In a weekend where the weather threatened to ruin most fixtures across the Kent League, Sevenoaks Vine made the trip along the A2 with hope, rather than expectation of getting a full game in.
Despite the weather, the Vine won the nickel flick and asked the hosts to bat first on a green surface. In form paceman Miles Richardson continued where he left off from last week, taking three early wickets in an opening spell full of pace, bounce and enthusiasm. Richardson was ably supported by recalled left arm James Carslaw. The seamer provided control and was rewarded with the vital wicket of Tanweer Sikander.
Despite a couple of short rain delays, and overs being reduced, the Vine remained in control. A change in the bowling saw Karl Pearson introduced, raring to go after his Deliveroo refreshments at the rain break. He continued to apply pressure and supported Chris Vernon who found some swing. Figures of 1-17 and 2-5 respectively left Blackheath reeling at 56-7.
The final three wickets were picked up in timely fashion by spin twins Luke Schlemmer and Andrew Reid Dick. Both left arm spinners, but offering totally different qualities left the Blackheath tailenders in a world of strife. Schlemmer, returning impressive figures of 2-3 with his leg stump darts while the spin and drift of Reid Dick on patrol around off stump finished the innings off with Blackheath being dismissed for a well below par 70.
Another rain delay left the Vine chasing a revised total of 63. Vernon and Price opened the innings for the visitors, and despite the former leaving early, Price put on a hard hitting display. 36 from 26 balls including two mammoth maximums off former Kent bowler Ivan Thomas took the Vine to the brink of victory, before Price was run out after a mix up with Captain Schlemmer. The final runs were knocked off in swift fashion, leaving the Vine joint top and an unbeaten start to the 2021 season, They will be looking to continuing this run, with a trip to Sandwich this coming Saturday.
Kent Cricket League Premier 2nd Division: Sevenoaks Vine 2nd (200/7) beat Hayes 2nd (193 all out)
The Vine beat Hayes 2nd XI in a thriller in the second league game of the season. Another rain affected game meant conditions were tough for both sides, and after a delayed start the Vine were put into bat by the opposition on a wet and green looking surface. The Vine managed to put a score of 200-7 on the board, declaring to try and force a result due to the intermittent weather, with contributions shared amongst Thomas Harvey, Henry Procter, Cyrus White, Joe Banks and Arjun Sharma. With the bad weather still causing issues, 40 overs were available for either side to win or the game would have been declared a ‘No Result’.
Things didn’t start to well for the Vine with the Hayes openers getting off the mark at a good tempo; things went from bad to worse for the Vine as the Hayes skipper passed 50 and took the total to 164-4 with 10 overs to go. Spinners Joe Banks and Freddie Young bowled tidy spells and did everything they could to restrict the Hayes batmen, Banks with 3 wickets and Young with a single scalp. With Hayes looking set for a comfortable victory, a miraculous passage of play ensued in one of the best fightbacks the 2nd XI have seen in recent years. Matt Dalton took 2 wickets in two balls, giving the Vine a chance to pull off something spectacular. With the score at 193-6, it was still looking out of reach for the Vine until Dalton picked up his third wicket of the day, a great catch being held by Nick Bryant in the process. The crowds were building up around the Vine and a great atmosphere buzzed around the ground, which spurred on fellow opening bowler Harry Robinson to pick up the 8th wicket of the innings. With Hayes still needing 8 to win with 2 wickets in hand, a few maiden overs put the game on a knife’s edge with the score 193-8 going into the final over. Harry Robinson had ice in his veins holding his nerve to pick up the final 2 wickets with 3 balls of the game to spare, leading to emphatic celebrations from those watching around the ground as the ball crashed into the stumps with a perfect yorker. The final 4 wickets were taken without a run scored, an amazing performance by the Vine bowlers to take the side to the top of the Kent 2nd XI Premier League.
