Frindsbury II's slumped to their second consecutive defeat at the hands of Dogra and RAC's Cricket Club. Frindsbury were asked to bowl first on a decent pitch, and after Gibbons was bizarrely caught off his helmet by Blackman taking a good tumbling catch at leg slip off the bowling of Connor Ashenden, all Frindsbury seemed to do for the next 30 overs was chase the ball. Aided by some sloppy fielding, and some dropped catches Dogra (140) and Lane (56) pushed the score on from 30 odd for 1, to 221, before Mark Gracey finally got the breakthrough.
Having been hit for consecutive sixes, Gracey tossed down a quicker one, followed by the flipper which Dogra misread and was well stumped by Blackman. Frindsbury then fought back, and Mark Gracey, aided by his younger brother Sam, slowed down the scoring rate, and began finding wickets easier to come by. Each taking a slip catch off the others bowling. The debate at who's was better will probably rage on for days, but catch off the day, and a massive contender for champagne moment of the year came off the bowling of Sam Gracey, and was expertly caught somewhere between deep midwicket and Clapham junction by Connor Ashenden. Having run the length of the A2 to make up ground he somehow managed to hold on over his shoulder in a catch reminiscent of Shaid Afridi's for Pakistan in T20 world cup. Blackman took another couple of catches, and Burt and Evans also held on in the deep, to end the RAC's innings on 295 for 9, and left Frindsbury ruing there dropped chances and missed opportunities.
In a bid to up the ante early on Tom Burt opened the batting with Michael Evans, and began in his usual vain of attacking stroke play, but misjudged a shorter one, ducked and was subsequently bowled for a quick 37. Winchester came and went for 10, then Evans followed shortly after, following another typically resolute innings. Sam Gracey and Pete Blackman now began the rebuilding process, in a bid to push towards the batting bonus points. Gracey fell for a well made 25, and then after seeing Kynaston and Blown lose their wickets in quick succession, Blackman looked to push the score along. He hit a couple of well timed straight drives, and bought up his second half century of the season with one very sweetly struck drives, but then did his usual trick of teeing to mid on for 53.
When Raza fell for 15, Gracey joined Connor Ashenden with Frindsbury now 165 for 8, still 35 short of maximum bonus points, and with thoughts of an unlikely victory now totally extinguished. Ashenden spearheaded this assault with 32* in a partnership of 49, and with just 4 balls of the innings remaining, Gracey was bowled, leaving Pete Ashenden to join his younger brother at the crease to try to avoid total defeat. He resulted in playing his forward defensives with one hand, so as to cushion the blow and avoid giving simple catches to the close in fielders. He survived, and Frindsbury took their 8 bonus points and a losing draw back to Medway. A valiant effort in the final 20 overs of RACs innings, and with the bat rescued a little bit of pride for the highly inexperienced 2nd XI, which had just two players over the age of 23.
