On a sunny day in Shoreham, Southborough won the toss and elected to bat on a damp wicket. Shoreham’s opening attack of J Trick (7-14-1) and N. Jeffrey (9-32-1) bowled tightly and Jeffrey was rewarded with the opening wicket of Young (15). S. Arokiasamy (9-30-4) came on and took a wicket with his first ball and another soon after. Brown (25) then joined opener Spencer (45) at the crease and shared a good partnership to help rebuild the innings. However some good bowling and sharp catches by Shoreham saw the visiting team bowled out for 138 with B.Stacey taking 3 for 29 from 7.4 overs.

Shoreham’s innings got off to a poor start losing both openers in the second over to P.Grayland (5-14-2). This bought A. Monteith (38) and the inform P Edge (76n.o) to the crease. The pair shared a stand of 88 which included a couple of huge sixes by P.Edge and some sharp singles. Hibbett (6-43-2) picked up a couple of late wickets but the damage was already done as Shoreham eased to victory by 6 wickets in the 30th over

- Sam

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After last week’s monumental loss to Cudham Wyse, the Shoreham 2nd team were eager to get back to their winning ways at Halstead. Lucky tosser Brown got us off to a good start, and made the simple decision to have a bowl on this overcast day.

Ed, in his inaugural match for the 2nds, had the privilege of choosing which end he wanted to bowl from for once, and reasoned that Jasplin would prefer bowling uphill anyway. After bowling a couple of shocking wides, Ed then bowled a beauty to get Halstead’s opener caught behind by Will Stanyard. Tight bowling by James at the other end was rewarded by the wicket of Halstead’s other opener. Shoreham had made an imposing start, and at one stage had Halstead on 41-4.

JD took over from Ed at the top end, and bowled well off his reduced run-up. He eventually got the important wicket of Halstead’s no.4, who was on 60 at the time, thanks to a nimble stumping by Will. Nick Walker kept up the pressure, after replacing James, and picked up a wicket towards the end of his spell. Ray also chipped in with 4 tidy overs, and earned himself a wicket too. It was the returning Ed who got the wicket of Halstead’s other dangerous batsmen, who was on 70, and he ended up with what could well be his career best figures of 9-19-4. I might retire now.

Halstead reached 190, 28 of which were extras. Shoreham fielded very professionally throughout the game – of the 9 wickets we got, 5 were catches, 1 a stumping, and 1 even a full-blooded run-out. Other points to note are: apart from a tired final over, Jasplin bowled extremely well; and our only other bowler was Jackson (although the scorecard has mistaken him for his brother – not that I think he’ll mind) who threw in the odd pie across his 3 over spell. Juicy.

Confident that our batsmen could knock off the runs, most of the Shoreham team huddled around the radio inside the pavilion to listen to the Ashes. Meanwhile, out in the middle, our trusty opening pair of Ray and John launched into the Halstead bowling. 32 overs later the same pair were still at the crease (although one looked like he was about to keel over) and hit the winning runs to complete a whopping partnership of 194! Ray was 67no and John 80no (yes their were a lot of extras).

This historic feat was celebrated at the pub long into the night. And the Boakes Meadow Massive continued the drinking back at their HQ until Rupert fell over one too many times, and Jasplin fell asleep on a black marker. Yay.

- Ed

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It was a fresh looking Shoreham that took to the field and the usual rigorous warm-ups had the opposition quaking in their boots. Pat was so stunned to win the toss that he forgot to delegate the job of lowering the sightscreen and so he had to do it himself.

The bowling was opened by the Shoreham pace attack of Steve and Jamie Bromfield who each bowled very economically and Steve’s blistering pace proved too much for Mason who snicked one into Richard’s waiting gloves. Jamie struck in the next over to dismiss MacDonald for a duck with a well placed yorker. Steve was replaced by new recruit Will Smith who we poached from last week’s opponents Knockers. He immediately riled the men in bat with some brilliant pace and was well assisted by Nigel at the Car Park End. After each taking a well deserved wicket, they were replaced by Dan Setterfield and Howard Atkinson who joined Will as a debutant. Danny got his fifth wicket in five games and Howard bamboozled the batsmen with some crafty off-breaks which were rewarded with a wicket. Sam and George gave us a total to chase before Steve returned to bowled an excellent final over which included 2 wickets to clear up the tail end.

