Lordswood
What I have missed, now that we play in the Kent League, is the opportunity to play cricket in nice, picturesque, village cricket scenarios, where the batsmen are clapped to the crease, good shots are applauded by the fielding side, and pleasant banter is exchanged between both sides.
  How pleased I was to return to Lordsword, and old East Kent League side, who’s ground, players and the spirit in which they play the game, is very much “old school” as described above.
  This jolly bunch of cricketers is amiably led by a man called Kevin. Although our umpire was stuck in traffic and therefore not around at the toss, Kevin, insisted that we should not automatically concede the toss – that would not be cricket. We lost the toss anyway, and were put into bat.
  What was nice to see was that in the great tradition of village cricket, Lordsword opened up with an aggressive medium pacer, who had probably been working the fields in the morning, judging by his sun-bleached mullet, running in with a far too long run up from the pavilion end. An early delivery rapped Stan on the pads – there was a huge appeal from the bowler and point fielder – “Not out” said Geoff. This triggered some “cheeky banter” between bowler and Umpire – a threat of being reported to the League though seemed to defuse the situation. The chap called Kevin diplomatically helped out by telling the Umpire “He’s only asking which two of the three stumps the ball would have hit!!” Kevin I feel is wasted - he should be sent to the Middle East to try and resolve the situation out there.
  Also nice to see was the re-introduction of the “one hand, one bounce” Rule, although Lordsword have amended this to “two hands, one bounce”. Geoff wasn’t sure, but having checked with the home umpire, Stan was on his way back to the pavillion. In the changing room was a poster inviting guests to join Lordswood’s Century Club – a list of local rules may have been more beneficial.
  There was then a rain interval, which really seemed to affect the rhythm of our batting, and wickets fell at regular intervals. Only Lynn (27), myself (21), Tom Matcham (17) and U13 Jamie Keeler (12) managed double figures in a low total of 112 all out.
  The total was never going to be enough though, and although we managed to pick up two wickets, sensible batting from their opener, who reached a half-century, saw Lordswood home with many overs to spare.
  We didn’t bat well enough to score a decent total, but we certainly didn’t play badly enough to come away with no points – which is actually what we did!

Old Stacians
A well deserved comfortable win. Having been asked to field first, Muzzer struck early to remove one of the opening bats – bowling full pace at an eight year old normally does the trick. Stacians’ other opener, however hung around with the help of a few dropped catches (at least 10 in all during the 50 overs!!) – he rode his luck, but managed to get 64 sensible runs. Muzzer and Macca bowled well during the opening spell, with Muzzer suffering most from the dropped catches. Lawsie again bowled a tidy spell, and picked up the wicket of the other opener thanks to the athleticism of a sprightly Lynn Woods on the boundary. Macca came back on for a second spell and picked up a few wickets near the end. The dropped catches aside, we fielded well and kept the pressure up throughout.
  We didn’t get off to the best of replies however, with Lynn getting out early caught behind. Lynn always walks – the umpire waited for Lynn to walk; he didn’t; so the umpire gave him out.
  I managed to get a quickish 27 runs, mainly off their opening bowler, Mark Beeney (apparently he was a better goalkeeper!). Anyway, in came Wrenny who complimented the accumulative strokeplay of Stretch (38) to power to an unbeaten 66.
   Nearly forgot to mention – Oz was physically sick during the game – this may be catching, I’ve just seen Beckham do the same thing – although the chance of many of the 2s catching anything is questionable (having said that I did see Muzzer scratching quite a bit during the game!)

Job well done. 16 points, and back on winning ways.

Hayes
Taking a team with only 5 regular league players on a hot day to visit the top of the table team was never going to be easy, but everyone played their part to secure a draw, and we saw nothing to be worried about for the return fixture later in the season.
   Tidy and I bowled reasonably well from the start applying early pressure which saw the first wicket fall early doors - all credit to the Hayes opening bat for walking for the caught behind - rarely seen these days. Accurate bowling produced a further 3 wickets before Hayes rallied with a 100 plus partnership. Bettsie, Stretch and Francis Taylor backed up our two regular bowlers, and the fielding was good considering the heat and the large outfield.
  Hayes continued to bat sensibly throughout their innings - finding the gaps and running well between the wickets. 230 odd was going to be a difficult score to get and a good start was needed.
  An early accidental beamer hit Stan on the back, causing the usual placid skipper to throw his bat to deep square leg. Whether this was the trigger or not I do not know, but what followed was the most consistent use of expletives I have ever heard on a cricket field. After every ball it was “C**t!” or “S**t shot!" or other intellectual comments along the same theme.
  Luckily having seen some of Big Brother this year, I am now more aware of Tourette's Syndrome, however I am not sure whether Hayes should be commended for attempting to integrate sufferers into the community, or whether they should read the code of conduct more closely.
  Anyway, that to one side, after losing our two openers relatively early, Stretch batted well and so did Bettsie, and they scored 30 something and 40 something respectively. Paul Fox also rolled back the year’s with a knock of 20. A few late wickets, raised the Hayes volume levels again, but a draw always looked the end result.
  Good effort all round. Had we have won the toss who knows…..

