Kenway Junior Shines With Maiden Ton!!

This week saw the VCL XI take on local rivals Capel.
After 3 defeats in a row, the team knew that a win was a must if we wanted to maintain a push for back to back league wins. With the rain coming down, both captains decided to start the game at 1:30 to try and get as much of a game in as possible. The toss was completed, with Capel winning and choosing to field first. Dorking knew that posting a total could be difficult on what seemed a green and damp wicket.
Freddie and Charlie Edwards opened with both rotating the strike nicely. Freddie hitting his first boundary off the bowling of J.Whitehouse, with another quickly following. Freddie was out soon after however, trying to play the ball back down the ground only to be caught by S.Jaques for 11. This brought Charlie Kenway (Trev) to the crease. Charlie Edwards continued to score but was soon caught behind trying to work it to leg for 16. Andy Homewood joined trev at the crease and both started to score freely. Trev, having just brought up a very well-played 50, knew that it was time to start to accelerate. 50 became 70 very quick and a feeling that today may be his day began to loom. Wingy, patient as ever, continued to wait for the bad ball, which inevitably came, to take him closer to yet another 50. With trev getting ever closer to his maiden century, Wingy brought up his 50. Now attention turned to whether or not Charlie could get to the milestone, having moved into the 90’s, trev was dropped after snicking behind, his only real blemish in his innings. With trev on 96, he flicked one down towards fine leg, a big cry of ‘YES’ came from the middle, only for the right boot of young Samuel Johnson to stop the ball reaching the boundary. 2 runs closer, however, it only took trev a few more balls before a bomb down the ground brought up his maiden century. Another bomb over the leg side took the score to 203 off 41 overs. Dorking knew this would be enough and off they came. Trev finishing 110* and Wingy 56*.
Over to the bowlers, Travis (3-16) and George (2-18) opened up, with George picking up the early wicket of Max Harris for 2. Not too long after, Travis had his first of 3 wickets, having James Whitehouse caught behind for 11. Another wicket fell soon after, with Wingy taking a good catch at mid-off of travis for his second. Travis then decided he was going to be a bully and bowl the young girl on Capels team first ball for his third and final wicket. Ridler (1-14) and J.Homewood (1-10) came into the attack, with the latter picking up the wicket of the potentially dangerous Dominic Venn. With Capel now 5 down, Oli Margetts and the young Charlie Atkinson decided to drop anchor. Charlie Edwards came into the attack at the expense of the skipper Ridler to try and pick up the important wicket, Jack and Charlie both bowled tight but were unable to get the breakthrough we needed. George came back into the attack in place of Charlie and Cameron Homewood replaced Jack. Cameron getting the breakthrough when he bowled young Atkinson. George then got the long-standing Margetts out with one that nipped back a bit to leave the visitors 7 down. Cameron then had Ketan Petal caught by his brother at mid-off, with Ketan obviously trying to block out for a draw by attempting smash the ball through the covers. Cameron (3-3) then bowled another young lad who held his bat well to leave Capel 9 down, still needing to bat out 7 overs to secure a draw. Travis came back into the attack along with Ridler to try to get the winning wicket, both coming close on multiple occasions. With 7 balls left Ridler finally managed to get the winning wicket with a yorker that moved enough to get passed the already planted bat of Capels number 11. Capel all out for 72 and a big win for the VCL 1 side that keeps us in touch with top of the league.
Once again, huge congratulations to Charlie Kenway for scoring his first ton, and first Kenway ton. First of many to come.
With a break this coming Sunday due to the cycle race, the VCL side wait until the following Sunday when they play top of the league Abinger in what could be a potentially title deciding affair.

Updated 13:16 - 15 Oct 2019 by Chris Pike