July 3, 2016
BB won by 2 wickets
In what has been a wet fish of a summer the BB were blessed with warm sunshine and a glorious Kentish day as they took the field against Provender, having been invited to bowl first. This suited the Brethren perfectly as the eleven boasted the finest fast bowling attack the club has to offer in the form of Richardson, Monkhouse and the Meredith brothers. A slight mix up in the team attributes forced the skipper, Regan to don the gloves, but the weak link behind the stumps proved irrelevant as Richardson struck in the very first over, removing Piesley, a former Kent academy player. 0-1. The elder Meredith brother, Harry, fuelled by a desire to perform in front of his girlfriend, struck immediately as well. A peach of an in cutter went straight through the openers defences to castle the stumps, 0-2.
The remainder of the Provender innings was an extraordinary affair of extravagant shot selection and reckless running. Meredith struck again in his first spell and Richardson bowled tightly to restrict the hosts. This was compounded by an amateur piece of cricket from the Provender number 5 who was run out after failing to return to his crease as the ball trickled to gully, where James Wilkes-Green struck the stumps directly. At 4 down by the time the change bowlers came on Provender would hope for some respite, but this was not forthcoming. Will Meredith bowled excellent lines and was rewarded with 2 wickets, and McClean (guest) bowled economically with his off-spin to frustrate the hosts, who rewarded the brethren with another reckless piece of running, James Wilkes-Green striking directly again. Some stubborn resistance down the order was broken by an excellent Monkhouse, who removed the captain, and 2 wickets for 16 year old Alex Moen, a fine prospect for the future. Provender were all out for 91.
Lunch was the usual excellent affair from our generous host, Graham Smith but I fear it slightly put the BB at ease as the chase of such a modest total was not as convincing as one would like. James Wilkes-Green and Pollington, another junior started solidly in the face of some aggressive opening bowling, seeing the BB off to a decent start before Pollington was caught at mid-off. Shelley (guest) started well at 3 but was unable to capitalise on his start courtesy of a dubious LBW decision. Wilkes-Green played beautifully for his 27 before being dismissed unfortunately after a regulation defensive shot saw the ball back spin onto his stumps. This saw Joffy Wilkes-Green come to the wicket and take the game to Provender, mercilessly hitting their wrist spinner out of the attack before another questionable LBW saw him back into the pavilion. This bought McClean to the crease to join Moen and together they played solidly to sooth the nerves and threatened to take the game away from Provender. However the only guarantee in cricket is that a low score is always followed by a low score and the quick dismals of Moen, Harry Meredith and Richardson, the latter to a superb one-handed boundary catch, threatened to leave the brethren on the wrong side of 91. This was further compounded by McClean, who had played so solidly, being dismissed to another excellent catch at point, leaving BB at 76-8. However the game had one further twist to its tale and a solid knock from Monkhouse and some hitting from Regan saw the BB home with 2 wickets to spare, just in time for tea.
Our thanks go to Graham and his excellent support at Provender and the BB can be safe in the knowledge that they are now 2-0 in this newly founded fixture.
