Category: Cricket

Falconhurst 150-9 in 35 overs (McCallister 30, Owen Fowler 8-1-25-2, Ben Harrison 5-2-9-2, Nick Fowler 4-0-25-2) lost to Speldhurst friendly XI 153-7 in 32.2 overs (Tristan Price 30, Ollie Crees 50, McCallister 9-1-40-3, J Tipper 6-1-27-2) by 3 wickets.

Now the league season is over, it is only right that the weather is now perfect for cricket – and Saturday was no exception as we hosted Falconhurst.

We bowled first, spearheaded by the excellent Owen Fowler (2-25 from 8 overs) and Will Plunkett (1-26 from 6). Whilst only one wicket fell in their opening spells, both bowled admirably and proved very difficult to get away.

Jo Price then bowled fast and tidily; Nick Fowler, who dropped a catch off his son earlier, had one caught by his son; and we were treated to dual leg spin from Tom Hinton and Ollie Crees (or O. Priest, as their scorebook noted) – Hinton’s economy of 4.14 runs/over much better than Crees’ 12.5! In the end, they reached 149.

In response, Hinton fluently got himself to 28 with no alarm before falling, followed quickly by Arthur Plunkett – beaten by a good one.

The third-wicket partnership of 62 between O Priest (50) and T Price (30) made victory seem inevitable, but losing two Prices in three balls made Ollie’s belligerent fifty even more valuable.

In the end, we were treated to some good biffing from Mike James (17) and a sumptuous cover drive from
Will Plunkett to get us over the line. A win with 2.3 overs and 3 wickets remaining. Perfect.

I finally got some runs with the bat, taken long enough.

I have to say the skipper Ben Harrison took an amazing catch at mid-on, he is properly the 2nd best fielder that I have played with and the other player went on to play international cricket.

This was my last game of the season and considering most of the matches are league games, I enjoyed my first season with Speldhurst. Good atmosphere in the club.

Speldhurst II 109 in 39.1 overs (Ben Harrison 39, Josh Patterson 6-0-27-2, 8.2-1-10-4) lost to Bidborough III 110-3 in 17.1 overs (H Whitehouse 32, Clint Hillhouse 33, James Roche 5-0-27-2) by 7 wickets.

The final-week showdown with Bidborough. Unfortunately, we had only our blushes to save having been mathematically relegated the previous weekend.

Furthermore, Bidborough still had a very slim chance of survival so whilst availability dictated we had just the 10 players, Bidborough had (understandably) done some shuffling around of their player pool to field a very strong 11.

Batting first seemed like a good option and Tristan Price and James Roche repelled a very good opening pair. Unfortunately a lack of communication stranded both in the middle of the pitch trying to steal a run – James was the unfortunate soul to trudge (very slowly) back to the changing room.

The going was slow throughout. Resistance came in the form of Skipper Harrison (39) and Adam Nash (19), but we were eventually bowled out for 109.

With wickets needed quickly, unconventional field setting was the sensible (and most entertaining) option. Having got to 30 very quickly, exemplary bowling and fielding grabbed us 3 wickets for 3 runs.

The cat was then firmly amongst the Bidborough pigeons. But after weathering a challenging 10 overs, the batsman cut loose and got to 109 relatively quickly.

Top opening spells from Nash and Roche were the highlights, and did what every 2nd XI player has done all season: made their Skipper proud.

I managed to make 2 before being bowled.

I’m not sure how we ended up being relegated with the players we have, but we did. Hopefully were bounce back next year.

Sissinghurst CC II 162-9 in 40 overs (Colin Jenkins 34, Andrew Knowler 64, Harry Dunmall 9-0-33-2, James Roche 9-2-15-4) beat Speldhurst CC II 154 in 39.5 overs (Harry Dunmall 39, Ben Harrison 56, Colin Jenkins 9-2-19-2, Gary Nutbourne 9-1-22-3, Michael Winner 7.5-0-43-3, Kieran Martin 6-1-23-2) by 8 runs.

Our opposition took the wise decision to bat first on a flat looking track which had yielded runs all year.

Opening bowlers Skipper and Harry Dunmall (2-33) struggled to hold the door as they were greeted by a pre-disgruntled opening batsman, who clearly had frustration to expel. But at 50-0 from seven overs, we took 3-6 in the next five. Game on.

Very tidy middle overs from Mark Flemington and Paul Eames, two fantastic catches from Iqbal Sidhu, and an astonishing spell of death bowling from James Roche (4-15 from 9 overs) and Dunmall were the highlights. In the end, 162-9 understated what was our best bowling and fielding performance of the year.

Our batting, however, suffered from the same affliction as always. The top order struggled to score against tidy opening bowling, and when the first change offered little rest-bite we found ourselves 63-6 with just 15 overs left.

A 50 partnership from Harrison (56) and Dunmall (39) took it deep, but we lost Dunmall with 43 still to win from 36 balls.

New man Mark Thorpe was caught valiantly swinging the bat. Mr Eames ran like a maniac for several overs (including a two to short mid-wicket!) But 20 from the final over was too many, and we fell eight runs short.

It was probably my best day in the field and I was 0 not out with the brilliant innings from the skipper Ben.