A special mention should go to the fielding of Shoreham which was reminiscent of Jonty in places and Monty in others. George seemed to have holes in his hands but Jamie made up for this with some excellent stops and two superb catches one of which included a full length dive at square leg including a celebration in mid-air. Dan took a solid catch at mid wicket as did Howard on the boundary. Nigel took advantage of a mix-up to claim a wonderful run out while the batsmen had a polite conversation over who was to blame and Patrick took two catches which included a wonder catch at short leg to bring up the ten wickets.

After a successful Setterfield tea, Styles and Jeffrey wandered to the crease and opened up steadily against very tight bowling. The opening partnership of 63 was broken when Nigel fell on 25 and was followed by Nash (13) and Sam (12) whilst Paul (45) steadily built up the runs. The wicket of Sam brought Jamie Bromfield to the middle and he began steadily with a single before hitting 8 consecutive fours. After this quick flurry, the win seemed imminent as Steve (31no) came to join Jamie in the festivities. Unfortunately, Jamie did fall after a well earned 39 which left Smith to finish the innings with 1no. To add to the glory, England had also managed to hold on for an unlikely draw in Cardiff!

- George

This was the second team’s second heavy defeat in a row, following our three game winning streak.
Once again, a poor bowling performance proved expensive. Put in to bat, Cudham amassed 296, with Dave Rippingdale carrying his bat through the innings and ending on 106. Tom Carter, batting at four, scored 91. The only bowlers, of the eight used, who might want their figures mentioned are Graham – who bowled a good line and length and was rewarded with all three of the wickets to be taken (8 – 2 – 32 – 0), and Brad (9 – 0 – 46 – 0), who was very economical in the context of the game.

By the time tea was finished the afternoon was getting cooler and darker, which reflected our mood as wickets fell regularly for no compelling reason. John top scored with 15 and Paul, playing his mid-order anchor role, was left high and dry on 13 at the end. No-one else, except extras, achieved double figures as we subsided for 68 in 23.5 overs.

This didn’t seem remotely amusing, so I’ll save the humour for the tour report.

- Wyn

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On Shoreham 1st team first visit to Horsmonden they won the toss and decided to bowl on what turned out to be a lively wicket. J. Trick (9-15-0) and N. Jeffrey (9-35-1) opened the bowling for Shoreham and bowled a testing opening spell but failed to take any wickets as the Horsmonden pairing of M. Davis (6) and L. Langridge (26) dug in to see them off. The introduction of S. Arokiasamy (9-38-2) saw the breakthrough for Shoreham as Davis departed with the score on 42 to a sharp catch in the slips. K. Fordham then came to the crease and looked to move the score along with some strong drives which proved to be his downfall as he departed for 10 after being deceived by a slower ball bowled by R. Harris (6-27-2) on his first 11 debut. Harris continued to bustle in and was rewarded with his second wicket of the day when Langridge mistimed the ball to N. Jeffrey in the covers. B. Stacey (7-25-4) replaced Harris for Shoreham and was soon in full flow removing the Horsmonden Skipper, T Walford for 24. Stacey continued to bowl a variation of deliveries which saw his take the wickets of N. Paul (9), Dallocco (21) and Bignall (6) with the aid of catches from Jeffrey and Arokiasamy. The opening bowlers returned for Shoreham in an attempt to take the two remaining Horsmonden wickets which looked possible as Jeffrey bowled S. Stibbs for 9, but Horsonden clung on to end on 151-9 with May (4*) and Blackhall (0*) holding on to deny Shoreham the final bowling point.

After tea S. Kokkiligadda (25) and S. Arokiasamy (17) opened for Shoreham and started aggressively moving the score on to 33 by the 4th over. However May (7-32-3) bowled a tight menacing line for Horsmonden which saw him remove both Shoreham openers and A. Monteith (4) coming in at three. The pressure was starting to build on Shoreham who were in need of some consolidation to their innings which was offered by P. Edge (42) and S. Clarke (23) who shared a partnership of 67 for the 4th wickets. The contrast of Edge’s muscular slap shots and Clarke’s elegant stroke play moved Shoreham into a commanding position but both fell in quick succession to the bowling of Stibbs (4-25-1) and Bignall (3-34-1) respectively. This bought the Trick brothers to the crease with Shoreham needing 20 to win which was achieved in 21.3 overs with J. Trick and S. Trick both ending not out on 16 and 5 respectively.

