Kilmington vs Venturers, Sunday April 27th

Kilmington 146-9 (40 overs), Venturers 48-1 (14 overs, rain)

It would be impolite to claim this as a win, although Duckworth and Lewis give it to us by nine runs. Kilmington could have kept us out in the rain until our batting collapsed, as it very likely would have done: after all, our bowling, and especially our fielding, had collapsed earlier.

To begin with, though, it was quite impressive. We started in warm sunshine, though with a cool breeze in the middle, and Paul Snow and Kevin kept things very tight for ten overs. During this time one opener played back to Kevin when he should have played forward and was bowled when the ball swung, and the other edged Paul to slip, where Richard took it at the second attempt. Simon Shaw, replacing Paul, induced several false shots by simply bowling very slowly, and in due course these led to a catch for each Paul; and Ian (tall) bowled well with less luck. But although we had four cheap wickets the cracks were beginning to show: Kevin fluffed a simple catch and Fluffy grassed a much harder one (he did well to get to it at all). Neither was expensive. But now things got harder. A youth kitted out with a Dorset Youth helmet and a South African bat was showing obvious class, though no great force: his partner was showing the opposite, and they made a dangerous pair. The South African drove Ian G elegantly towards extra cover. Gregory and Kevin chased: Kevin won, fortunately, and made up for his earlier fluff with an ideal throw to Roger, beating the striker as he returned for an ill-advised second run. We were well in control. A bloke with Ryan Sidebottom's hairstyle appeared next: Chris Middup, lent by us to Kilmington for the day. He edged a single and then gave Simon Turner his first wicket for the Venturers by scooping to cover, where Gregory also held on at the second attempt. But we dropped the forceful batsman soon afterwards, and an obstructive young left-hander arrived to keep him company. Gregory bowled with uncharacteristic accuracy so the runs did not flow freely, and eventually he bowled the left-hander also; but we immediately dropped the new batsman and the two of them lasted almost to the finish. Only in the very last over was there real activity: two wickets for Paul W and a clout for six in between. But they had quietly recovered from 50-odd for 6 to 146 for 9. And the weather had deteriorated badly and was now almost wintry.

It remained dry after tea, though, and Roger and Richard began very cautiously against excellent bowling from the South African and the forceful batsman. The latter showed some inclination to argue when no-balled (once) for overstepping, but not when Richard was given the benefit of a close LBW appeal, and gave very little away. The South African was often too good to find the edge; but eventually he did (Richard's) and first slip caught it adroitly, one-handed, to his and everyone else's astonishment. But now it really began to rain. The last few of the fourteen overs we faced were played in very disagreeable conditions, which kept improving just enough to make us go on; Roger profited from some suddenly loose bowling from the new bowlers, who had a wet ball to cope with. Then the rain became steady and we went in. Twenty minutes later it stopped. Everybody went out. And it started again, harder than before. So we gave up, at 48-1 after 14 overs. Richard is currently top of the batting averages, with 5: Chris is bottom, with -1. Nobody else has a batting average at all.

Fixtures & Results 2008