Broadstairs Cricket Club
Broadstairs Cricket Club
This week Broadstairs had a home game with joint placed OD CUACO.
CUACO won the toss and decided to bat. As previous weeks, Ellison and Flint shared the new ball and bowled well from the off, beating the outside edge on plenty of occasions and keeping the pressure on. Bradley struck in his second over, Alex Hogben taking the catch at short cover. However Broadstairs were made to wait for their next wicket; despite bowling well the CUACO batsmen were having their fair share of luck. Opener Parr attacked from the first ball and brought up his 50. Carter and McLennan were unable to pick up a wicket in their spells, but the Broadstairs legend Chris Kidd made the breakthrough in his first over, nicely caught by Fox and the visitors were 89-2 at drinks.
Broadstairs other left arm spinner Oli Frewin teamed up with Kidd and the pair twirled away. Frewin getting his first when Webster charged down the track and missed, Hardy doing the job with the gloves. When Saunders fell in the same manner in Frewin’s next over followed by his third, clean bowling France, Broadstairs were on a roll. With 13 overs remaining CUACO were 147-5. Number 3 Webster was hanging around, batting patiently for his team; he finished the innings unbeaten on 76 with Ainger supporting him during the final overs and they set a total of 218.
Frewin was the pick of the bowlers 10-0-46-3, Kidd 10-1-41-1 and Ellison 8-2-29-1.
The Broadstairs reply got off to a bad start, Hogben mistiming a pull to the fourth delivery and when Fox was caught behind for 4 followed by Jayojit caught and bowled for 14, Broadstairs had collapsed to 25-3. McLennan was next to go, stumped and at 50-4 the seasiders had an uphill battle.
Enter George Kidd and Matt Hardy, in tough conditions with the ball spinning and bouncing extravagantly, the pair dug in and pounced on the loose deliveries. George played a very mature innings, relishing the challenge and Hardy at the other end was using his experience and patience mixed in with the occasional boundary. Kidd brought up his half century and the pair had really turned this game around. But with the reply on 145, George was struck on the pad and sent on his way for a superb 63.
Harry Carter replaced George with 73 required from the final 10 overs and Hardy had his eye. However, Broadstairs seemed to get bogged down, Carter departed for 3 and Flint joined Hardy with the run rate climbing. Hardy brought up his first 50 of the season and both batsmen were running well & picking up boundaries. With 12 balls remaining Broadstairs still required 21, Hardy smashed the ball towards the houses on Park Avenue, the big crowd of spectators that had gathered to watch the match and enjoy some drinks in the sunshine went silent, the fielder gathered himself on the boundary and we all waited to see if the ball would clip a branch. Sadly, the fielder claimed the catch and Matt had to walk off for a brilliant 69.
Chris Kidd and Chris Flint battled on for the final few deliveries but we ended up 6 runs short.
A brilliantly contested game with some exceptional performances, Frewin with the ball, George and Matt with the bat, nearly getting us over the line but it wasn’t to be.
Broadstairs travel to Sidcup next week for the final game of the first half of the season wanting to get back to winning ways.
