I won the toss and elected to bat. All went well with Sunnucks T and Rich Brewer putting on 50 for the first wicket, another good opening stand. Unfortunately Sunnucks P 6, Hunter 0 and Courtley 0 both LBW to outswing (were’re not bitter!) started a middle order collapse. Only Rich Brewer with support from the Tomkinsons made the score credible with a fine 70 to lead us to 166 off 44 overs. The other unfortunate incidence was a bad injury to Matty Blythin who top edged a ball into his eye socket, this required a visit to A & E. I’m pleased to say Matt’s much better now. We took the field with 10 and were always going to struggle to protect 166 on a fast outfield. Staplehurst got off to a good start, until Harry Karim came on and took two quick wickets to put a scare in the Staplehurst dressing room. The Staplehurst skipper looked to have got a edge to Sam Tomkinson. But wait for it! Did he walk? What about the umpire? No decision again!! It would have made the finish tighter but Staplehurst cruised past our total with plenty of overs to spare 5 wickets in tact. Better luck next week. Well batted Rich Brewer!!!!

Cheers Rich

2nd Team squeeze past Rumwood

Losing the toss yet again Rumwood chose to bat. John Murray and John Hancock opened the bowling both settled into a good rhythm. John Murray was unlucky to cause the opening batsman to nick behind more than once, the 1st dropping just short and the 2nd being dropped by the Captain. He was rewarded in the end bowling one of the pair. John Hancock bowled a tight line and was unfortunate not to pick a wicket as well. In the 15th over disaster, John Murray pulled a calf muscle and we went down to 10 men. John Rogers finished off the over and after a shaky start he soon settled and bowled good lines. Matt Mortimer replace John Hancock and soon picked were had left off in the game against Bearstead picking up 4 wickets for 41 from 9 overs. Pete replaced John Rogers and the numbers 7 and 8 clubbed him around the pitch mainly pulling him from outside off stump. Gareth and Tony Mortimer replaced Pete and Matt and the Rumwood batsman continued in the same vein clubbing the ball around the park and the missing fielder shown badly by this point. Wardy picked up one and was getting the ball to grip at times. The Rumwood total ended on 200 for 6.

The Marden innings started brightly with the 2nd over producing 18 runs and setting us nicely. The Captain was soon out caught and Ben Bardsley and John Rogers started to work the ball around the pitch and kept the score ticking over. Ben smashed the ball to the boundary and one square cut he nearly knocked the cover off the ball! The loss of a couple of quick wickets slowed the innings and it took Richard Thomas and John Hancock to start to work us back into the game, pushing singles and hitting boundaries to get us to within sight of the finishing line. Richard went for one too many was run out for 59 a timely and important knock. John soon followed him for 34 and a mix up between Steve Mattison and Gareth saw Wardy back in the pavilion without facing a ball. Matt Mortimer joined Steve and the pair guided us home with the penultimate ball of the game. A superb team effort.

Teams for June 5th

1st team to face West Farleigh 1.30 start at Home

Sunnucks P
Sunnucks T
Brewer
Samuel
Brandreth
Stileman
Burdge
Tomkinson B
Karim
TBC
TBC

2nd team to face Hollingbourne AWAY 1.30 start

C WATTS
R THOMAS
T MORTIMER
M MORTIMER
G WARD
T BROWN
P LAMPARD
G THOMAS
R HUMPHREY
TBC
TBC
Please email your skipper ASAP if unavailable