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Bowden Batters Bickley
Saturday 1st XI - Losing Draw at home to Sevenoaks Vine Sevenoaks Vine 308 - 5 (53 overs)
BPCC 229 - 9 (57 overs) (D. Pearce 54, G. Francis 59) Bickley were on the receiving end of a ferocious attack from the Vine’s opening Bat, John Bowden on Saturday. After Horner had made an early breakthrough ‘JB’ proceeded to smash 176 off only 135 balls. The On the best wicket at the Park for a number of years and with a shoer boundary and the hottest day of the year, it was always going to be difficult but the Bickley bowlers stuck to their task and things could have been different if a few shouts had gone our way. Sharing a stand of 249 with the Vine’s young number 3, Bowden was the dominant partner but the breakthrough didn’t come. Once Bowden holed out on the square leg boundary, Pearce then picked up a second the following ball as the number 4 suffered from severe pad rash and obviously wanted to get them off as soon as possible. The declaration soon came 2 overs early at 308 for 5. Pearce and Alex Coulson looked to get the Bickley innings off to the flyer that was needed and the seamers were soon being dispatched to all parts as the 50 came up in the 8th over. The partnership had reached 93 off 19 overs when Coulson went for 32 to be followed in the following over by Pearce for 54. It was that man Bowden who then turned the screw – eventually picking up 4-43 (no doubting the man of the match! – as the run rate slowed and wickets started to fall. Soon Bickley were in trouble at 140 for 7 in the 30th over and starring a large defeat in the face. Cullum and Francis however had different ideas as they set about saving face with solid defence whilst punishing the bad ball. They added 52 for the 8th wicket until Cullum went for 17. Francis reached his 50 at a run a ball in another defiant stand of 30 with Clinton until he fell just short of the 4th batting point. Horner and Clinton then used all their experience to see out the final overs and deny the Vine 20 points. A great effort by the tail saw 8,9,10 and 11 face 160 balls between them to prove that Saggers' hat trick 2 weeks previous was a mere blip in their game saving record. View Scorecard Saturday 2nd XI - Winning Draw away at Hartley BPCC 213 all out (47.5 overs) (S. Melaniphy 104)
Hartley CC 189 - 8 (52 overs) View Scorecard Saturday 3rd XI - Won by 3 wickets away at Roan & Lambethans Roan & Lambethans 138 - 8 (46 overs) (C. Hewitt 5 - 27)
BPCC 139 - 7 (36.4 overs) (P. Patel 40) Skipper and VC ‘Dream team’ Combine to make it 6 in a row!! As per normal on a Saturday morning these days at the mighty BPCC (maybe not so mighty some might say), the team selected during the week was not the one that the skipper ended up leading out onto the ‘field of nightmares’. LADS for goodness sake we are making it harder for ourselves as a club to function unless everyone chips in and makes the effort!! Anyway the team that did travel to the darkest and deepest Kidbrooke was packed with a great combination of youth and experience, so the skipper looked fairly pleased (or maybe for other reasons our scorer might be aware of!!). After being sent on a run around the awful ground in the blazing sun by our crazy skipper, he lost the toss and asked us to run around some more! As the 2nd placed Roan openers strode out to bat, they looked rather confident and as if they hadn’t seen the form book for the last few weeks and their own pitch!! Needless to say they were served up with the best opening spell I’ve seen in the 3’s this year as A. Entecott (friend of Matt Rusell – late recruit on the day – good lad) and M. Aimey (ex opening partner and friend of Darren Ganga – West Indian Captain!!) bowled great lines to restrict the oppo to 40 runs from 20 overs (loads of playing and missing, plus a bad drop and umpiring decision (from our own Peter Garff) ;-)). However with 10 wickets in hand and the batsman getting set the skipper turned to last week’s hero Neville to get us an important break through, which he did by removing their dangerous opener. At this point the skipper decided to give himself a game (as usual – my ball = my game) and brought himself on at the other end to create some pressure. He bowled brilliantly as he ripped threw the Roan batting line-up like a hot knife through some Lurpak! Marcos came back to get a well deserved wicket and a run out by C. Lycett saw the Roan innings in tatters (good work from Voisey behind the stumps too in difficult conditions). A great finish as Roan slumped to 138 – 8 off their 46 overs – GREAT WORK LADS (skippers target of 150 was one that obviously didn’t believe in his team enough)!! During the break (nice cakes by the way!) the skipper asked the older pro’s to take the lead with the bat on a difficult deck and lead us home. With more batting then you could shake a stick at, the skipper had the luxury of sending out S. Keyes and Ashley to get us off to a flyer. Unfortunately Ashley was bowled so enter the vice skipper P. Patel (who needed to register a score) to inject some life into proceedings! HAMMER TIME was upon us once more as Patel and Keyes rolled back the years to smash Old Roan around the ground and take the score to 79 off 12 overs before Keyes departed (Peter wake up!!). P-man departed with himself and Marcos going well – but at 91-3 we were sailing! Enter the normal Bickley collapse and some good bowling from the oppo and we were 100-6! Enter the MVP (aka the skipper C. Hewitt) to see us home with 10 overs to spare as we finished on 139-7. Great win lads on a difficult track and against one of the leagues best – Roan Baked!! PS – Lets keep more wickets in hand next time (senior pro’s especially) – so a). The scorer doesn’t start throwing a wobbly and b) we give the opposition above us less points! View Scorecard Saturday 4th XI - Won by 45 runs at Home to Dartford BPCC 244 - 3 (46 overs) (J. Houldey 64, J. Forde 44, A. Brrokes, 76*M. Dring 38)
