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Result - Shepway Stragglers

Sun May 22nd Grannies lose by 35 runs

Match report

Thanks to Harry Yeates who managed to get three King�s Canterbury boys to play through their old Housemaster, we had eleven players in the end � actually we had 12 on the ground, as Nick Yeates also came along, and kindly scored. Will Jerabek had driven down from North Yorkshire in four and a half hours to be there in time for the intended start, and his wife, Tish ended up Umpiring (at square leg) for the whole match. It was not the most beautiful day and although everyone was ready at the allotted start time of 2pm just as the groundsmen were taking off the covers, it started raining and they put them on and off several times over the next hour and a half or so, before the game finally got under way at 3.50 as a 25-over match.

Ed Gardiner-Hill (stepping in for the injured Matt Siebert) had lost the toss and we fielded first with the Stragglers scoring 178-6. All of the bowlers tried hard and the after the opening spells (Ben Yeates 0 for 49 and Ore - a Kings under 15A player - 1 for 38) we did manage to slow down the scoring rate and take some wickets thanks to wily bowling from Alex Stone (2 for 29) and Mike Fernie (1 for 14). Harry Yeates (2 for 30) and Thompson (0 for 13) one of the Kings boys) bowled well at the death and we thought we were in with a shout in spite of having to bowl with a bar of soap. Quite a few catches went down in difficult conditions and the ball and ground made fielding very difficult. There was always a feeling that the Stragglers had more batsman to come.

The Stragglers opening attack was quick and Stephen Hornsby and Dhuram Ghidomal (another Kings lad who had made his 1st XI debut the day before aged 15) scored slowly to start with in dark conditions against very good bowling. Stephen tried to accelerate and did well before falling to a skyed hook for 28. Ed Gardiner-Hill came in hoping to raise the scoring rate and pulled his hamstring in his second over. With Ben Yeates as a willing runner Ed (27*) and Dhuram (58*) did all they could to attack against very good bowling but just could not get enough runs. In the last five overs some slower bowlers did come on and they were able to score more freely but it was unfortunately too late.

Unfortunately for the Grannies the conditions and a high quality Stragglers side packed with ex Kings 1st XI players conspired against them and they came up short. Thanks are due to all of those who made the effort to come along. Judging by the amount of water on the roads on the way home we were extremely lucky to get a game at all

Match info



Location
The King's School Birley's Pavilion,
St Stephen Road,
Canterbury,
CT2 7JS