Crescent fall just short in tight encounter.

Over the 30 plus years that we have been playing Ashburnham in the farming hamlet near Battle we have had some great wins and some real stuffings. Things were not looking great in midweek with only 8 players available but with some arm twisting and various phone calls we had our 11. Many thanks to Rich Hall for cutting short his camping trip and to Josh Pennycott and Vikram Sharma for stepping into the breach.
Matt Wood lost the toss and we took the field with just 8 players as Rob Eastwood’s map reading skills were, and not for the first time, found wanting. The outfield this year is rather larger after the removal of hedges on both sides square of the wicket and Sunday was picture perfect with a light breeze and views across the Sussex Weald on a bright warm and sunny day.

Once Rob and friends arrived to ensure our full quotient in the field it became obvious that the heavy midweek downpours had left a slow and fairly low wicket. Of the 19 wickets that fell during the course of the afternoon only 4 wickets fell to catches which underlined the nature of the batting strip. Matt Wood shuffled his bowling attack with great invention and with fielders in front of the wicket rather than behind a talented Ashburnham batting side were bowled out for 146 in the 40th over. All the 7 bowlers used took wickets with Vikram Sharma 2-10 the pick of our attack and it was good to see Jamie Wiil ( 2-19 ) bowling with more confidence and Josh Pennycott ( 1-14 ) bowling a steady spell. Max Kidman was also threatening and in conjunction with some steady ground fielding, the odd dropped catch was of little consequence as we restricted the home side to 100 runs less than we had managed in the past 2 years.

Crescent set off in pursuit of 147 at under 4 an over and Mike Newcombe got us moving along nicely in the very first over with 3 carved boundaries down the hill to the shorter boundary. His partner Matt Wood was struggling to get his feet moving early on but hung in there and gradually we were picking off the runs before Mike chopped onto his stumps for 31 with the total on 64-1. Crescent were in good shape to win at this point but sadly no other batsman was able to make a significant contribution as Matt took the Ashburnham attack apart on his own. A flurry of 4 LBW decisions left Matt facing Bernie Baker with 8 runs needed to win off the last over with Matt on strike. The first ball resulted in a good stop, the second was clipped to the short midwicket boundary and a desperate diving stop followed by a wayward throw and 4 runs were scampered. 4 runs required from 4 balls. Bernie remarked his run, changed his field as the shadows grew ever longer. Time is of little consequence in this part of the world and it was way past 8.00pm that Bernie hurtled into his next delivery which Matt clipped through the field but Jamie was run out going for a second run. Matt still had the strike but he was unable to pierce the field on the remaining 3 balls and honours were shared. Matt was very disappointed that he had been unable to secure the victory that his almost solo effort deserved in quite his best innings for The Crescent.

Beers were sunk in the garden of The Ash Tree Inn and on this particular day Sunday cricket appeared to be in good health. The sun had long set before The Crescent reluctantly made a move for the long drive home and the less enticing prospect of a Monday morning.