Enterprising batting secures comfortable win for the hosts

On a fine afternoon it was agreed to play a win/lose 40 over match and play started promptly at 2.30pm (!?) with Crescent in the field. Opening bowlers Jake Brooks and Rob Eastwood were put under immediate pressure by the Buxted openers, who were constantly on the lookout for singles and quick to punish anything loose. The score raced to 55/0 after 10 overs with the batsmen looking comfortable and the bowlers feeling that they had not done too much wrong, but change bowlers Josh Pennycott and Shahzad showed that a sterner challenge was possible. Josh made the breakthrough, removing Harris with a zippy off-break, while at the other end Shahzad made life difficult by constantly varying his pace, having the other opener, Hoadley, well caught by debutant Geoff Bailey at mid-wicket and then shattering L.Burgess’s stumps with his trademark ‘arrow’ (a fast yorker). With the score then at 91/3 in the 21st over, it seemed that we had regained a measure of control, but number three Coddington was still there and at 177/4 after 36 overs, with professional Mark Pretorius at the other end, a final score of 220 or even 230 seemed possible. Joe Gatford then took a hand, bowling Coddington and then catching Pretorius off a skyer in the last over, leaving us still in the game facing an admittedly tough target of 216. Special praise is due to Shahzad for his stand-out figures of 8-2-14-2.

After a superlative tea – your correspondent cannot recall a better one – Joe Gatford went out to open the batting alongside guest Richard Rigg, known to be in excellent touch for Dome Mission. Richard fell early to an off-cutter, bringing Mike Newcombe to the wicket. Joe and Mike then consolidated and some typically lusty blows from Mike meant that after 20 overs the score had reached 82/1, only a handful of runs short of Buxted’s score at the same stage, and seemingly providing a good platform from which the target could be attacked. However Mike fell immediately after drinks and scoreboard pressure, building over the next ten overs, finally took its toll, with four wickets falling in three overs – Joe being the last of them, stumped for 51 in an attempt to accelerate. A target of 95 from 10 with only four wickets left looked - and proved to be - out of reach but aggressive play in a stand of 49 between Jake Brooks (38) and Rob Eastwood (29*) gave the scoreboard a measure of respectability.

It was a perfect evening to enjoy beers in front of the pavilion and night had fallen before the last of us reluctantly took our leave.