Knockers Vs Otford
Win :: Played on Sunday 23rd June 2002Knockers
185-7
Otford
182-10
Match Report
The annual clash of the Smiths was an eventful one. Having said that though the title of the game is not quite correct as Peter Smith, as match manager, decided to play golf instead of playing....
Anyway, batting first Knockers started to make steady progress with Botting and Styles in good form. However it wasnt long until Botting played the ball onto his own stumps to be out for 10. C Irwin then looked solid for a few balls until he failed to move much and was caught LBW to be given by the umpiring of Thomas. G Miller played some good strokes for his knock of 22 before being caught. Guest for the day Brian Richardson was also caught but for 6. Paul Seldon looked in reasonable form prior to playing a silly shot and getting bowled. L Spencer-Allen managed to avoid being out cheaply again but only after a long time on 0. He had a lengthy partnership of over 50 with Styles before the latter fell for a very useful 69. He was to replaced by the painting by numbers Thomas who after a succession of mighty blows, intermingled with blocks, was stumped in a mangle of flaying arms. He had amassed 21 with such blows. It was left to C Spencer-Allen to play the last few overs before the declaration to allow Knockers to finish on 185-7dec.
The Otford reply started slowly. The openers failed to make significant inroads into the Knockers total, nor did the bowlers into the Otford lineup. Finally the bowling of Jariwalla took effect and he took two wickets in two balls to open the game up. With the game rapidly descending into a draw, captain Darry decided to open the game up some more. Styles came onto bowl and dismissed 2 victims with some unbelievable scenes. However Thomson took a liking to his bowling and smashed a match changing 111 to completely change the complexion of the game. Suddenly Otford were in the ascendency and Knockers were facing a loss. A quick change of tactics brought P Seldon back into the attack and L Sp-Allen in for the first time. With 6 wickets to get and Otford only 28 behind it was looking quite unlikely for Knockers to get a favourable result. However some accomplished bowling from Seldon managed to remove Thomson and then he and Sp-Allen took the 5 wickets between them with a run out to win the match with Otford only 3 runs behind.
Another close match for the Knockers which thankfully ended in the first win of the season.
Batting
| Batsman | How Out | 4s | 6s | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Botting | bowled | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Paul Styles | caught | 11 | 0 | 69 |
| Charlie Irwin | lbw | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Guthrie Miller | caught | 3 | 0 | 22 |
| Brian Richardson | caught | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Paul Seldon | bowled | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Lynden Spencer-Allen | not out | 3 | 0 | 23 |
| Martin Thomas | bowled | 3 | 1 | 21 |
| Corin Spencer-Allen | not out | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Nick Jariwalla | dnb | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Andy Darry | dnb | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Bowling
| Bowler | Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wkts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corin Spencer-Allen | 5.0 | 2 | 13 | 0 |
| Paul Seldon | 5.0 | 1 | 6 | 3 |
| Nick Jariwalla | 8.0 | 0 | 22 | 2 |
| Guthrie Miller | 3.0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Paul Styles | 5.0 | 0 | 54 | 2 |
| Andy Darry | 4.0 | 1 | 20 | 0 |
| Brian Richardson | 1.0 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Lynden Spencer-Allen | 5.4 | 0 | 18 | 2 |
| Richard Botting | 2.0 | 0 | 25 | 0 |
