The Shoreham 1st team were bolstered last Saturday with the return of Steve Arokiasamy and Mark McDonald. After losing the toss for the fifth (or sixth – I forget) time in a row Shoreham were handed the ball. After locking their changing room the team had a huddle, Brownie donned his umpire’s coat, and Ray laid out his coloured pen collection by the scorebook.

Ed (9-53-1) and James (9-45-3) opened the bowling and both found their rhythm. A four and a six in two balls looked like unsettling Ed, but he bowled a juicy full toss the next ball which Krishna snaffled up at square-leg. James then followed suit with the first ball of his next over, thanks to a neat caught-behind by Mark Doughty. Otford were 19-2.

It would be 99 runs until the next wicket, however, as Otford found their stride, taking a liking to Steve’s (2-30-0) bowling especially. Sree (8-35-1) and Krishna (9-39-3) did a superb job of stopping the flow of runs, and I think it was Sree who made the breakthrough with a catch from Andy. Krishna earned himself three wickets, and it was Sam (3-20-1) who eventually got the scalp of Otford’s no.3, who ended on 75.

Otford had kept scoring regularly, though, and finished their innings on 227 for 9. It could have been a lot less if we had held all our catches (no names – or should I say name), but overall we acquitted ourselves well in the field.

Unfortunately, at some point during Otford’s innings they had had all their valuables nicked from their (unlocked) changing rooms. As a result, the police were in attendance for most of the game (taking witness statements etc.) and this meant that we were quite late starting after tea.

Pat and I returned from our jaunt to One Stop with a couple of four packs of Stella, under the impression that we would be spending the rest of the afternoon watching our openers tick off the runs. You can imagine our surprise, upon our return, when we saw our top four batsmen all back in the hutch, with only 8 runs scored between them!

Staring into the jaws of an embarrassing defeat to our local rivals, Krishna (31) and Phil (28) then shared a vital partnership to get Shoreham going again. This was followed by a great stand from James (42) and Sam (41), who incredibly brought us within reach of Otford’s total. James was then given out to Otford’s third successful LBW decision of the afternoon – a statistic that riled the entire Shoreham team.

By now it was getting quite dark, and the match was hanging in the balance. Mark McDonald, who up until now had been doing his usual pacing around in his pads, was suddenly thrust into the limelight – bringing back memories of that game against Weald last year. And, just as in that match, The Crook came through for us in style. He smashed 25no to win the game for Shoreham with 8 balls to spare, aided by two of The Boakes Meadow Massive – Ed (8) and Jack (who faced one ball and survived). A most triumphant ending to an eventful game.

- Ed

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Posted on Wednesday, 10th June, 2009 in 1sts Match Reports.