- Ray

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Well, first a resume of the highlights of the game from our perspective:

Right, that’s over.

Look, I’m not going to dwell on this because firstly it was pretty painful and secondly I’ve got my packing to do. (Isle of Wight here we come!)

Captain Brown won the toss and elected to bat, mainly because our bowling attack had been even further depleted because Gary, Andre, Brad, Nigel and Russell all had other things to do. Not to mention Alex who? Do these chaps think that life is all about making money and babies? All right, Nigel had half an excuse because he was playing for the firsts and Russ might have found the travelling a bit of a pain, but come on boys!

If we had scored 250 we might have been in with a chance, but a classy opening attack soon had us reeling. All our early wickets fell cheaply – even that of someone referred to in Limpsfield Chart’s match report as ‘Danger Man’ Ray Trick. The only stability in our innings came when Paul went in at his, now customary, number five, and, having seen off the opening bowlers, began to accumulate runs in his familiar fashion. Danny Herridge, Richard Breden (yes this is a 2009 match report) and Captain Brown each chipped in with a few. Paul was eighth out. Next, AH’s cameo was reminiscent of Mark Ramprakash, in Strictly. At the end, Chris and Pat were at the crease as we limped over 100 – just.

Tea was pretty good and the renovations in the clubhouse were good to admire, but all too soon we had to go out again.

Our fearsome attack was opened by Richard at one end and Danger Walrus at the other. It took about an over for Richard’s body to remember what it had to do in these circumstances, after which he bowled tidily. Neither bowler really worried Limpsfield Chart’s openers and so Captain Brown summoned his strike bowler once again, with the words ‘We only need 10 wickets and you’ve got 50 runs to play with’. Despite his usual tactic of lulling the batsmen into accepting easy runs from his first few balls, AH failed to lure either batsman into subsequent errors. Meanwhile, Jack took over at the other end (‘We only need ten wickets and you’ve got 40 to play with’) and he induced both batsmen to drive him, successfully.

Captain Brown’s final throw of the dice was to bring on Captain Pat. (‘We only need ten wickets, and you’ve got three runs to play with.’) It was an eventful over. First, a near dismissal from a lobbed pull. Then a ball that looked as though it was headed for the boundary pulled up short: four became three and then one, as we realised that only one batsman had carried on running after the initial single. We’d thought it was all over, and a ball later it was.

After the triumphs of the last three weeks this was a sad day, but there was no doubt that it was the better team that won.

- Wyn

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After last Saturday’s disappointing loss to Groombridge, the Shoreham 1st team were eager to get back to their winning ways against Hadlow. We won the toss and elected to bowl, in spite of the sweltering heat and being one man short for the first half an hour. James (9-38-0) and Nigel (8-48-0) opened our attack but neither could make the breakthrough. It took the introduction of Ed (7-43-3) to finally get the wickets our pressure deserved. Solid catches from Mark D behind the stumps and Mark McD at mid-wicket, as well as an inspired dive from Sam at slip, sent Hadlow’s top three back to the pavilion. Bob (9-42-0) then bowled extremely tightly at his end, and Steve (7-44-1) managed to get us our fourth wicket. This, however, was all our bowlers could muster, as Hadlow’s remaining batsmen ploughed on to reach 221 – which included 28 of our finest extras.

In reply, Mark D (25) and Andy M (13) got us off to a good start, hitting 23 from the first 2 overs of one of Hadlow’s opening bowlers; but finding it difficult to get the other bowler away. This other bowler, Mitchell, ended up with only 15 runs against him after his 9 overs. The trusty Trick duo came in next, and kept Shoreham up with Hadlow’s run rate. Sam departed for 33 and James eventually for 38. Cue The Steve Show. A rapid bash around by Stevo (39) and Krishna (26) brought us within a sniff of victory. However, the drama was not over as Mark McD was caught on 1, and Ed for 2 soon after. Fortunately, the clear-headed Nigel (6no) and pea-headed Jasplin (4no) saw us through without the need for Bob to go out again after having a rather preemptive shower!

A classic session at the George ensued after we had made the journey back from Hadlow; joining the victorious 2nds in celebration, and getting Elvis back on the ghetto blaster. Result.

- Ed

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