Deerest team mates.
Last week saw us welcome our early season top of the table contenders Knockholt up to Knole, a clash billed as a battle for the ages. What followed was a reflection of the season to date – a fairly one sided contest that ended before 5pm. Spoiler alert, we were on the right side of the result once again.
The most surprising thing happened at the toss, where I won for the first time this season – a sign of things to come. Despite the depth of our batting line up on the day, I was persuaded to bowl first. With 4 front line bowlers, we were always going to be alright for the majority of the innings, but my worries about the death were calmed when Seb found his rhythm. A half tracker was the undoing of one of their openers, before a beauty of a ball that swung from way outside off stump, through the gate of the left handed number 3, clipping the top of off stump. Hands down, the best ball we’ve seen bowled this year, and one of the most aesthetically pleasing wickets we’ve seen for a long while. Meanwhile, Ross worked away at the other end, as economical as ever, but not getting the rub of the green needed to get wickets on the day. After the opening blast, we turned to spin to continue the charge, myself and Brian working in tandem to keep the squeeze on. My first ball was a low full toss, deserving of nothing more than being dispatched to the boundary, but was in fact hit straight to Darren who snaffled the catch well at midwicket. This was to be the theme for the rest of my spell, as there wasn’t a lot of great balls but enough bad shots and good catching (for a change) that brought me another 3 wickets in fairly quick succession. At the other end, Brian bowled well and deserved his 3 wickets, again benefitting from some safe hands in the team this week. After 4 wickets in my first few overs, I smelled the chance to get my first ever five-for, and I’ll admit I was reluctant to take myself off until I got it. It took longer than anticipated, thanks to some lower order heroics from numbers 9 & 10 that doubled the Knockholt score, mostly off my bowling as well. Having already outstayed my welcome in the eyes of many of our team, my spell was coming to its close when my penultimate delivery scuttled under the bat and brought the innings to a close. All out for 78, boosted late on by a decent 9th wicket partnership, but luckily not helped on too much by a few dropped catches – 3 is a record low for us this year!
A quick turnaround and our star opening pair of Dan and Arthur (aka the Roy and Bairstow of the KCVL Div 5) went after the Knockholt bowling from the off. Arthur in particular lit the fireworks against one of the nippier bowlers we’ve faced in this league, using the pace well to hit some glorious shots around the ground. From the other end, Dan was tucking into the back of a length legside bowling (couldn’t be more in his arc), sending many a ball to the midwicket fence. Arthur was in the mood to finish the match swiftly, and sent the opening bowling down the ground for a huge driven six, a glorious shot deserving of more. The adrenaline had got to his head though, and with only two runs required, tried to pull a ball that was back of a length and ended up skying the ball to midwicket. Cameron came in, in a lose-lose situation, and preceded to lose more profoundly than we could ever imagine, cleaned up by a genuine googly from the legspinner. Unfortunate to say the least, but one of those things! George calmly strode out, picked up his red inker alongside Dan who was still laughing as he came off, although more at the realisation he had batted without a box – attempting to use some old fashioned contraceptive methods with no success. A chase without much drama, something Sennocke sees rarely – many more of those to come we hope.
Awards time – if I’d earned more of my wickets, I’d give MVP to myself hands down. With it being my first 5 for, I still think I deserve a share of the prize, but this one I think I share with Dan for his assured batting to get us over the line.
The TFC award goes to someone who said he was looking forward to facing some good bowling if he got to the middle, promptly had an opportunity to do so and was undone by a genuine googly third ball. Maybe the bowling was a touch too good on this occasion, thanks for coming Cameron.
We move on to week 7 tomorrow, on the road at Locksbottom, who we’ve not played for a good few years now. Let’s hope the weather holds out and we have a dry enough day to get a game in. See you there and in the meantime – swing true Sennocke.