Bidborough won the toss and elected to bat on one of Shoreham’s trademark wickets which, after a summer of perpetual rain, had little to amuse the bowlers with. The now familiar opening barrage of Ed Walker (1-26-9) and John Dinnis (1-23-8) kept Bidborough under wraps, and Ed took Shoreham’s first wicket with a very tidy and untheatrical caught-and-bowled. The introduction of James Trick (1-16-9) soon brought about our second wicket, with a solid catch from Peter Wright. Bidborough were only on 54 after the first 20 overs, having lost their two openers just as they were getting going.

Shoreham continued to bowl tightly into the second half of Bidborough’s innings: Peter Wright (0-14-5) bowled economically for no reward; Ray Trick (1-28-6) took the wicket of Bidborough’s no.3; and Bob Stacey, fresh from his holiday, also picked up a wicket to end with 1 for 13 from his 3 overs. Pete took the catch off Bob’s bowling, and James caught one off John’s to round off a professional effort in the field by all concerned, inspired by the presence of The Duracell Bunny himself. Although, thinking back, I do recall a certain Mr Sree performing one of his long barriers for us… but it wasn’t enough to earn him the RTFA in the eyes of this reporter, who has the upmost sympathy for all things fielding. Also, there’ll be no JABA this week for similar reasons.

Bidborough reached 131 from their 40 overs for the loss of 5 wickets, with 20 of their runs coming from extras. Although this is by no means a reflection on stand-in wicket keeper Nick Walker Jr, who did a sterling job behind the stumps chasing mine and John’s wide deliveries – all with a bruised hand from use of excessive force when changing gear in his rush to the ground!

After tea, Nick Walker Jr and Sree Kokkiligadda strode out to bat, as Ray made for the showers – in an act of extreme confidence in our upper order. Sree immediately took the attack to Bidborough with some early boundaries, before Nick fell on 2 with the score on 18. Pete Wright took his place but, after a quick 9 runs, was caught to leave Shoreham stuttering on 31-2.

Was Ray getting anxious about changing back into his whites? Was he hell. Ray looked on comfortably as his youngest bashed another six into the surrounding trees. Sam and Sree had a strong partnership to bring us up to 99, when Sree was neatly stumped on 36. This brought James Trick into the fray, and he and his brother carried on to get Shoreham within reach of an early finish, and, most importantly, more time down the pub. James hit 25no, and Sam secured our only jug of the day, getting 55no with 8 fours and 2 sixes. Shoreham emerged victorious in 20.4 overs for the loss of only 3 wickets, with half the team not getting a bat again. Oh well, that’s probably best considering my performance the next day…

I’d like to thank the support shown by many of our 2nd team players who popped by the ground or who met up with us at the pub afterwards. Thankyou Martin as well for umpiring the majority of the game, even though you didn’t accept any of our LBW appeals.

- Ed

Shoreham Evergreens v Old Oaks

The Shoreham dressing room was fragrant with the ointments and embrocations that help the Evergreens to change clothes, let alone take the field. Discarded syringes and unidentifiable pieces of medical support equipment littered the floor.

This was the evening when we competed for the Peter Walker cup, with Nick Walker captaining the side. Could we emulate our famous victory in last year’s inaugural fixture?

The captains conferred and the fact that they were not entirely ad idem about what had been agreed became obvious when 22 players took the field. After some further high level discussion Old Oaks undertook to bat.

It was an 18-Eighteen match with bowlers restricted to a maximum of 4 overs and batsmen to a maximum of 25 runs.

Shoreham used five bowlers: Montgomerie, Stacey, Smith, Jones and Dinnis. It turned out to be an evening for the slower bowlers: Robert the Developer and Ageing Hack took 3 wickets and conceded 35 runs from their 8 overs, whilst the quicks (well everything is relative) took 2 wickets for 61 in their 10 overs.

What a wealth of incident these bare figures conceal. The Old Oaks number one limped from the field after only two overs, not as a result of any hostile action from the Shoreham bowlers but just because of one of those things that is bound to happen in a game where the average age is around 50. (The real) Nick Walker stationed himself at a shortish extra cover and after two chances had come his way was heard to encourage the bowlers with ‘Third time lucky then chaps’. When Nick did actually hang on to the ball, scooping it from turf with his fingertips, it proved controversial. The umpires had to confer before the unfortunate batsman, Compton (no relation), was relegated to the pavilion, having scored 7 and looking likely to score more. He is a splendid chap and deserved better, as I told him when he later stood me a pint of Speckled Hen.

The memory of Jerry Stanyard took flesh and pursued the ball with possibly too much enthusiasm, as he gathered it in the deep and attempted to return it in one elegant flowing motion. ‘Aaaargh!’ came the cry as he clutched his back and hobbled back to his station.

Old Oaks had scored exactly 100 at the end of their 18 overs with major contributions coming from Thompson (retired at 25), Hollamby (bowled on 22), and Tunnell and Gill who were respectively 15 and 14 not out.

So our reply began. Martin sportingly edged one to the keeper before he could run anyone out, and we were 0 – 1 at the end of the first over. JD and Jerry Stanyard then moved the score on to 39 at the end of 5 overs before John had to retire, having scored 27 from 20 balls. At the end of six overs the score was 50 but then faltered for a couple of overs as first Nick Pearce went for 3 and then Jerry for 15. Paul Styles (high on Sanatogen and Lucozade) replaced Nick and on one occasion was seen to offer Jerry a third run, which he declined.

Nick Walker came and went for a useful 10, and then Chris Brown hit 15 off 14 balls, including at least three truly memorable boundaries, whilst at the other end Paul continued to accumulate runs with some subtly placed shots.

When Chris departed we only required 7 from 4 overs, but then the Evergreen run machine seemed to stall. Only one run came from the next 11 balls. Russell Smith departed without scoring to be replaced by Robert the Developer, making almost his first appearance with the bat this season. Now 7 were required from 8 deliveries. Robert contributed a valuable single whilst Paul calmly steered us to victory, concluding with an elegant off-drive for 4 with three balls to spare.

We retained the Peter Walker cup, which could have been filled many times over with the refreshments consumed at the Vine bar. Conversation continued into the night. Well, at our age there is so much to reminisce about.

- Wyn