Sep 7thAll's well that ends well
Well it was all to play for on the last day of the season. The forecast said nobody would play but with so many relegation and promotion issues at stake, all the games in Division 1 completed, though many were reduced in length. The 1s did a terrific job at Dartford. After the huge disappointment of losing the toss and the chance of a winning draw, the 1s, needing 6 points for safety came snarling out of the traps and had Dartford at 17-4 and it could so easily have been 17-5 had James Squire held on to Ron Turner's misplaced drive. Turner went on to make 71 but Smudger was in no moos to allow Dartford off the hook, finishing with 6-54, one of the top five bowling performances of the season and in a match that really mattered.
  With maximum bowling points in hand, 150 runs (and two batting points) became the safety target. 16-year-old George Leadbetter (27) has been steady in the opening position all season and though nerves jangled when Andy Allon (15) was out early, Steve Hobbs (63*) turned in a definitive captain's innings to guide the side to safety and then on to a final victory comfortable enough to make one wonder what the fuss has been all about.
  Phones were jangling in clubhouses all around the county but especially at Broadstairs where both sides got exactly what they needed from the game.

  The 2s game againstBickley Park managed three overs. It made no difference in the end, as all the issues in the 2s Division 1 were settled ages ago and whilst the 2s did occupy the first safe spot this year, they were safe from relegation after their win against relegated OD CUACO three weeks ago.
   Just above them, at the bottom of the Premiership 2s Folkestone clung on, though the 1s are down in Division 1 next season. There's a new fixture to look forward to.
  On Sunday, hangovers were in evidence at Mersham who battered the EKL side after some bleary-eyed low scores. However Ant and Dave Rawlings steered the Sunday 2s comfortably home (albeit with a couple of guest fielders from the oppo) against first time visitors Great Chart.

Jamie Keeler gets maiden ton
The first U13 to get a ton in recent times, Jamie Keeler stunned Folkestone U13s with a swashbuckling 102* on Friday evening in an end of season friendly.
   The U13s have also won a friendly against Elham in which Claire Tumber and Catherine Blackford made their debuts in the boys side. Claire (34) was top scorer.

August28thThe Final Countdown
Two Saturdays from the end of the season there were only three sides in Division safe from relegation. The Mote were the only side to complete a game last Saturday and moved further behind the pack after losing to Whitstable. Now there are just three sides who can still get relegated. We are one of them and are 5 points from safety with an awkward away trip to Dartford on Saturday. The Mote take on champions, Lordswood.
   A bit of support, therefore, would not come amiss on Saturday. Any non players, who'd like to make the trip (and would like transport) should contact Mike Leadbetter.

August 21stThe Hayes Weekend
Well the 1s, having had their backsides scorched by close proximity to the doomed first eleven of Hayes, grabbed a winning draw and 14 points against our relegated Forum friends and bounced back out of the relegation places. And it could have been more if we had managed the last wicket. A really good all-round team performance with a handsome contribution from Ben Allon (46) and a return to form from the Aussie gringo (51). With Sandwich playing The Mote, something had to give in the intensely tough struggle to avoid the second relegation place, with the safety bar still above 170 points (enough for a top five finish in some seasons!) Only the top three clubs are sure to avoid relegation. In the event Sandwich did us a favour and crushed The Mote leaving the ones in third from bottom, 11 points clear and two points behind this Saturday's visitors, Orpington. A win this weekend would, therefore, be very good news.
   Meanwhile, at home, the 2s also entertained Hayes, another close match, another last over chase and in this case, 20 points dropped after a missed catch for the final wicket in the final over. The 2s set 142 and this looked as if it might be enough at 89-7. But it wasn't. However three more points from their remaining two games will make the 2s safe.

August7thAt last good news from the Leagues
On Saturday, the 1s turned in their best ever batting performance in Division 1 and left Broadstairs staring at a massive total of 303, George (46) and AA (139) followed by Hobo (78) and CC (25*) attacked the bowling from the outset and set a total which Broadstairs never looked like getting. Only a winning draw though. Things are so tough at the bottom, with The Mote and Sandwich recovering, that although this was one of the best results of the season, they actually dropped into a relegation place as The Mote claimed 20 points at Orpington.
  The 2s nailed 20 points in what may turn out to be a relegation decider with OD Cuaco, now 28 points behind us. This was a much tougher, closer game and required a match-winning performance from the recently returned to form Will Purcell (82*).
 The U13s have been confirmed as Saxon Shore League champions after their nail biting final win over St Margaret's and the U15s retain their title after a little confusion over net run rate has finally been sorted out.
  Things are interestingly poised again.

