Knockers Vs Kemsing

Win :: Played on Sunday 20th May 2018

Knockers
207-4

Kemsing
182-5

Match Report

As the Knockers convened on a sun-kissed, picturesque Kemsing, the oppo were met with a remarkable sight – every Knocker arrived at the ground on time and none still inebriated from the night before. This was undoubtedly good news as the club had struggled to 9 players for the opening game. Ollie Marsh continued his 100% (toss) win record and elected to send Knockers out to bat on a pitch that can certainly be described as ‘on a hill’.

E. Marsh and S. Horner were sent out to open, looking assured and quickly reached a 50 and then 100-run partnership with both received standing ovations from the pavilion as they reached their 50s with an array of sumptuous strokes. Cricket had never looked so beautiful as they rattled along at over 5 an over. As C. Kutner and T. Dove returned from the local offie with some extra hydration on this hot Spring day, S. Horner tried to sweep a straight one and departed for a brilliant 58. This brought the evergreen S. Landers (who came to the crease off the back of an intense Winter net programme with a new blade) and E. Marsh together as they combined to add 67 to the score with Marshy knocking a big 6 over the man at square leg. He too swept and missed a straight one to depart for an entertaining 89 and leave him with a good advantage against his brother in the ‘Box Bet’ for the season. JT joined S. Landers who continued accumulating to score a well-earned 18 before being bowled by one that moved back up the slope. This brought in Knockers debutant Lucy Pringle (of Greg fame) who returned to the field after a 6 year absence from the game. Kemsing recognised their chance to slow the run rate with two new batsmen at the crease and several fielders wore shots as Knockers looked to accelerate the scoring. JT then fell to one that kept low which brought the other debutant, T. Dove, to the crease. This knockers pairing looked strong, ran well and carried us through to the close with a very respectable 207-4 off 40 overs, with both making a good start on their Knockers’ averages.

A good tea was enjoyed by all, none more so than T. Dove who ate his way through an entire watermelon almost single-handedly.

Knockers took to the field full of confidence after registering a well above-par score on a tricky pitch and opened up with O. Marsh and N. Dave who both bowled tight lines to restrict Kemsing’s openers to 40-0 off their 10 overs with the openers choosing to exclusively knock the ball either side of S. Landers who racked up the miles at backward square leg. On came the T. Dove and C. Kutner double act with the bookies refusing to take bets on whether C. Kutner would actually make it to the crease off his 30-yard run-up. They complemented each other very well with C. Kutner building pressure and T. Dove picking up a ‘partnership wicket’ courtesy of S. Landers’ belly trapping the ball as he fell to the ground, leaving Kemsing at 88-1 off 20 overs, with the game marginally in Knockers’ favour. Captain Marsh brought on J. Thompson down the hill and thoughtfully asked L. Pringle to bowl 7 overs on the bounce up the hill in her first game back after a dodgy ankle. They strangled Kemsing, only conceding 2 boundaries between them in their first 11 overs and L. Pringle picked up her first Knockers wicket. Kemsing had reached 131-2 off 33 overs, scoring at just over 3 runs an over against Knockers’ last bowling partnership and tried to up the rate against E. Marsh and S. Landers but their canny lines (and Scott’s moon balls) in their 4-over spell left Kemsing needing 48 off the last 3 overs. N. Dave and C. Kutner returned to wrap up the game for Knockers picking up a wicket apiece and a run out courtesy of Lando's return to Seb Horner's sure glove work as Kemsing finished at 182-5 as Knockers picked up a 25 run win in their first outing of the season.

Special note should go to captain O. Marsh who selflessly umpired 40 overs, didn’t score any runs, pick up any wickets and all he caught was sunburn by over 10 out of 80 of the day. Most pleasingly, the team did not stray from its values with dropped catches, an appearance from Old Knockers Ken Cowan and Pete Smith and superb team spirit to win a game with only 9 players. All-in-all, another great Knockers outing to win a game that we lost last year.

JT

 

Batting

Batsman	How Out	4s	6s	Runs
Ted Marsh	bowled	12	2	89
Seb Horner	bowled	7	0	58
Scott Landers	bowled	2	0	18
James Thompson	bowled	0	0	2
Lucy Pringle	not out	1	0	12
Thomas Dove	not out	1	0	6
Christian Kutner	dnb	0	0	0
Neil Dave	dnb	0	0	0
Ollie Marsh	dnb	0	0	0

 

Bowling

Bowler	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts
Ollie Marsh	5.0	1	11	0
Neil Dave	7.0	0	39	1
Christian Kutner	6.0	0	22	1
Thomas Dove	5.0	0	26	1
Lucy Pringle	7.0	2	17	1
James Thompson	6.0	0	24	0
Ted Marsh	2.0	0	8	0
Scott Landers	2.0	0	18	0

 

Match Photos