Highlights from the game can be watched here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-dCxppEFe0
Kent Regional Cricket League Division 2 Central: Swanscombe & Greenhithe (175/5) beat Sevenoaks Vine 3rd (119 all out)
Sevenoaks Vine 3rd XI played their first game of the season away at Swanscombe. Fielding a team with no fewer than six debutants, Vine won the toss and elected to field. Steve Brown removed one of the openers second ball with a fine catch by Mo Parvez and bowled a fine spell taking 2-24. A couple of hard missed chances proved critical as Swanscombe’s numbers 3 and 4 batted very well and enabled Swanscombe to reach 175-5 off their 30 overs. Dave Beckett, Mo Parvez and Carl Nightingale all bowled well without much luck.
In reply Steve Bezuidenhout opened with Andy Akerman and got the Vine off to a good start before he fell for 18 as the score approached 50. Akerman was rattling along and made an excellent 44 before falling LBW with the score on 79. Needing 100 off the last 16 with 8 wickets left felt achievable but the innings fell away disappointingly with only Mo Parvez making much impression but after a couple of lusty blows he fell for 14 and the Vine were 119 all out.
Old Oaks (117) beat The New Beacon (114)
The Old Oaks looked to make it two wins in a row against a team made up of New Beacon staff and parents on Friday in a 18 over game. The Old oaks negotiated to bat first but it was the bowling side who were on top in the early exchanges with the Old Oaks finding runs hard to come by. Judd and Tovey were both dismissed cheaply, and it was Constantine, promoted up the order who struck the first boundary in about the 8th over.
After 11 overs the Old oaks were on 45 for 3, but there was no let up from the Beacon as they bought their useful opening bowler back on. Beckett, Tiley and Filmer all made late contributions to rescue the innings and they finished on 117 after their 18 overs. A bit below par but with a good bowling performance they had a chance.
Tiley & Filmer opened the bowling and both bowled superbly, the opening batsmen struggled to get them away and after six overs they only had about 25 runs. Beckett and Nix took up the mantle and also kept the pressure on, Nix taking the wicket of James Mitchell with a yorker Wasim Akram would have been proud of.
The Beacon Skipper could clearly play and got a fairly rapid 25, but they were still a way behind the run rate. The Old Oaks bought on the normally reliable Hugo Tudor, who bowled what looked like dross from where I was standing but according to Hugo were actually excellent deliveries that the batsman was very lucky to hit for six, three times.
There was also an outstanding bit of fielding from Schaeffs, a diving stop on the boundary like you’d see in the IPL. He did blot his copybook later by letting through a couple of much more straightforward ones. In the end Dave Beckett bowled the last over with the beacon needing 10, but they fell two or three short.
Sevenoaks Vine Girls U12 (84/3) beat Speldhurst Girls U12 (70/7)
Another win for the U12 Girls last night against Speldhurst at The Vine. The game only went ahead thanks to Sophie, Victoria and Violet agreeing to play for the opposition, so many thanks to them. Indeed as The Vine had a late withdrawal Sophie ended up batting and bowling for both sides. The Vine, again captained by Rosie, lost the toss and were asked to bowl.
Lucy B opened the bowling, taking two wickets in her first over. Rosie and Darcey followed suit each taking a wicket in their first over.Speldhurst were in reeling, but then their district player Xander came in hitting a rapid 22. Next in for Speldhurst were Victoria and Violet making their hardball debuts, they both batted superbly sharing a partnership of 20. But a wicket for Sophie and Emilia and an accurate two overs each from Lucy W, doing brilliantly on debut, and Jemima restored The Vine advantage. Speldhurst had scored 70 run for the loss of 7 wickets so a net score of 35, leaving The Vine needing a net score of 36 to win.
The Vine opened with a strong pair of Darcey and Lucy B, who shared a partnership of 15 in the first four overs. It proved a good call as importantly they saw off two fairly fast overs from Xander. Jemima and Darcy then shared an excellent partnership, with Darcy top scoring for The Vine with 15. Emilia and Lucy W were next in and had to deal with the returning Xander, doing very well to keep the Vine ahead of the target. Finally Rosie and Sophie shared an excellent partnership to ensure a Vine victory. The Vine had scored 84 runs, only 14 more than Speldhurst, but crucially had only lost three wickets compared to Speldhurst’s seven, so ended with a net score of 69 compared to Speldhurst’s 35.
Looking ahead to next week we are away against Shoreham & Otford, who have merged. There will be a fair amount of rotation as we have about 14 girls available each week and only eight places.