July 22ndU13 title decider on Tuesday at The Park
This has been much, much more closely fought than any other title in U13 League history. The reactions of the players at the end of the U13 win against top of the table Elham will have told anyone what's at stake.
  We need 14 points from the game against St Margarets for a clear victory.

Another miserable Saturday
A matching pair of batting first wins for Lordswood, still probably the loudest side in the League. Eleven players surrounding a 16-year old batsman, accusing him of ruining the game of cricket because he hasn't walked to a caught behind he didn't hit is really overdoing it. Cut it out, guys. Shockingly poor.
  DS's match report is another masterpiece of irony, delicately tinged with bitterness.
   And George knocked two holes in the pavilion roof on Sunday in a big win over Clarion, off quite unnecessarily large sixes.
   Must do better boys. Start next week.

July 15thA present from history
Sibton President Deidre Macdonald, had some free time while off work last year, and traced the history of Sibton Park Manor and the village of Lyminge back to Saxon times.
  It turns out that in the time of Good Queen Bess, both Sibton Park and The Mote belonged to the same family.
  Ever-conscious of the importance of historical tradition, the Park commemorated its 500-year old connection with the Medway club with a large gift of points.
  At home, going at 7 an over, one wicket down and just over 100 runs away from the winning post, the Park middle order self destructed for a number of runs which would have been embarrassingly small without Hobo's late contribution. Bear's ambition to strike the ball vertically and run four is coming along well, however.
  Meanwhile the 2s were even more generous, despite fierce resistance from young debutante, Terry Hardie and made sure that our partners of yore got the full 20 and have taken their place one point above the relegation places.

Other weekend games
Audley End, the touring side from Essex felt at home playing in the grounds of a manor house here in Kent. Their ground has the largest stately home in Essex as a backdrop. They found chasing 172 beyond them. The 1s set the same target for Kennington on Sunday who fell well short as Lee Smith got in amongst them and Steve Taylor bowled a huge full toss as his hat trick ball.
  The 2s, away at Saltwood, fared less well, despite a strong looking Sunday side. The knights who killed St Thomas a Becket spent the night before the murder in Saltwood Castle. Perhaps they were commemorating the 836th anniversary of the event with a gift of wickets.

July 8 Congratulation Mr and Mrs Muzza
Mind you, marrying in the cricket season gave us our worst ever Saturday selection problems but we wish the bride and groom the very best and look forward to Muzza's return. (Next Saturday, without FAIL, Louise).

Interestingly poised
My first job out of university was with a publishing company. Whenever we were deep in the thick stuff, with no clear way out, the boss would call a large meeting. We all expected it was to get our P45s but no, "Things" he would say "are interestingly poised".
  This weekend, you may have surmised, was forgettable.
  Aldwick from Bognor Regis came visiting on Friday and George (119*) got another unbeaten century in what can only be described as a big win. Setting 265 meant that Aldwick were never in the chase after a tight opening spell from James Squire and Sam Newman. Batting 40 overs and running 50 singles on the hottest day of the year so far maybe wasn't the ideal preparation for the Saturday's game but it's nice to know that the GCSE and A Level crews are now finally free of the burden of exams.
  Saturday was a memorable low point with the 1s throwing victory away against Dartford. As England faded out of the World Cup, Sven Goran Ericsson faded out of history (if there's any justice) and David Beckham captained his last international game, 148 for 2 with 14 overs left looked good enough chasing 205, but it wasn't. 5 points instead of 16 mean a mid table position instead of one just out of the promotion places.
  The 2s on Saturday went to Bickley Park and we're back again in time for the kick off and well before the start of the second innings at The Park. This gave an entirely new meaning to Kwik Cricket. The details make the grimmest of grim reading. Bowled out for 35, Bickley won the game with 44 overs to spare and the 2s have now dropped into the relegation neighbourhood for the first time this season. They are, I think, interestingly poised.
  But things can change in 24 hours in this game. Macknade brought a young team down for the EKL match on Sunday. It was even hotter than Friday but we managed our first win in the league since Old Stacians withdrew. We set 182 which looked like only a par score and Macknade had little difficulty staying on the required rate until George and Matt Davey first put the brakes on, then started a wicket slide which eventually ended proceedings with Macknade still 50 short.

