Matt Wood and Joe Lee-Rice setup yet another post-tour win at the aesthetically pleasing Brook House.

Batting: Matt Wood 67, Joe Lee-Rice 57*, Liam Geary 34*
Bowling: Joe Lee-Rice 4-24, Richard Hall 2-28

Early drawn curtains the morning prior to this fixture suggested damp and humid conditions for the remainder of the day. Nevertheless, England’s early morning success at Birmingham, Edgbaston, undoubtedly foreshadowed the coming of sunshine as we promptly begun play at the scheduled 2:15. The Crescent dressing room has often shown itself to be one which judges the opposition (a metaphoric book) by its cover, and thus a mixture of young teenagers and old codgers turning out for Brook House injected us with a great sense of optimism. Following the toss, Crescent were inserted to bat, with a timed game agreed upon.

A bowler/all-rounder heavy line-up gave skipper, Matt Lawson, difficulty in establishing a clear batting order, sacrificing his own position as a ‘Jack of all trades’ by accompanying in-form partner, Matt Wood, at the top of the order. Dot balls were very much the mean delivery in the early stage of our innings, with Matt Lawson succumbing to a sharp catch in the slip cordon for a struggling 8. Dmitry Morgan similarly found conditions, as well as the areas of the opening bowlers challenging as he fell LBW for 3 in a partnership of 42 with Matt Wood, who was starting to find his feet. A circumspect foundation to Matt’s innings allowed him to free up later on as he regularly found the boundary, including one monstrous six over deep long on. Partner, Joe Gatford (3), continued the ill-support of Matt, falling to an exceptional delivery, as he was dismissed ‘hit-wicket’, a rarity in all forms of the game. Matt fell LBW for 67, despite suggestions of an inside edge, with the team total on 85, highlighting both the importance of his innings as well as its immense technical quality on a tricky wicket.

Richard Hall (13) and Jamie Will (5) both came and went attempting to up the run-rate, with the Crescent sitting on a lowly 114-6. The final 45 minutes of the innings were dominated by the mutual understanding and temperaments of Joe Lee-Rice and Liam Geary, together putting on 81 unbeaten runs. Joe in particular went from the get-go, striking four impressive sixes in a stay of 57* from what one would expect to be fewer than 30 deliveries. Liam, too, is worthy of applaud as he faced 15 deliveries before getting off the mark, which certainly would have played on his mind, however, he soon found his range and finished with a well constructed 34*, as Matt Lawson declared ten minutes early on 195-6, leaving some heads spinning and the game open to the possibility of all four results. (It must be noted that our opposition bowled the grand sum of 42 overs in two hours and twenty minutes, which could have easily been 45 overs had Matt chosen not to declare early. The number of overs bowled is worthy of praise and good sportsmanship).

The Brook House tea was glorious, consisting largely of various cakes (including a birthday cake for one of their youngsters) and generously filled sandwiches, perhaps a layout we ought to consider as we seek to reform the contents of Horsdean teas.

Dan Osborne and Richard Hall were asked to open the bowling, with all seeming to be plain-sailing after 1.1 overs as Richard had their young opening batsman smartly caught by Joe Gatford with the score on 7. Destruction soon followed, as Dan picked up a groin injury and continued to bowl through the pain. The fluency of batting found by the Brook House number 3 off Dan’s reluctant bowling in turn resulted in similar afflictions towards Richard as the pair went on to concede 50 runs between them in the opening four overs. The father-son duo of Kevin and Joe were partnered together in order to make some crucial breakthroughs, which came after a few more overs of continued ‘well placed slogs’. Eventually, both the opening batsman and number 3 departed to stunning catches by Matt Lawson at deep mid-on off the bowling of Joe, one of which hung for an eternity as our well balanced skipper ran backwards and fell on his backside in completing the spectacle. Kevin went on to dismiss their number four without scoring, caught by his son, Joe, at first slip, an excellent display of flight and guile (finishing with figures of 1-14 off 7, returning for a second spell later in the innings), whilst Joe had their number six caught by Jamie Will at gully, likewise without troubling the scorers. Richard Hall returned for a second spell and bowled in tandem with Jamie Will, both offering control, effectively denying Brook House the prospect of victory. Jamie finished with 1-20 off his six, tossing the ball up as much as possible, receiving a warning from the opposition umpire for following into the danger-zone in a similar fashion to James Anderson (without the dissent…). Richard pulled back his earlier figures, conceding only four runs in a spell of four overs, picking up a second wicket to finish with the admirable figures of 2-28 from six.

Simon Wood and Dmitry Morgan came on to replace Richard and Jamie, with scope to get the Brook House batsmen playing their shots into the air. Simon took a wicket in his first over, thanks to what I would describe as the catch of the season by his bowling partner, Dmitry, plucking a single hand out low down to his left. From hereon, the batsmen offered nothing up to either bowler, as they conservatively blocked the pair out as Simon finished with 1-18 from four, and Dmitry with 0-7 from four. Matt Lawson called upon the ‘golden arm’ of Joe Gatford and the already proven Joe Lee-Rice to finish up the innings, as Brook House edged nearer and nearer to a draw. Mr. Gatford bowled his off-spin at an impressive pace, taking the key wicket of Entwistle for 31 (finishing with 1-1 from 2). Joe Lee-Rice wrapped up the innings with the first ball of his second spell, bowling their number 10 with a quick Yorker, as the batsman mumbled the sorrow words ‘oh, shit!’ midway through Joe’s swift run-up. Joe finished with the remarkable figures of 4-24 in 5.1 overs, to round off an excellent day in all respects of cricket for himself.

We retired to the Ardingly Inn, where Dmitry generously purchased what can only be described as a ‘mega-round’ for at least 15 players and spectators, for which I say thank you on behalf of us all. The stay was long as we reminisced over Crescent memories gone by and the several great performances on the day.