Frindsbury 2nd XI had several key players absent without leave for their home tie with Bromley Town. Paul Winchester, Shazad Raza, Pete Blackman, Mike Evans, Matt Kynaston and Connor Ashenden were all away, and without Dave Peters, the side also faced the problem of having no recognised 'keeper. Sam Gracey was drafted in behind the timbers, with his self-proclaimed pedigree of being able to bat, bowl, keep and field, probably all at the same time. Liam Seymour, Alex Carr and Mike Nock were all drafted in, with Nock making his first league appearance of the season. The side most definately didn't lack talent, but perhaps was a bit short on experience, with the average age of the starting XI hovering around 20, with Shahab Raza, the only player over the age of 26.
Frindsbury failed to find an umpire, and were asked, unsurprisingly, to bat first on a drying wicket, and things got off to the worst possible start, when Sam Gracey was bowled in the second over for 1. Things didn't pick up for the hosts, as they lost Liam Seymour, and Roger White to leave them limping along at 23 for 3. Tom Burt stood tall at the other end, and after a few stern words to under 16 Laurence Claughton, looked to rebuild the Frindsbury innings. The pair batted supremley well, rescuing the innings, with Claughton playing the innings that everyone at FCC knows he's capable of doing, but was unfortunatley bowled four short of what would've been a very well deserved half century.
Burt did reach his half century, but then fell trying to up the scoring rate in the 38th over. After, George Burt, Mike Nock and Raj Bassi all fell the score at turned dramatically from 119 for 3 to 142 for 8. Alex Carr, Mark Gracey and Shahab Raza added some sting to the tail of the innings, finishing on 176 in the 28th over, with Gracey unbeaten on 24.
With Winchester, Raza, Kynaston and Ashenden all missing, Frindsbury were missing an opening strike bowler, and the ball was thrown to Shahab Raza and Raj Bassi. Things didn't go particularly to plan, and the Bromley openers raced into the 40's without looking in any danger at all. But Bassi forced Aussie Turano into a false shot, and Gracey caught a simple catch at cover.
Two overs later, and Bassi turned the game on it's head, firstly rearranging Simon Lynch's timbers, then tempting Slamon into skying the ball to White, who held a very good catch, he didn't have to move, but we're pretty sure the ball did a couple of orbits around the moon, before re-entering our atmosphere and emerging with ice and snow on it.
Claughton replaced Raza, and removed Jack Lynch, and then found the edge of opener Dicker's bat, with George Burt taking a good solid catch at a very well positioned backward fly gully area.
Luke Loveridge and skipper John Crisp offered a bit of resistance, but after Bassi (14-36-4) cleaned up Loveridge, Mark Gracey (6-5-3) wiped up the tail, leaving the visitors 75 short of their target.
The victory was especially pleasing, not only due to the youthfulness of the team which included 4 colts, and 4 ex-colts, but it was also the 2nd XI's first win batting first.
Thanks to Emily Melville amd Carole Gracey for their help with the bar and for doing lovely teas as usual. Thanks also to Dave Claughton for scoring.
