a report on the weekend in Battle by an unknown, even mysterious tourist.....Brightling Park (sat 22nd July)After a serious session the night before....
7.00 Kings Head
8.30 The Blacksmiths
12.00 the 1066
02.00 shown the door by the bouncers.....
the MHCC touring squad + wags arrived at a steaming Brightling Park cc where light drizzle was to fall on and off for the first two hours of the match. MHCC after having been asked to bat went on to score 244-6. Rohan 52, Lee 73 and Mark Stevens 74, all gave early chances in their innings, but all went on to punish the bowling with some fine shots.
There is no truth in the rumour that Mark was later reported to the Sussex CPA for the vicious treatment of the young bowler Flint 3-0-31-1 whom he battered!!
After tea MHCC invited BPCC back into the game. John, Fitzy, and Alan coming in for punishment from the early order, even after Sameer and Dave Brown came into the attack a combination of fine shot play and some dropped catches BPCC were nicely placed at 117-1 with 20 overs remaining. The game was nicely poised.
Led in the field by Lee's fine example, MHCCfinally started to chip away and wickets started to fall on a regular basis. Sameer finishing with 4-39 and MHCC's new young, up and coming allrounder Dave Brown 5-22.
MHCC 244-6 Brightling Park 175Batting:
Rohan 52, Lee 73, Paul W 0, Arthur 0,
Mark S 74, Dave B 26 n/o, Fitzy 0 n/o
Bowling: John 6-1-37-0, Fitzy 4-0-33-1, Sameer 13-0-49-4, Alan 5-0-31-0,
Dave B 6.4-0-22-5Fielding: catches - Lee 3, Rohan, John. Stumping - Rohan
Netherfield (Sunday 23rd July)Bolstered by the arrival of Jeff Hecker and captain of the day Anuj, MHCC playingnumbers had risen to 13. This problem was soon simplified by Rohan and Neeta visiting local vineyards and Ken waking up during the night with a swelling which was later to turn purple!! This rendering him unfit to play as the swelling had not reduced by morning. Alan and Julie were late and would like to thank Ken for his call at 7.30 that morning!
MHCC batted first and scored 204-5, Anuj's decision to carry on the batting order from the previous day worked well as Fitzy was given the job of protecting Sameer from the new ball. Fitzy finally went in the 10th over, Sams well paced innings (70 in 90 mins) included some drives mainly through mid off. Paul Wilson who failed the previous day made a fine 55 and Myddelton's new middle of Alan and John both chipped in with 35 and 21 respectively, a mixture of late cuts, late cuts, and even later late cuts and some thrashing to leg. Job done.
After tea MHCC's bowling attack was a trip down memory lane. Mark Stevens paired with Jeff leading the attack. Mark producing lots of bounce not usually assosiated with MHCC bowlers, and the wicket was doing a bittoo!! At the other end Jeff produced more jaffas than McVitties. As on the previous day MHCC found themselves looking at a defeat as the home side were nicely placed at 100-3 at the start of 20 overs. Q Dave Brown, agin wickets fell on a regular basis Dave finishing with 5-43 along with Jeff's earlier spell of 6 overs taking 3-24 all three bowled middle peg.
MHCC 204-5 Netherfield 167-9 (all out)Batting:
Sameer 70, Fitzy 1,
Paul W 55, Alan 35, John 21n/o, Lee 9, Mark S 1n/o
Bowling: Mark S 6-1-19-0, Jeff 6-0-24-3, John 5-0-23-0,
Dave B 13-4-43-5,
Alan 5-0-21-0, Sameer 4-0-16-0
Fielding: catches - Paul W, Lee, Arthur
