1stXI Match Report: Bexley v Beckenham

A visit to the charming home of champions Bexley and a chance to regale colleague Richard with tales of the Rick Wakeman gig the night before to look forward to, had the Beckenham scorer looking forward to the encounter and a chance to end the dreadful start to the season.

With both scorers safely ensconced in the scorebox, umpire Aaron Page announced that Beckenham had won the toss and invited Bexley to bat first on what club member John Trice proudly proclaimed “a 200 wicket”.

First impressions were that it was a typical Manor Way wicket being true and easy-paced with not a great deal of pace as David Moody and Junaid Nadir strove for the breakthrough.  Both bowled accurately but Calum Basey and Ben Aldred were able to accumulate runs steadily with the fifty coming up in even time.  Skipper Alex Senn then made a double bowling change bringing Kamran Khan and James Ronay on.  Khan immediately hit the correct line and length at a lively pace.  Sadly, Ronay seemed unable to find his rhythm and was replaced by Rob Clements who almost immediately broke through having Basey playing loosely across the line and being trapped in front.  Khan then reproduced his form of the previous two weeks when he first had Shaun Evans edging behind to ‘Barney’ Balmforth and then bowling Adam Ball, neither batsmen troubling the VIPs in the box.  Clements then struck again when he clung onto a low return catch from Ben Aldred to have Bexley rocking on 62-4.

Matt Stiddard and George Haley then combined and steadily brought the innings back on track although Khan was still bowling immaculately to complete his ten overs for a magnificent return of 2-9.  With Senn ringing the changes and even bringing himself on for a spell in the absence of brother Adam, further inroads were not forthcoming.  Both players moved the score along at a good rate and both recorded fine fifties with the century partnership looming.  Nadir returned and immediately had Stiddard well held by Clements for a fine 64.  On and on went Haley who now started to unleash his big guns.  Help came from Turner and skipper Adam Riley until both were removed by Nadir as 200 was passed and, when the innings closed, Haley was undefeated for a superb 94.  For Beckenham, the standout bowling performance was Kamran Khan’s 10-5-9-2.

An untried opening partnership of young Gethin Roberts and Kamran Khan then sallied forth to face Kiwi Ed Nuttall and Kent’s Jas Singh.  Having boldly struck Singh for a straight boundary, Khan edged the next ball behind and it was ‘here we go again’ time.  Young Roberts, meanwhile, had settled in and was playing some confident, polished strokes to indicate that he could well become a fixture in that slot.  Together with skipper Senn, the pair pushed on until Roberts’ very promising knock was cut short when he was bowled by Freddie Foster’s left-arm spin.  Senn was batting in improved fashion until he holed out to Foster for 15.  Then the rot began to set in as the middle order all got into the teens but then began to fold against Bexley’s spin attack until the score stood at a miserable 98-7.  The situation then began to improve rather belatedly as Dave Moody and Rob Clements both batted well to share a stand of 30 before Moody departed.  The possibility of a first batting bonus point now manifested itself as Clements and Balmforth ran like hares in pursuit of it but, on Clements’ dismissal, the point eluded Beckenham and another defeat anchored them firmly to the bottom of the table.  Shaun Evans took the bowling award with 4-21.

Score card: https://kcl.play-cricket.com/website/results/5093735 (External site)