Stragglers of Asia vs Blue Mantles CC 4 August 2022 played at the Nevill Ground, Royal Tunbridge Wells
Result: Blue Mantles CC won by 165 runs
Match Report
The Bluemantles won the toss, and unsurprisingly elected to bat first. The pitch looked like a road, and the sun was beating down, as it would do all day.
The Stragglers took to the rather large field one short of a full complement, as unfortunately one of the side struggles with days of the week, and thought the game was due to take place the following day. Fidler and Dawson opened the bowling, both finding their line and length quickly. Fidler’s extra pace was causing them some difficulties, and he was rewarded with two quick wickets, the first a good grab at first slip by skipper Ian Salter, and the second an LBW, removing two of their top three for a combined 2 runs. An excellent start in the circumstances, however it was a pitch that once you were ‘in’ offered quick scoring opportunities, aided by a lightning quick outfield. Being a man down meant plugging the gaps was a real challenge. Reid’s pace and bounce did for their opener, one short of his fifty, fending off a well directed short ball and gloving it to the safe hands of Stranger-Jones behind the stumps.
We were enormously grateful to Paddy Savage, who having come along to offer his support found himself coerced in to donning Rob Pollock-Hill’s spare whites and fielding after lunch, bringing us to a full XI.
The next partnership proved somewhat trickier to dislodge, and the Bluemantles number four batted extremely well, making an elegant and chanceless (as far as the writer can remember) hundred. He had some support from the other end too, and took the batting side to 286 when they declared – an imposing total, but one that on that pitch was always on the cards, and a similar total the day before had been got by the chasing side.
Salter and Stranger-Jones opened the batting, and both played some good strokes and ball was finding its way to the boundary fairly regularly. Unfortunately one loose shot from Ian was all it took to start a collapse, with Brown and Reid failing to trouble the scorers. The wickets kept on coming, and the only real resistance that they faced came from Dave Stranger-Jones who batted extremely well and looks a great addition to the club, match managers take note… At the tail end of the innings Pollock-Hill continued his recent aggressive approach, dispatching deliveries down the ground and showing the batsmen that had come before him how it should have been done. The final wicket fell with the Stragglers on a fairly dismal 121.
The Nevill Ground, as always a fantastic setting in which to play cricket, and we can only hope for a marked improvement in the 2023 match.
Team batting first: Bluemantle’s CC
| No. | Batsman
|
How out | Bowler | Score |
| 1 | G Burrough + | Ct Stranger-Jones | Reid | 49 |
| 2 | A Collins | Ct Salter | Fidler | 2 |
| 3 | E Monnington | LBW | Fidler | 0 |
| 4 | F Sharpe | Ct Fidler | Dawson | 134 |
| 5 | E Miller | Bowled | Reid | 39 |
| 6 | B Macintosh | Ct Pollock-Hill | Fidler | 16 |
| 7 | W Wheeler | St Stranger-Jones | Whyte | 4 |
| 8 | A Boscawen | Not Out | 11 | |
| 9 | R Naude | Bowled | Dawson | 21 |
| 10 | C Hobden | Ct Reid | Dawson | 4 |
| 11 | C Baron | Did Not Bat | ||
| Extras | 6 | |||
| TOTAL | 286 for 9 Wickets |
Bowling
| Bowler | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets |
| FidlerC | 11 | 2 | 59 | 3 |
| Dawson D | 10.5 | 0 | 75 | 3 |
| Reid J | 10 | 2 | 53 | 2 |
| Pollock-Hill R | 8 | 0 | 48 | 0 |
| Whyte T | 7 | 0 | 38 | 1 |
| Salter I | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
Team batting second: Stragglers of Asia
| No | Batsman | How Out | Bowler | Score
|
| 1 | I Salter * | Ct Burrough | Macintosh | 17 |
| 2 | D Stranger-Jones + | LBW | Naude | 40 |
| 3 | C Brown | Bowled | Hobden | 0 |
| 4 | J Reid | Ct Monnington | Hobden | 0 |
| 5 | T Bond | Bowled | Macintosh | 5 |
| 6 | I Perry | Ct Burrough | Naude | 7 |
| 7 | C Fidler | Ct and Bowled | Naude | 5 |
| 8 | T Whyte | Ct Baron | Naude | 12 |
| 9 | D Dawson | Not Out | 5 | |
| 10 | R Pollock-Hill | Bowled | Baron | 20 |
| 11 | ||||
| Extras 10 | ||||
| TOTAL | 121 for 9 Wickets |
| Bowler | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets |
| Baron | 2.3 | 0 | 20 | 1 |
| Macintosh | 7 | 1 | 34 | 2 |
| Hobden | 9 | 1 | 32 | 2 |
| Naude | 7 | 2 | 21 | 4 |
| Monnington | 4 | 2 | 9 | 0 |