Bexleyheath 3rd’s Vs Old Roan CC 1st

The teams arrived at Sidcup for the first home game of the season at the Rugby club in what appears to be the ‘norm’ now for weather in England in May, blinding sunshine for 30 minutes followed by rain for 30 minutes.
With Interim captain/manager Hughesy taking charge for the first time and hoping he can’t do a worse job than interim manager Ryan Mason at Spurs, the coin toss was conducted and Hughesy won (well the oppo skipper called incorrect!) With the pitch “a bit soft” it was a good toss to win and Old Roan were put in to bat by the new skipper.

To be fair to the pitch, considering the amount of rain and the fact it hadn’t been covered at all, it played ok, the odd ball popping and the random shooter. Over 2, Ryan Frisby bowling with pace and Jonk’s strategically placed at short cover, the batsman kindly hit one straight to him like catching practice, as the players were beginning to celebrate, Jonker decided he felt sorry for the batsman and put the ball down. The batsman’s reprieve did not last long though, the next over, Subo bowling tightly found that magic spot and the ball shot through about a centimeter off of the floor and bowled their opener middle stump. Heath’s tails were up, but despite some tight bowling no more wickets came until the 15th over courtesy of Sulove. Sulove went on to bowl 9 overs with the impressive figures of 4 for 27. He was assisted well by the other bowlers, all bowling tight with the wickets falling fairly regularly. Harry Monk making his long awaited come back with a tidy 5 overs, 2 wickets for just 9 runs.

Heath looked in control with Old Roan 87 for 7 off of 33 then 102 for 8 off of 36. With just 4 overs left it appeared the Heath would be chasing around 115, very gettable. But it turns out taking the 8th wicket was a fatal error, it brought to the crease Old Roan’s batting version of Jonker, he began to swing at everything, taking a particular likening to Alijan’s pacey (and slightly short) bowling, smashing 33 off of 18 balls and taking Old Roan to 140 at the close of innings.

With the weather still being very changeable, Heath went out to bat knowing the new ball will provide a test but will begin to get easier after about 10 overs, so a steady start was asked of Neil and Sulove. They started well, few dodgy bounces negotiated, a few hopeful LBW’s declined. But in the 8th over Sulove attempted to drive a ball outside his off stump, which probably bounced a little more than expected and he floated one to gully. Harry Gayatri then came to the crease and decided to stand in front of middle stump first ball and not hit it. Meggsy and Neil then continued to make steady progress against some challenging bowling/pitch. All was looking on track until Neil unfortunately dragged on for 21, Alijan fell soon after, Meggsy followed shortly for a nice 16.

This brought Hughesy to the crease at number 7 in a cunning plan, which started well, hitting the Old Roan skipper and main bowler back over his head, cutting a few short ones through point/cover, the target was looking attainable. But with wickets falling at the other end, the advice from Hughesy to each in-coming batsman of “don’t worry about the runs, it’s the wickets that are the issue, just don’t get out” was clearly being lost in translation somewhere. A few lean overs, H Monk stealing the strike and trying to bat out a couple of maidens (joking!) and then another wicket, the Heath were down to the last pair, Hughesy and Subo with 40 needed off of 4 overs. Hughesy then decided he could finish it a couple of overs, a big swing at a ball on middle stump resulted him being bowled for 30, and the cunning tactical plan hadn’t worked.

Despite the loss, some good performances from the team, few tactical errors from Hughesy, lessons learned from all I think. It gives hope for season, we’ll get revenge on Old Roan on the 17th of July. Heads up guys, no game next week, smash it the week after.
Match report written by Dave Hughes