Cudham Wyse match report

Deerest team mates.

Well well well, where to start. Saturday was an eventful visit to the hills of Cudham wasn’t it. A customary note on the weather to kick us off – it looked sure to be a thunderstorm filled day, and despite a short period of very fine spittage just after we started, the rain stayed away and there was even time for some blue sky and sun in patches later on. Muggy and warm, it wasn’t the most comfortable day to play cricket, but boy did we play some cricket. Definitely made up for the lost game at Outwood, that’s for sure. So strap in, here we go.

The toss didn’t go my way, bringing to an end my run of good form in that respect. The Cudham skipper chose to put us into bat – a decision seemingly based partly on our performance with the bat against them at home (40 all out, 7 ducks, 4 goldens), but also perhaps having seem our recent form with the ball. Little did he know we had only 3 regular bowlers and a stuffed batting line up – a good toss to lose in my eyes.

Out strode our now established opening pair, Dan and Arthur, with what looked like a decent paced track amidst a fast outfield. The ball did indeed come on very nicely and was just as nicely dispatched to the boundary by the two lads, who continue their good form this season. Cudham has a big boundary in some directions, so there was quite a bit of running to do out there, something that Dan will attest to being not ideal for the stuffy conditions. It was that man Dan that took the lead this time round, scoring the faster of the two (a big change in that sense) – his usual square of the wicket dominance piling the pressure on the opposition. Arthur was fluent but more measure than usual, picking off the bad balls and running Dan into the ground again (memories of Linton Park away). The two both past fifty and had put on a first wicket partnership of 167 before Dan was undone by the wily bowling of the veteran off spinner, ending up on 90 from 78 balls with 15 fours. Cameron came to the crease to join Arthur, who continued his push but was undone shortly after for 73 from 88 his 9 fours. George joined Cam at the crease, and with two new batsmen to the middle, Cudham sniffed blood. Unfortunately for them, it was their own as Cameron tore through their bowling line up with an array of ferocious attacking shots, flaying the ball to all parts of the ground to race to a brutally made 50 from just 38 balls. George was also in the mood, and despite his relatively short stay at the crease, found runs easy to come by and I have no doubt that he would have gone onto 50 had he been fortunate to have a few more overs. Only two others padded up in the middle in the innings – Rob went in at 5 and tried to push on from the off, unfortunately running himself out for 1, and I joined George for a brief knockabout, frustrating and pleasing in equal measure as usual to scrape 16 from 13 balls at the close. We ended with an impressive 275/4 from our 40 overs.

Usually in this league, and especially this season, that total would be far beyond a chase. However, we had seen first-hand how hard it was to bowl and stop runs on that pitch, and we knew that Cudham had a line-up packed with attacking players, who were more than capable of putting on a show. And they started well, using the pace of Seb’s bowling to guide to the ball to the boundary. He struck back in fine fashion with a full toss/yorker delivery that bamboozled us all, the batsman especially, and the ball ricocheted back from the off stump to the non-strikers end, such was the speed of the delivery. Phil S then struck and removed their other opening batsman, who had looked good in the short innings they played at Knole, and had started well again on the day, only to pop up a leading edge to Darren at cover. And then we bore witness to one of the greatest ever catches seen at a Sennocke match. Of his twin brother’s bowling no less. A back of a length ball from Seb, an uppish square drive from the batsman and a diving catch from George that brought back memories of Ben Stokes at gully in the Ashes, taking a catch from the edge of Adam Voges off Stuart Broad’s bowling. He had no right taking the catch, the ball was pretty much past him, but out came the hand and in went the ball. It was the village cricket reincarnation of this very moment – https://youtu.be/_91BtaYDwwc?t=113. This really got the team going as you can imagine, and Phil proceeded to claim another scalp, bringing Cudham to 52-4. This is where Darren and I came on to bowl, and despite our best efforts, could not keep the run rate down. The ball was still coming onto the bat nicely and there was little to no swing or spin, so we were picked off fairly easily for a while (more so me than Darren – his problem came when trying to bowl one of his myriad of change up deliveries). The opposition skipper and their number 6 both made it to 50, but shortly afterwards both fell to Darren’s bowling and were caught well in the deep by Seb and Dan respectively. I chipped in with a couple of wickets despite my sometimes wayward bowling – getting another lbw this season and also sending their left hander back first ball (my love for bowling to lefties only deepens). Darren took his third wicket at the end of his spell, with the batsman looping up a simple catch to none other than the statuesque figure of Phil Clayton at short midwicket – is it his first catch of the year? No one knows because all we remember is him getting hit in the face trying to take a catch, which will be an abiding memory of this season’s fielding standard. At the end of our spells and with the game seemingly wrapped up at 36 overs with Cudham still needing around 80, we turned to two of our stars with the bat to turn their hand to bowling. Cameron went first, bowling medium pace of a decent run up and with a hoppy action, he ran to the stumps and then back to his mark, as if he was an over excited 16 year old on county debut. At the other end, Arthur (a more than handy leg spinner in days gone by) threw down some seam up, leg spin and off spin deliveries, before bringing about the end of the innings a couple of balls short of 40 overs, cleaning up the number 11 batsman after he’d had his own fun. Cudham were 229 all out and we had officially moved to the top of the league – our first proper cricket match of the year that was well contested throughout, meaning it was a particularly sweet victory after a long day full of effort from all 11 of the team.

Awards time – our top four as a whole really did the damage on the day. Arthur getting us off to a good start, Cam and George making sure we piled the runs on right to the end. But Dan was the biggest contributor on the day with the bat, and was right to be annoyed with himself for falling 10 short of a first ton of the year. However, your consolation is picking up another MVP award, well done sir.

Cricket can be a cruel mistress, and so she proved to be again for our very own Robert Ede. Caught short of his ground and not catching chances in the field is not a friendly mix, and so we must bestow the TFC award on your shoulders.

Also a big shout out to Big Phil – it was his last available weekend of the season and played despite a very dodgy groin (ooooh eerrrr) as we needed an 11th man. Valiant and brave in the field, he hid his impairment from the opposition until the last over of the chase, which is coincidentally when they found out about his injury as well. You will be missed for the rest of the year Phil.

Onto Saturday then, at home to St Lawrence. I expect much more of a game than we had last time – doubt we will be in the pub by 4.15pm that’s for sure. See you there and in the meantime – swing true Sennocke.