Saturday 20th June 2009: Kennington CC v Frindsbury 3rd XI
Bottom of the table Frindsbury won ..the toss, and elected to bat first.Music blared out from the adjacent Kennington Summer Fayrre, and the boundary on the clubhouse side was no more than about 30 yards from the wicket.Initially some had wondered if perhaps we had happened upon a Twenty20 match by mistake, but it turned out we were in the right place, and therefore with 46 overs available a big score looked to be very much on the cards.
Sir David Gracey and Raj Bassi started well, putting on 47 for the first wicket.Following the departure of Bassi for 27, Sunny Singh joined Sir David at the crease, and the rest of the team retreated to positions of relative safety away from the firing line.The pair added another 30 quick runs, but Singh managed just two boundaries before being bowled by a Hart yorker.Things still looked OK at 77-2 with 30 overs still to come.However the middle order failed to capitalise, with only Ray Burt reaching double figures, and while Gracey continued to stroke the ball around majestically wickets fell at the other end.By the time he was sixth man out - for a fine 44 - the score had advanced to only 123.
Play was interrupted briefly by a low-level flypast by the Red Arrows.Your correspondent has been unable to confirm for certain that this was in celebration of Shahab Razas return to action, but can find no other likely explanation - other than the Summer Fayre across the street. Brief cameos by Richie Gibbons and the afore-mentioned Raza helped the tail wag a little, but when Gibbons (12) was last man out the score stood at just 148 with only 38 overs used up.
Frindsbury knew that they would have to bowl the opposition out, as defending under 150 in 55 overs was unlikely on this ground.Kennington opener Glandfield seemed determined to get things over quickly despatching the first ball of the innings from Shahab Raza straight back over his head for 6.Another three boundaries followed in quick succession, and a shell-shocked Frindsbury looked on in bewilderment as the scoreboard showed a total of 18-0 at the end of the first over.Bizarrely, Glandfield himself was responsible for the fielding change that led to his dismissal asking Sunny Singh to move out of his eyeline, then lofting the ball straight to him in his new position.Raj Bassi then snapped up two quick wickets the first a sharp chance to Rob Peters behind the stumps, and the other a plumb LBW.With Kennington at 37-3, and Bassi causing the Kennington batters all sorts of problems, Frindsbury looked to be in with a chance of victory.However a partnership of 94 between Iles (70) and Grove (45 no) soon (very soon, actually) put paid to that, as a succession of bowlers was put to the sword.Only Bassi emerged unscathed, with his analysis of 5-3-14-2 standing out like a beacon of light among the other figures.However once the ball stopped swinging for him the game was pretty much gone, and in the end it took the home side just 17.4 overs to knock off the required runs for the loss of just 4 wickets.And thus Frindsbury departed once again with their proverbial tails between their proverbial legs.
Next stop High Halstow, who like ourselves have their 3rd XI playing in this league rather than the 1st XIs sent out by most other sides.Is there the scent of a possible victory in the air?Or maybe thats just the landfill site across the Thames?Theres only one way to find out (other than asking someone, or looking on the Play Cricket website) so check back again soon for the next exiting instalment of the Adventures of the Frindsbury Thirds.
