It has been a great start to the 2019 season for Sevenoaks Vine’s 2nd XI, as they defeated Lordswood’s 2nd by 3.00pm on Saturday afternoon.
Having lost the toss and put in the field, the bowlers made the most of a bit of overcast swing and spot of green on the Lordswood pitch and dominated the Lordswood batsmen. With wickets for all the bowlers, Al Christie (1/26) and Piers Robinson (2/10) opened up, before Sevenoaks debutant Matt Dalton came on and set about destroying their middle order with 4/31 – which included 3 wickets in one over, but missing out on a hat trick on his league debut. The Lordswood innings was then put to bed by two other Vine debutants, Freddie Young (2/15) and Joe Banks (1/0), bowling them out for a total of 86.
With a fast turnaround between innings, because tea wasn’t ready yet, much to the dismay of Captain Anderson, the Vine batsmen wanted to get the runs on the board and head home. After losing Tom Harvey for 2, Mike Thompson lead the way with an unbeaten 53 not out. With cameos from Chad Quinney, who fell LBW for 16 and Ben Anderson (12*) the game was wrapped up just in time to enjoy the post-match tea.
An excellent start to the season for the 2nd XI, who welcome Premier League new boys Blackheath to the Vine next Saturday.
Kent Regional Cricket League 2A Central: Sevenoaks Vine 3rd (206-5) beat Rainham 3rd (152 all out)
Sevenoaks Vine 3rd’s good start to the season continued with a 54 run win against Rainham. Having won the toss and elected to bat, Mike Martin (37) and Nigel Taylor (23) got the team off to a good start – Nigel Taylor was first out miscuing a drive into the covers and was quickly followed by Adrian Spurling (2) who inexplicably missed a full toss.
Matt Wilson (29) then had a good partnership with Mike Martin before Martin mistimed a pull shot. James Page (23) hit some lusty blows before both Wilson and Page were out to good catches in quick succession. Skipper Hugo Tudor (31*) joined Steve Bezuidenhout (39*) and the pair added 62 off 8 overs to set Rainham a challenging target of 206.
The Vine defence started well, with Will Ansell (4-16) taking a wicket in his first over and he in combination with Ryan Gavin (1-32) reduced Rainham to 48-4 after 12 overs. The spin twins of Mike Martin (2-30) and Hugo Tudor (2-22) then strangled the life out of the rest of the Rainham innings before Will Ansell returned to take the last wicket with the first ball of the last over.
Nigel Taylor excelled in the field with two catches and a run out and his son Charles Taylor bowled a promising 4 over spell in his first appearance. The 3rd XI have a week off this week before returning to action on June 1st against Kings Hill.
