3rd XI v Sidcup

The 3rd XI kept up their good start to the season with a win against Sidcup, which was very reminiscent of last week’s victory, not really scoring enough runs to be comfortable, but bowling and fielding superbly to bowl the oppo out just short. Steve won the toss for the first time this season and although his team had seen many last minute changes due to call ups and pull outs, he slightly hesitated before choosing to bat first on a somewhat damp but well playable wicket. He and Ben put on an opening stand of 40 before they both fell in successive overs, Steve (12) playing over one and Ben (23) trying to pull one that didn’t get up (where have I seen that before). A mid-innings collapse saw the Heath in big trouble at 79-7 with the dismissals of Darren (11), Graham Alger (16), Joe H (0), Cookie (0) and Nick P (5), the first 4 all falling to Sidcup’s wily old-timer Brain Smith, who is now well into his second thousand wickets for the enemy. Steve needed a tactical surprise and promoted little Matty Wilson up a couple of places with the instruction to thwart the opposition and use up some overs, which he did with ease and maturity well in advance of his years, and with Mitchell Horne scoring freely at the other end produced a partnership of 37 match winning runs, which had the Sidcup skipper breaking one of our flags has he tried in vain to stop another Mitchell boundary, kicking it to pieces in irritation. Matty (11) and Mitchell were finally dismissed but not before helping The Heath record a score of 128 at tea. I think the Sidcup batters thought this would be an easy cakewalk, but they hadn’t reckoned on Steve’s young bowling heroes of Billy, Nick & Ryan. Billy took the first wicket thanks to a sharp slip catch by Ben, Nick the second with a fantastic swooping in and diving caught and bowled, and Ryan the third with a delivery too quick for their top scoring no.3. Ryan then ripped the heart out of the Sidcup middle order finishing with a dazzling 4 for 15. Steve also helped himself to a couple of wickets, the first, one of the strangest dismissals ever, impossible to put into words; you had to be there to witness the absurdity of it. Cookie had been chirping in Steve’s ear from about the 4th over to give him a bowl and with the game seemingly safe and with only a couple overs left what damage could he do, well 4 balls in his left foot goes over in one of Nick’s early foot holes, a loud snap and down goes Cookie like a Grand National Faller. Was Steve’s first thought “Oh no, has one of his youngsters has broken an ankle”, nope foremost in his thoughts was “Oh no, we got to get him off we don’t want an abandonment with the game almost won”. With Cookie helped off, Nick finished off Sidcup with the penultimate ball, bowling their disgruntled skipper who smashed the stumps with his bat after being bowled by Nick; this gave the Heath a 13 run victory and a full 20 points. Again a few nominees for MOM, but this week it goes to Mitchell Horne for stepping up from the 4’s at late notice and changing the game with his 31 and causing a boundary marker breakage. It’s just left to reflect on Cookie’s injury and hope it isn’t too serious and he’s only out for 7 to 8 weeks.