A very pleasant sunny afternoon took the 6th XI off to the Oakfield Bowl, Wilmington to take on Dartford 5th XI. Winning the toss it was decided to have a bat hoping to post a decent score with what was on paper, a sound batting line up. Blekkers and Lucas Hart opened up and very soon Lucas had probably chased one he should have left and snicked off to the waiting gloves of their ‘keeper. Blekkers meanwhile was getting his head down and once he got to grips with some variable bounce, started going about what he does best with some impressive boundaries. Neil Cleave hit a glorious boundary off his first ball but couldn’t find his form and departed for 9. Joe Howard joined Blekkers and started off cautiously but looked solid. Pete then got a shocking low one which went on to hit the poles but with 26 to his name had got us off to a good start. Now it was time for the youngsters to show how it should be done. James Willis and Joe Howard put on a very mature, confident batting display both hitting boundaries, rotating the strike and showing some of the older team members how to run those quick singles and turning one’s into two’s. James in particular took it to the bowlers whilst not taking any unnecessary risks and hitting with power. Joe had continued to score well and dominate the bowlers before lopping one up off his gloves to the ‘keeper. A very well constructed 63 for Joe. James meanwhile carried on with Vince Moore, who hit a useful 16 in quick time followed by Max Hallett contributing 13, again in good time. James was eventually caught for a well put together 42, his best run tally in senior cricket so far. A generous donation of extras had taken the score on to 219 for 9 and a total that was going to set Dartford a tall order.
Messrs Griggs and Taylor opened the bowling, Taylor finding the better line and length whilst the skipper was a tad wayward at times. That being said, three wickets for the skipper and a peach of a delivery from Rob just clipping the top of off stump (classic stuff) removing their gun batsman, made in roads in to their batting line up. Then came one of those frustrating middle order partnerships with the experienced Mike Lanning batting sensibly and his partner the other end not so. He was all a bit bish bash bosh and got away with it on two occasions with senior pros Blekkers and Griggs spilling one each. Sad to watch really. A change of bowling brought Max Hallett into the fray and he duly responded removing Mr Bish Bash followed very soon by Lanning, LBW to Lucas Hart. Lucas bowled some very tidy, flighted off spin which was difficult to attack. He then took a catch spinning round in what was a strange move only to collect the ball on the return rotation. Bizarre! Another one each for Max and Shrikant left it to Mike Shlevey to round it all off with the final two wickets. 125 all out in 32 overs was job done.
20 points in the bag and a reasonably sound performance. Men of the match award had to go to Joe and James for their performance with the bat. Two young lads showing their potential and realising the value of defending your wicket whilst accumulating runs at a good rate. Still top of the league but with Old Wilsonians just behind us, they having played only one game and winning by concession on four occasions.