OD CUACO
A well deserved, but maybe not so finely executed victory. This takes the 2's to a 25 game, 665 day unbeaten run. The bowling and fielding was good throughout the first innings, and the pressure was kept up all the way through. Squiresie and Daveyie rotated well at one end, with Squiresiey picking up 6 wickets - although all the hard work was done at the other end between myselfsie and Tidyie - maybe not taking so many wickets - but there's more to cricket than flicking the wickets. Although a number of wides were given, it was a good bowling performance - and no need for much change. Chasing 115 to win, Stanleyie started promisingly again - hitting 3 early 4s in one over, before attempting another in the same over only to get out - he will learn with experience. Taking extras into account I thought that 8 runs per batsmen should have been enough, but some lower scores in our middle order, put the pressure on the tail-end Charlies to perform - and they did. Squiresieiey, rounded off a reasonable day at the office with 20 not out to see us to victory - helped near the end by a thoroughly deserved fine performance from Benny.

Whitstable
We bowled first, and Muzza and Fiesty had a good opening spell. Muzza hit the wicket again without the bails coming off!! An early wicket brought in their number 3, who subsequently dominated their innings - ending up on 130 odd not out. He was dropped in the slips off Muzzer early on, and then again a bit later in their innings off Wrenny - although we ended up dropping 3 catches, we still managed to drop less than Whitstable. There were a few lapses in the fielding, but overall the fielding was good, especially in the last 10 overs. Lawsie and Wrenny bowled well, with Lawsie using his cricketing brain to keep their No 3 off stike for a majority of the last 10 overs. A target of 230 was always going to be gettable on a pitch that encouraged positive batting. In reply we started well and posted early runs, and although I could have batted all afternoon, being a team player I thought that the occasion would be better suited to the hard hitting style of Wrenny, so I managed to edge a catch to the keeper for the sake of the team. Stan and Wrenny then proceded to stroke the ball to all parts of the ground, both collecting fifties, before Stan was out LBW off his bat, and Wrenny caught behind off his pads - it will take some getting used to these new rules. After a quick cameo from Oz, the scene was now set for our Sat Nav partrtnership of TomTom. Payne out on 27 and Guy carrying his bat for 49 assisted by some sensible batting from Allon Jnr at the end. Overall a lot of positive signs and good contributions from from various team members - if we can apply ourselves in the field throughout the inning as we did in the first and last 10 overs, then our overall performance should greatly improve.

The Mote
Basically the rain robbed us when we were only 9s ball away from victory.
We started well, with Stan hitting the first loose ball to square leg for 4, only to be out soon after. Stretch and I then "steadied the ship", and slowed the run-rate right down to a respectible one point something an over. The middle order then came in and went a bit mad, pushing the run rate just over 2 - wreckless I know, but by managing to lose wickets fairly regularly, a low score was always still within our reach. Tom Payne batted well in the middlw order, and Macca hit a few late runs, but still managed to keep us just below 150, thus making sure we didn't pick up too many points. Basically to sum up the second innings, we bowled two of them out, neither of them removing the bails (although one was given out caught behind), dropped a catch, and provided the pavillion roof with catching practice. It then rained at about 6pm when the Mote were 96 for 1 of 16 overs, and we were potentially 9 balls short of a totally undeserved victory.

Elham
Here we go again, honorary skipper for the day ME! won the toss and sat down for the next 3 hours. Martyn Wren and Tom Payne opened and put on 110 with Tom out scoring Martyn before Tom was out for 52. Martyn then went on to score 132 not out as we posted a good score of 227 for 2. Then the fun started as the side was made up of 7 colts and 4 senior players, bowling changes came fast and furious. Credit to everyone who bowled they all bowled well and all played their part in keeping Elham down to 130 for 7 at the close. Of the bowlers Ollie Boughton was the star taking 4 for 8, but Nathan Smith 2 for 22 and Harry Winter-Taylor 0 - 28 also bowled well.
All the colts were a credit to the club and all of them did theirselves proud!