July 1 Best weekend so far
The 1s came home with 20 points from Orpington, their first away win and the first maximum of the season. Another tight match in which runs were hard to come by, with the top three making just 19 between them as Sibton sank to 65-5.
  Once again, Bryan Washer stuck around, played a few excellent shots and frustrated Orpington's attack, which included Indian first classer Wilkin Mota. Tom Matcham, whose batting seems to have benefited hugely from Mark Dobson's Winter EPP Coaching, stuck with him for the day's biggest partnership and we eked out 165.
  Orpington weren't so skilful at eking. And Smudger turned in his best figures of the season 4-20.

The 2s came up against Old Stacians side who eked when conditions were better for attacking. They set 155 which never looked remotely like a winning total, but there was a lot of game bowling from a young Old Stacians attack and we were forced to eke a bit ourselves before Martyn cut loose.

Sunday saw Kent U14s wallop Hertfordshire, racking up their highest score on a wicket that Geoff fretted over unnecessarily. At least two Kent batsmen would like to bat on that every day and Mr Farbrace went away very happy at the close.

Something unusual happened at Elham but we don't yet have news of what. Play-cricket said we were bowled out for 127. Sounds like there was a bit of eking going on there too. At the Canterbury Sixes I hear Osborne over-eked but who knows till we get a match report?

Sunday - Two BIG wins
Was hot. Very, very hot. Fielders it has to be said were not at their best. Etchinghill managed only 102 at The Park and the Park reply needed only one of the 20 overs after 6:30.
  Meanwhile at Bobbing Court, the Sibton batting side sat in the shade and watched George (141*) and Will (65*) stack up enough runs to ensure a relatively peaceful time when Bobbing Court came into bat.

Sibton 24 Hayes 18
Sibton just shaded the first annual bash with forum-sharers Hayes. The 2s, understrength and with only 2 regular bowlers, managed a losing draw at the home of cricket.
  At The Park, disaster struck both sides in the last over. Hayes lost a batting first win and Sibton lost peace of mind for the rest of the season as Lawsie grabbed a win with the shot of the match, a superbly driven straight four.

Beach Party
All the effort put in by Smudger, Adrienne and the Allon family generally paid off handsomely in what was one of the best social occasions of recent memory, with a great crowd of all ages and, even better, large numbers of non members looking in for the first time to see what was going on. Well done Tim. A real quality job.
  I regret to inform you, however, that the whale, FreeWilly, has escaped and may be in some danger unless he is returned to the water at his home fairly soon. The coastguard have been alerted.

Sunday and 3 great wins
 The U13s returned to form in the morning and clattered Folkestone in their biggest win of the season.
  The Sibton Young Player brigade shone again on Sunday, with Sam Newman (11-3) and Lee Smith (7-2) featuring prominently in the winning draw with Hythe Green and both delighting their captain by pitching the ball up.
  At Bossingham, Simon Langton Cricket Coach, Andy Raines made a handsome ton but was out caught Leadbetter, bowled Osborne, which is all anyone at the school will remember. "Bowled WHO???" With an injured Rowey behind the stumps, Osborne went on, unbelievably, to collect a fifor. One for the record books,

Brilliant weather but where are the points?
  The 1s and 2s managed to have a bad weekend without is damaging their league position as other results went in their favour. The 1s game at Canterbury sounded a lot closer than the 2s game against the same opposition at The Park but then we had to get that over quickly for the beach party. Canterbury also had a beach party on Saturday night which we didn't begrudge them, and 40 points which we certainly did.

Practice area gets thumbs up
Hooray. The Shepway Planning Committee, obviously anxious to get in our good books, gave the plans to extend the ground their unanimous approval, last night. And one of the committee members even found time for a statement of support.
  Thanks to all the others in the village who have helped and supported and particular thanks to the lady in Brady Road, who wrote to the Planning Committee to approve of the club's intentions. The full report and recommendation is here.

U13s qualify for District
On Thursday, the Park under 13s swept aside Elham with a 15 run victory as they marched into the next round of the national ECB competition. More . .

The Mote
We had a game!! The Mote appeared, the sun appeared and we played some cricket and all pretended it was summer for a few short hours, if any of you remember what that looks like.
  Anyway, one Coles offspring wasn't quite enough in this fixture last year, so The Mote brought an army of Coles' this time and sneaked a narrow win in the last over of a very good game.

