2nd XI vs Horsmonden 3rd XI

The 2's made the long trip Kilndown & Lamberhurst CC, home ground to Horsmonden 3rd XI, with 5 enforced changes from last week.

On a damp and greenish looking wicket we were hoping to call correctly and have a bowl. Sadly the coin came down the wrong side and we were unsurprisingly asked to bat first.

A succession of batsmen came and went all of whom struggled to time the ball on a surface which lacked pace but had plenty of inconsistent bounce. Only Graham Freedman and Matt Bowles in the top 5 managed to get to double figures but it was John Rose with a patient and dogged 26 in the middle order that held the innings together. Our total was boosted by Ryan Maddox and his customary lusty blows at the end and we went to tea at 131 for 9.

Despite our low total we still felt that it was a competitive score given the nature of the wicket and so this proved to be correct. After a slow but wicketless start the home side had advanced to 32 until John Rose struck as the opener finally lost patience and lofted an attempted drive high to Alan Freedman at gully who took a good catch. This created the opening we needed, Dave Ward was finally rewarded with his first wicket of the season with another lofted drive straight to John Rose at mid off. John finished his 9 overs with 1 for 13 and Dave 1 for 27 from his 9.Then enter the young guns, Brad Deamer and Ryan Maddox, both bowled great spells with Ryan finishing with 3 for 15 off his 9 overs and Brad 4 for 36 from his 9 overs. With these two in tandem the opposition were reduced to 69 for 9 and victory was within our grasp, however two dropped catches and some frantic running between the wickets brought the home side closer to the required total but they finished just short to hand us the spoils. A great performance in the field not only from a wicket taking perspective but our ground fielding was excellent restricting the home side to just 8 boundaries in their 40 overs, if we had taken our catches we could have been in the pub an hour earlier!

Big game next week against the unbeaten leaders, Betsham, at home.