Dartford CC 199 - 6 (46 overs) Rematch vs Dartford You may remember reading some weeks ago about the first round match against Dartford. A 2 wicket loss during which we conceded 51 extras, 31 of which were byes – indifferent bounce and no wicketkeeper. We were therefore keen to show them what we could do out our place, on a decent track ideally with someone who had put in the big gloves once or twice before. We took the field with one of our strongest sides of the year. The toss won, we batted. And when I say we batted, I’m not kidding around.121 for the first wicket put on by Jim, Big Jim, big bad Jim and the tubby shackle dragger. Big Jim, big bad Jim had sent one into orbit which mid on dropped, when he had just a solitary single to his name. Expensive mistake that. After big bad Jim departed for 64, Shackles shot his load almost immediately, lack of fitness and generally tubbiness catching up with him. No matter Brookesy and Dringy put on 93 for the third wicket, Dringy trying one or two outrageous reverse sweeps which resulted in severe disciplinary action, he is dumped to the 3s for a week, where he will hopefully learn some manners . Brookesy meanwhile, started carefully, and then smashed everything in sight. The last ten overs went for 92 runs, and we ended up 244 for 3, Brookesy 76 not out, five 6s and seven 4s. Even at Beckenham, we would need to concede one or two byes for the opposition to get close to that score. With that sort of a score on the board, tea was rather good. The cake tray was particularly impressive. Portion sizes even the TSD was impressed with, excellent variety, quality outstanding as always. No pate filling in any of the rolls however, so a little short of the mythical 10 out of 10. Fuelled by the excellent lunch Dartford started the run chase rather well indeed and had 80 on the board before they lost their first wicket. The Bickley fielding effort was not exactly hitting the heights of excellence, weighed down as we were by the excellent cake selection. Jim, big Jim, big bad Jim got himself written out of the Fossill’s will, dropping a fairly straightforward chance at point – that’ll be a week for you in the 3s also my lad! – before the Dartford left hander tweaked a hamstring attempting a second and retired hurt. Brookesy got the Dartford number 3 lbw (their umpire giving the decision so it must have been straight). This brought the Dartford Captain and league leading runscorer to the crease. Get him and the game would be as good as ours. The Fossill duly obliged, luring him down the wicket to an “outfloater”. Dringy whipped off the bails, and that was pretty much that. Dartford never got to grips with the required rate after that, and we ended up winning by 45 runs. The 18 points in the bank take us top of the league. However the 3 sides immediately below us are all less than ten points adrift with a game in hand. Two we have already played twice, so our fate is out of our hands. Three wins from the remaining three games ought to see us go close. Player availability and in particular wicketkeeper availability over the coming weeks will more than likely play a large part in proceedings. My thanks to the team, who outbatted, outbowled and outfielded the strongest side we have faced this year, and thanks also to Dave Hooper who stepped into the vacant umpires slot, allowing the toss to take place. No umpire and forfeited toss would have had us in for a long hot afternoon in the field and possibly a very different result. View Scorecard Sunday 1st XI - Won by 7 wickets away at Old Elthamians Granby Old Elthamians Granby CC 139 all out (38.5 overs)
BPCC 140 - 3 (15.4 overs) (D. Pearce 52, D. Voicey 44) View Scorecard Sunday 2nd XI - Lost by 5 wickets at home to Carlton Sports BPCC 190 - 6 (J. Ramsey 66*, M. Horner 37)
Carlton Sports 193 - 5 A Few Good Men.... Sunday morning was not a good morning for snaffling players and just when I thought I had 11'ish', I was back down to 10'ish' with the call-up of Dave Nev. Then our 'ish' decided not to show so we had 9 - thanks only to Jack accepting an early morning call. Winning the toss was a step in the right direction and saved me a lynching. Then the team promoted me back to my old opening spot to 'dig in'. Opener Farley fell early and was followed by unlucky Christian Naylor who was just adjusting to senior sunday cricket when he chipped a C&B chance. I was none too worried as the aces were all still awaiting their chance in the middle order. After my demise to a driveable delivery that kept low our guest Horner (Mick no relation to our own Jack scored a welcome 36) and with Duncan Wheeler put on a 45 run stand to pick up the pace a bit. DW fell to a slow considered LBW decision from Daved 'Bucknor' Farley but a swift knock from R. Horner laid the foundations for our guest star J. Ramsey to hit a quick fire 66* after an early drop and he took on the deep lying field hitting 5 sixes and running Jack Carroll (U16)into the ground with numerous twos' in the process. We declared at 190 (off 46 overs) David Farley bowled down the hill with little luck and Christian Naylor (U16) bowled well up the hill. His C&B apart from getting us an early break through probably saved his life or at least a trip to A&E! The next ball was unlucky to get a wicket hitting the guy full on the toe (LBW?) and deviating just enough to avoid a stumping by the skipper. From the top end we then used the quality of Ramsey & J. Horner to apply pressure while at the bottom end Wheeler, Carroll and McQ tempted Carlton into attack. The score kept ticking along but they had wickets in hand and needed just under 6 and over off the last twenty. Julian got our only LBW of the day (a source of contention most Sunday's this one being no different) and Mick Horner pouched a McQ special at deep cow. A late wicket from Jack gave us hope and the skipper was then pinned behind the stumps by a quicker ball (dislocating the top of his finger) - this brought about a fielding substitution with Jules taking the gloves for the last few overs. No menacing Ramsey stares just a few quality takes. But that was the last drama as Carlton won with an over to spare. Finally my congratulations to Alex D & the Sunday 1st XI on the development league win and promotion back to the top flight.
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