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Result - Castle Hill

Sun May 20th Draw : Grannies 249 for 5 / Castle Hill 181 for 7

Match report

Castle Hill asked the Grannies to bat, which was fine given we had plenty of batsmen.
The problem was finding two openers, which resulted in the captain deciding who it should be even though he was told he should do it himself !!!!
The Castle Hill bowlers started tightly and Stuart Slaughter was unluckily bowled off his pads for 1 with the ball going down the leg side.
This bought in Ed Gardiner-Hill, who along with James Caldwell, proceeded to score at 6 an over and put on a big 2nd wicket partnership.
Much to Ed's disappointment he went for 57, hitting a full toss straight to square leg and James went eventually for 89, who had been joined by Mike Bellhouse.
The rate of scoring did not change much, with even a switch hit from Mike off their spinner, who remained unbeaten on 92.
Toby Gundry (4), Will Porter (0) and Paddy Moser (4*) tried to increase the scoring rate, but the damage had been done earlier.
The Grannies declaring at tea on 249 for 5 from 38 overs.

Tom Bell started tididly up the hill, with Jonny Morris at the other end.
But Jonny struggled, bowling rather a lot of wides and so Will Porter replaced him after one over.
Tom struck in his second and ended up with figures of 2 for 28 from 7 overs.
Jonny took over from Will, 0 for 11 from 4 overs and had a bit more success bowling around the wicket, ending with 0 for 32 from 6 overs.
Unfortunately, the wickets were not coming for the Grannies and 8 were still needed when the 20 overs started.
We turned to spin at one end, with Mike getting some considerable turn at times and did manage one wicket and both Harry Yeates (4 overs for 14 runs) and Stuart (4 overs for 25 runs) having no success at the other end.
So with overs running out it was time to try and buy a wicket, on came Ed, bowling some slow stuff !!!
It worked, he picked up a wicket in his first and second over and finished with 2 wickets for 25 off 5 overs.
Mike also got 2 more and he finished with 3 wickets for 39 runs off 10 overs.
The overs though kept ticking by and with one Castle Hill batsmen scoring over 50 not out we could only get them to 181 for 7 off 40 overs.
Three of the wickets were good catches by James, Harry and Will P.

Credit to Castle Hill, they kept out everything we threw at them and still scored runs.
We perhaps should have declared at around 220 runs to give us a few more overs and not such a big target.
So we were unable to avenge our defeat from last year, but a good game none the less, on a lovely sunny day, with everyone involved.
Many thanks to all who played.
Enjoy the rest of the season.
Will

Match info

Friendly Sunday cricket on what will be a slow track

Also playing:
Will Porter
Paddy Moser

Location
Castle Hill,
Brenchley,
TN12 7BN

How to get there
Opposite The Castle pub, on the road from Brenchley to Marden
Near Tunbridge Wells