Report

As ever, putting a team together for this fixture proved difficult and by Friday, we had 10. With heavy heart, i concluded that we would have to go into this fixture a man short and whilst long on bowling, a little light on reliable batting. But then a text from Alex Cudworth offering his services put an altogether different slant on things and optimism, whilst still cautious was most certainly raised.

On tossing the coin, i pointed out to my counterpart that we were rather light on batting and that he might want to factor this into his decision should he win the toss but he cheerily said that he would wish to bat come what may and so when the coin came down in my favour, I had no hesitation in asking him to do just that.

Josh opened up with an excellent spell getting an early edge which was taken with ease by Mick Reeve who was still, in the second over of the day, moving easily behind the stumps. Bowling a tight off stump line and to a good length, Josh was rewarded with two more quick wickets and the Kensington & Chelsea innings lay in some disarray. Dave was not his usual accurate self from the other end and was despatched for a few runs from his six overs and when replaced but when replaced by Adam, the noose was tightened still further. An attempted drive was toe ended to Alex at Mid off who made the high swirling catch look easy and Adam soon hit the timbers a couple of times to claim 3-22 from his 6 overs.

Ian bowled tidily and was unlucky not to claim a couple of wickets from catches that fell just short but looked a little rusty after his long lay off and did not have his usual masterly control of length and line. To be fair, the number 6 batsman looked a class above his companions and was playing well and looked like rescuing the innings from the depths of 60 -6, striking anything off line with power to the boundary. It was no surprise to be told that he was the Saturday 1st XI league Captain.

Alex replaced Adam and bowled with pace and accuracy to tie the batsmen down a little. Eventually, a big shot was played out to cow corner were Dave Nash was lurking. A swift calculation of the arc and velocity of the ball combined with wind speed and density of the air raced through his computer like mind and correctly placed him right under the ball where he looked calmness and competence personified. Sadly, his brain had not communicated efficiently with his hands and the ball went in – and straight out again!

No matter, a couple of balls later, the ball was lofted to mid off where Adam returned the politest of compliments to Alex by taking the catch. The classy batsman however, was still there and now on 48 but at this point he made a fatal error. Guiding the ball through gully he ran a quick single and turning for the second, he saw the ball being pursued by the geriatric slip fielder and thought another run was a no brainer. Imagine his horror therefore when aforementioned geriatric slip fielder morphed momentarily into Jonnty Rhodes and pinged the ball into slightly more geriatric keeper who had the bails off in a trice leaving him yards short of his ground.

From there it was all downhill for K & C and their innings closed half an hour before the appointed tea interval on 130. Josh bowled 7 overs and took 3 – 7, Adam 6 overs, 3 – 22, Alex 5 overs 2 – 16, Dave 6 overs 0 – 30, Ian 7 overs 0 – 32 and George on a wicket that was not conducive to spin, bowled 3 overs 1 – 15.

130 to win does not sound much but on a slow wicket and a slow outfield it looked plenty. Jerry Wright decided to take responsibility and opened the innings with Adam Carter and took the attitude that there was plenty of time in the match so it was best to use it. Accordingly, progress was very slow and against some accurate and testing pace bowling from one end and some canny slow bowling from the other it took nearly 20 overs for the score to reach 27 before Adam was out getting a leading edge to mid on for 12.

He was replaced by Simon Griffiths who did not stay long in making 2 which brought Alex to the crease. He is not a man to waste time and although more cautious than is usual, he began to strike the ball nicely and together, he and Jerry began to take control without ever looking completely on top so that when the last 20 overs began, Concorde needed just under 4 runs an over.

All went smoothly with Alex easing the pressure with 16 off one over until the target had reached 45 when Alex tried to smack a full toss over square leg, missed it and was bowled for a fine 36. Jerry was now joined by Josh who with the confidence of youth was hitting anything loose and with Jerry too into his stride these two took Concorde home with Jerry reaching 50 off the last ball of the game having batted, some might say laboriously, through all 44 overs of the innings. Josh finished with an excellent 19 to add to his equally good and match winning innings of 22no a couple of weeks ago.

An excellent and unexpected win against good opposition means that we are finishing the season on a high. Hopefully we can continue this for another three weeks.