Borstal 1st XI v Mote 3rd XI: 4th July 2015

Thanks to Mark Bristow who captained in the skippers absence and who wrote the following report about Saturdays game.

The Mote 3rd dropped into the Kent Regional League 1A Central relegation zone with a heavy defeat away to a rapidly improving Borstal side after a week in which availability was to prove a huge issue.

After cry-offs throughout the week for various reasons it was largely down to the endeavours of Lewis Bone, the 4th team captain, that both sides in the bottom half of the club were able to field 11 players, a minor miracle given the situation on Thursday and Friday nights.
For both teams it was always going to be an uphill struggle and after winning the toss at Borstal the 3rds elected to field first in the hope of extracting bowling points.

Things looked promising when Nathan Pereira struck with an early wicket during a tidy opening spell while at the other end Rob Adams, bowling 12 overs straight through was unlucky to emerge wicketless after a couple of dropped catches.
However you always sensed that the Borstal batsmen had another gear and so it proved as the scoring accelerated rapidly. Chris Bell claimed the wicket of the ever dangerous Danny Tingley with a well taken caught and bowled but it was a rare success as Borstal hurried to 276 for four from their overs, a total that was always going to prove beyond reach of understrength Mote batting.
That said Henry Buckland batted well, after a couple of early loose shots for his 36, but wickets fell at regular intervals and although Mark Bristow, Pereira and Rob Adams, hung around we eventually limped to 103 all out.