The heavy rain on at Bidborough Saturday afternoon, not only caused the cancellation of the senior 1st & 2nd team fixtures but the downpour meant that the Bidborough Rec was still unfit for play on Sunday morning despite the early morning sunshine. This unfortunately meant the Under 16 A team fixture had to be cancelled.
However it wasn’t all bad news. The ‘B’ teams ‘home away from home’ at Leigh cricket ground was surprising fit for play. So the necessary phone calls were made to Edenbridge CC confirming the fixture was going ahead.
Bidborough won the toss & elected to bowl to in an attempt to make use of the dampness in the pitch. Up stepped James Masters & Elliot Conboy to open the bowling. James in particular bowled beautifully & used the conditions to his advantage, so much so the opening batsman couldn’t get near to hitting the ball, unfortunately James couldn’t quite manage to deliver that ball that hit the stumps. The opening bowling partnership of James & Elliot had virtually stopped the Edenbridge batsman in their tracks. After 7 overs Edenbridge were 0-19 with James finishing his 4 overs with figures of 0-5 including 2 maidens. Unluckily James didn’t get the wickets he deserved but his reward will surely come. Elliot supported him every step of the way & finished his 3 overs with figures of 0-13.
Although the bowling was tight we still hadn’t managed to snare a wicket & the batsmen were getting used to the pace of the wicket & were looking more comfortable as the game went on. The bowling changes kept coming & Guillaume picked up a couple of wickets via good catches from Peter K & Elliot & finished with 2-34. Miggle also having his victim caught, claiming figures of 1-17 in his 2 overs. Dylan bowled a very consistent line & length to apply some much needed pressure, finishing his allocated 4 overs with 0-16.
But ultimately the bowling was disappointing after such a great start having providing the opposition with 21 wides & no balls which had the effect of giving the opposition 21 additional runs but also another 21 additional deliveries. Definitely not what we had been practicing. The Edenbridge batsmen had done very well to keep wickets in tact & were able to take more risks towards the end of the innings to finish on 3-130, yes this was going to need a big effort to chase down the challenging total.
Ozzie & Dylan came to the crease to opening the innings & yes you’ve guessed it. First ball was fast & pitched up & crashed into the stumps. In fact it was a peach of a ball to receive first up in the first game of the year. Ozzie ‘you were very unlucky’ but Peter K joined Dylan & between them began building a partnership with hard hitting & clever singles. Moving the score to 41 before Peter decided that dancing was the order of the day & shimmied across to his off stump & had his middle stump knocked back. Peter’s cool hard hitting 19 had put Bidborough back in control. But Dylan was dismissed in the following over meaning 2 new batsmen were now at the crease. However Matt Snell & Miggle were holding fast & kept the score board ticking sharing a partnership of 23 with running between wickets of the highest order. Matt being caught after not fully committing to his shot, James Masters & Guillaume disappearing back to the pavilion shortly afterwards. However Miggle was holding fast at the non strikers end before unselfishly giving his wicket away for a well-constructed 17 before being run out knowing that there was plenty of experienced batting that hadn’t yet been utilised. Laurence struck a huge six before being stumped by a ball which bounced off the keepers pads. In the space of 1 over Bidborough were reduced from 6-102 to 9-105, but this brought in 2 batsman that had been held back to ensure that all others had fully been given their opportunity. When Archie & Dan walked to the crease they still had a mountain to climb needing 26 runs off 18 balls. With finger nails being bitten & Peter K seeming still practicing the ‘jitter bug’ the boys milked the singles (there was even a 3 run after Archie was dropped in the deep) whilst still managing to despatch the bad ball to the boundary. Then the moment we had hoped for the final winning runs being smashed off the second last delivery off the match by Archie. An intelligent last wicket partnership had seen the boys home!!! Peter could complete his victory jig to the cheers of his team mates.
Well done boys!!! A hard fought victory which showed great character.