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Result - Stone in Oxney

Sun Sep 18th Grannies won by 112 runs

Match report

It seemed dangerous, on accepting Stone's invitation to choose what to do, electing to bat, when the greenness of the wicket was almost luminous. However years of fielding first and getting dispatched over wide swathes of West Kent caused yours truly to bat; that and a healthy-looking array of batters, to be followed by a sharper-than-usual- looking battery of bowlers.
Our opening caused some foreboding, as Larry Brennan went for his strokes, normally good-looking and successful, and perished for not many. Three of our batsmen, though, with limited time at the crease during the season, hit fine form fast and struck Stone's experienced and more than capable attack to all parts. Matt Withers' shots flowed from the off and it was a surprise, and a disappointment, when he was bowled on 24. Sam Packer packed punchy pulls and drives into a quick fire 35. Jas Sanghera topped both of them with an innings of great style and power, going ultimately for 57. More though was required of those that followed, before Janice Wenham's famed tea could be taken with any sense of a job well done, and they mostly didn't disappoint. Joss Dare got 9, Will Dunn 16, Tom Bell 12, Jamie Dare 31, at speed and with power and elan, and Anthony Dunn an excellent 18* belying his modesty in his own assessment of his batting.
By the end we were all out for what seemed at the time a more than competitive 217, albeit rather less than Stone usually got against us....
Tea, though taken with an enthusiasm befitting its quality - and quantity - slowed nobody down, and the Grannies in the field were rapidly out of the blocks. Jamie Dare (with the disappointment of missing out on a blue due to a broken thumb only weeks behind him) bowled one of the openers with the first ball of the innings; a ball which from first slip was as good as any I've seen bowled by a Granny, fast and moving in late from left-arm round and flattening the stumps. Sam Packer then trapped the other opener LBW, also for 0. And when Sam had their no 3 miraculously caught by an airborne Will Dunn, and their no 4, Stone's redoubtable captain, Owen Piper, bowled cheaply, and Jamie Dare got another bowled, the opposition were in full retreat at 53 for 5. Something of a rearguard was mounted by Scott Freeman, son of my mother's long-term helper and friend - also Stone's scorer - Doreen, but he perished on 47, and the innings was ended with rather unnecessary drama by Tom Bell bowling 9 balls and taking 3 for 1, stealing a little of the thunder from Shiv Haria Shah, who bowled a good-looking spell of 4-1-14-1.
Startlingly we had bowled Stone out for an unprecedentedly low 105 and the Grannies were victors by 112 runs, with Jamie's figures 6-0-33-2 and Sam's 6-0-19-3. The win was celebrated, modestly, at the Ferry, memories of sorrows drowned there year after year erased....at least for now.

Match info

Also playing: Anthony Dunn

Location
Stone in Oxney,
Tenterden,
TN30 7JL