Sunday's games
Difficult to say which of this weekend's games was the most exciting. The 1s and 2s shared the points with Lordswood after two highly dramatic phone calls. Stan got in first, with great stroke from his Motorola Blade V3 and that was that for the 2s, but Lordswood are no mugs at this game and replied with an O2 Mini XDA to cancel the 1s fixture. Sunday was less dramatic, with an early BT landline pushbutton Conqueror used to cancel both the Colts games and the EKL fixture against Hythe, the latter a pre-emptive manoeuvre to prevent Hythe getting the best from the top of the range SAGEM wireless switchboard in their newly restored clubhouse.
  Let's see the Folkestone Herald do better match reports than that.

Last Sunday's games (so there's some cricket to read about)
Early season bashfulness means that we have no documentation on a reported 81 against Walmer by Payne junior, nor do we know how his dad christened his new blade, though we suspect Tom might have had the bragging rights on Sunday evening. We haven't heard either from the 1s game at Sandwich so it really must be bad. But the U13s were over there in the morning and knocked them out of the National ECB U13 competition with a 37 run victory earning themselves a place in the next round.

Top weekend honours surely belong to a very promising U11 side, playing their first league match against old rivals Nonington. Steady and careful batting built a good total of 252, with Tom Brett top-scoring, after captain Ryan Meers won the toss and elected to bat. Although Nonington lost fewer wickets in their chase, accurate bowling and lively fielding kept Nonington under the required run rate and six runs short at the end. It's been a while since we won this one.

The 1s made a fight of it, having been bowled out for 135 against Whitstable 1s but this week's top match report is from the 2s, who won away at Whitstable, where our new regular columnist Déesse (French spelling - means Goddess) is developing a nice line in irony. At least I think that's what it is.

Old Stacians
EKL 1st XI v Old Stacians SPCC took its bow in Sunday league cricket for the first time in the clubs history and recorded an easy win over a youthful OS at the Park.
Batting first, Park racked up a large 261-6 with good contributions from AA, Hickers, Stretch, Ozzy and Cream Of. It was always going to be a big ask for the young Ashford visitors and despite an encouraging start wickets did fall at a regular rate and really they never looked like getting close finishing on 144-9 from their 40 overs. AA starred with the ball as well taking 3-3 in 4 overs, Martyn picked up a couple, Squiresy and Rowey 1 a piece and there were 2 run outs which were instigated by our new lad Hobo who looked very keen swooping in from square leg and pouncing on anything that came his way!
Just hope that we can put out sides of similar strength for the rest of this Sunday season.

Dim start
Thanks to the weather, brilliant all week, grim on Saturday and Sunday, we didn't see a lot of finished games. Though the forecast was worst for Sunday afternoon, this turned out to be the best of the cricketing weather as the EKL 1st XI played its first ever match against Old Stacians. The 2s at home struggled to 146 and were saved by late showers, with visitors The Mote on 95-2 off 17 overs, while fortunes seemed to be reversed at The Mote where the 1s were disppointed not to be able to pursue what looked like a winning situation.

Getting underway
It could have been worse. The shockingly casual start at home by the 1s against Hythe ended in a trouncing from a unit that looked very much better prepared for the start of the season than we did. However, the 2s side, packed with young players from the EPP group in the winter, compensated by coming back from Elham with a crushing 96 run victory. Under 15 captain, Tom Payne, (52) partnered Martyn Wren (132*) in an opening stand of 110 and another U15, Ollie Boughton took four wickets for 8 runs as Elham stuttered to 127.
  It was supposed to rain on Sunday but we had another brilliant day's weather for the game against Dover Cosmos and young players dominated again. James Squire made his first 50 for The Park, who set 191, and George got into his stride with 5-10. Dover Cosmos finished on 146 well short of the 191 set by Macca's men.

The future's Orange

The season could hardly have got off to a better start. Visitor's from Olympia Gouda pitched up for the first game in the third week in April to be met with cloudless blue skies, temperatures in the mid 20's and people looking around the clubhouse for sunblock! We got the guy who picked the weekend for their tour to choose a stack of lottery numbers but his talents obviously lie elsewhere. The sun was hot enough to expand the Lexan panels on the front of the scorebox and trap the veins, necessitating a bit of small screwdriver debugging but all is now well.
  Saturday's match was relatively even, I suppose, won by steady wicket taking by the Park's bowlers in the second innings. Sunday's match against Yalding was not quite so much fun, played in a more typical, steady but light April drizzle. John Osborne was the first player to put 50 on the new scorebox but the bowling attack struggled against more first time visitors to The Park, a strong Yalding side who needed on only 30 overs to pass the Sibton total of 162.