Knockers Vs Kings Hill

Win :: Played on Sunday 20th July 2014

Kings Hill
229-6

Knockers
230-5

Match Report

Of the 11 players who represented Knockers in this fixture, 8 went to Tonbridge School, one taught at Tonbridge School, one had a son at Tonbridge School, and one wished he had gone to Tonbridge School. In what turned out to be a thoroughly entertaining game, Stuart Seldon dusted off some early season cobwebs with an authoritative century to lead Knockers to a second win in as many weeks. In the somewhat eerie setting of the King’s Hill Oval - think ‘The Truman Show’ - Knockers followed a laboured fielding performance with a spirited batting display.

King’s Hill won the toss on a grey afternoon and elected to bat first. Knockers opened up with Will Doubleday-Potts and the returning Harry Elliott, playing only his second game since 2011. After some slightly misdirected opening overs, Elliott swung one back in to bowl the opener through the gate. Both bowled tightly and found some movement with the overhead conditions, however King’s Hill progressed more or less unscathed on a fairly lifeless deck. Sachin Rawson came on to bowl a tight spell, probing outside the off stump and regularly beating the outside edge. At the other end, the King’s Hill no.3 took a bit of a liking to Seamus Connelly’s best efforts at bodyline bowling, and the opposition quickly moved on to 130-1 from 19 overs, at which point the players left the field due to the threat of lightning. Guy Howe would like it to be on the record that he did not wish to leave the field. When play resumed, captain Richard Calver brought himself into the attack and bowled with pace and swing. He would eventually make the breakthrough, when the no.3 could only sky the ball to mid off, where Tom Elliot took a good catch. After a short spell of Tom Elliot’s unconventional left arm round the wicket, Simon Rawson and Charles Doubleday-Potts changed the game for Knockers, bowling the final eight overs for only 36 runs. Rawson was rewarded for his efforts when he clean bowled one batsman in the 39th over (a wicket maiden). At the other end, The Duke delivered his usual mixture of different paces and angles to pick up three wickets. King’s Hill closed their forty overs on 229-6, which looked a competitive total.

There was controversy from the first ball of Knockers’ innings, as Seldon was struck on the pads, going back, in front of all three stumps. Standing umpire Harry Elliott was unconvinced and unmoved, however. Seldon and Watts struck some early boundaries, bringing up 45 in 7 overs before Watts played all around a straight one to depart for 23. Guy Howe fell soon after, betrayed by his beloved pull shot as he could only find the hands of midwicket. The Duke entered the fray and played nicely before meeting a similar fate to Howe. It was the partnership that followed, between Seldon and Sachin Rawson, that turned the game in Knockers’ favour. From a perilous 81-3, the pair put on 99 through a combination of excellent placement from Rawson, bludgeoned boundaries from Seldon, and intelligent running between the wickets. When Rawson eventually departed for a well-made 25, Calver came to the crease and struck some meaty blows down the ground, bringing Knockers ever closer to the target. Stuart brought up his ton to rapturous applause from the clan of Tonbridge School boys that he had brought with him to the game. Nerves were briefly jangled when Stuart went for 118 but soon settled again by the composed batting of Simon Rawson, who with Calver saw Knockers home to what looked at one stage to be an unlikely victory.

In a tenuous attempt to give some symmetry to this report, I’ll end with a quote from ‘The Truman Show’, from the point in the film where Truman asks the creator of the show if anything was actually real. The creator’s response can be applied to Knockers’ performance today:

‘You were real, that’s what made you so good to watch.’

 

Batting

Batsman	How Out	4s	6s	Runs
Stuart Seldon	lbw	0	0	118
Tom Watts	bowled	0	0	23
Guy Howe	caught	0	0	0
Charles Doubleday-Potts	caught	0	0	12
Sachin Rawson	lbw	0	0	25
Richard Calver	not out	0	0	25
Simon Rawson	not out	0	0	7
Harry Elliot	dnb	0	0	0
William Doubleday-Potts	dnb	0	0	0
Seamus Connelly	dnb	0	0	0
Tom Elliot	dnb	0	0	0

 

Bowling

Bowler	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts
Harry Elliot	6.0	0	31	1
William Doubleday-Potts	5.0	0	21	0
Sachin Rawson	8.0	1	30	0
Seamus Connelly	4.0	0	45	0
Richard Calver	6.0	0	29	1
Tom Elliot	3.0	0	24	0
Simon Rawson	4.0	1	17	1
Charles Doubleday-Potts	4.0	0	19	3