Tenterden A Fox makes himself at home at the Den.

11:30 leave from the Park were the instructions and at this time Paul Fox was sitting in his study browsing the internet contemplating when beer o'clock would be later in the afternoon.
A knock at the door put paid to that as he was marched out the door and dispatched to Tenterden to 'make the numbers up' for the 2s. After a solid start The Fox was sent to the wicket and second ball - BANG 4 runs and Paul was back.
Foxie (41) top scored in the Park total with other contributions from Hickers (33), Stan (40) Tom (35) and another good last wicket stand between Tidy (11) and James (21no) gave us 217 to defend.
After tea Shahid made the break through in the first over and 2 wickets from James in a lively opening spell put the hosts on the back foot. But a 60 odd run partnership put the game in the balance once again until the return of James and another 2 wickets meant only one side could win it. Unfortunately dropsies set in and a lack of back up bowling allowed Tenterden to hold on 8 wickets down well short of the target. As one of the home side had gone to hospital only one more wicket was needed with a dropped chance in the penultimate over the key moment. Lawsie bowled well for 3 wickets and James finished with MoM figures of 4-35.

A good performance and a big thanks to Foxie for letting us ruin his afternoon, and you'll be pleased to know he made up for lost drinking time later in the evening!

Hartley
Not a good toss to lose - as we were put in on a slow dampish pitch - that not too many of us managed to cope with. I went early doors, followed by Tom Payne. Stan (24) and a hard hitting Muzzer (32) then helped the score along after the bad start. Debutant Andy Arter (10) looked promising, and Shahid blasted a quickish 30 (even with a bad wrist) before he fell to a hat-trick ball from a bowler that I think had been warned about putting suncream on the ball to shine it. Why anyone deems it necessary to try to get away with this type of thing is amazing - maybe not as amazing as being allowed to continue to bowl.
   It looked like we would struggle to reach 125 but then Tidy (19) and Sam Newman (12 no) came together to get the score to a nearly respectable 152 all out in the 44th over.
   A sharp opening spell from Squiresy saw Hartley slump to 16-3, and it should have been not many more for four - unfortunately the catch went down. Hartley then rallied to 108 before losing there 4th wicket. We did pick up another two, but Hartley reached their target in the 50th over for the loss of 6 wickets.
   We all due respect to the team that we had - I feel that our "usual" team would have won this quite comfortably. We didn't bat well enough, but can feel good about our bowling.

Hayes
Hickers lost the toss on a grey overcast day. After some time the Hayes skipper decided to bat, and this looked the wrong decision as Shahid clean bolwed one opener with the score on 5. Things should have looked much better for Shahid, as soon after, the other opener gave a catch to point - which I managed to drop. Still. after this mishap we continued to apply the pressure with Shahid and Tidy bowling well - Tidy getting the other opener out for his first wicket of the day. Scoring shots where few and far between - only the odd 4 now and again. I did manage to hold a catch to give Tidy his 2nd. Bamber batted sensibly for his 61 before he became the 3rd victim of our serial wicket taker Tidy. Tidy picked up his 4th victim before both Sam and I got 2 each later on. We could have resticted Hayes to about 160 had it not been for a few wild shots in the final two overs, but 187 was a good effort from the Park bowlers and fielders. The positive news is that the bowlers bowled well and the fielding, although better than recent weeks - still has room for improvement to maybe shave another 15- 20 runs off totals.

2nd half didn't start to well, and with the ball moving around all over the place early on we lost Stan with the score on 1. I then joined Hickers, and after we gave Hayes at least 3 chances I was bowled by Jackson for 4. 19 for 2 and the game still in the balance. In came Matt Davey, and he and Hickers began to open up and the boundaries started to come - along with the rain. Having batted for some time in constant drizzle, the umpires eventually brought the players off with the score at 63 - 2 after 21 overs - with Hickers on 37 not out and Matt Davey 15 not out.

I believe the momentum was with us, and with the batting that we had it would have been a good 16 points to win. However, we must be encouraged from our performance against a decent opposition. The game was played in a good spirit - and even the Hayes umpire made a point of telling Hickers that we were a pleasure to umpire!!!

The Mote
Another 16 points and still improving all the time.
   Hickers lost the toss and was about to throw away his lucky coin, when the Mote decided to bat on a dampish wicket. Our opening bowlers Muzzer and Shahid bowled well from the start and wickets fell regularly after the initial breakthrough from Muzzer with the score on 1. The fielding was better, with still room for further improvement (eg Stan could have held two diving one-handed catches at slip, instead of one!!) and our bowlers also kept it tight. At 58-6, it looked as though we would be chasing the type of score that even our 1s might fancy – however a mid innings stand helped the Mote to a final score of 141 all out. The wickets were shared between all the bowlers – with Tidy the pick of the bunch with 4-30 from his 14 overs.
   Batting went to plan with Hickers (68) and Stan (58 not out) both hitting half centuries which helped us home in the 31st over with 9 wickets to spare.

Bexley (home)
Well it started off very well for us, we near enough left on time which is a first for us what I can recall and we had a very good journey up to Bexley although Daves Sat nav decided to take us the wrong way, mind you he does have Sven as the voice giving directions which may answer it. We arrived and it appeared to be and was a nice ground, not your typical London track with a mountain to climb at each bowlers end. Everyone was keen we were out and warming up at 1215hrs, going through some good routines and looking dare I say it better than what we were the previous week, hickers won the toss and put them in. We started off pretty well, Sam Newman and myself opened up sam got some good inswing going and at first troubled them, then for some reason or other lost his lengths a little bit and they started to get hold of him. I managed to pick up 2 wickets quite quickly in an 8 over spell, but unfortuently picked up an injury around my arse location!! this then prevented me from bowling any further in the match. Raj and lawsie then came on to bowl, lawsie picked up a wicket in his first over and yes it actually turned aswell, I was gobsmacked by this. The opener Willmott hung around for sometime, he chanced his luck, quite a bit was airborn but none of which going to hand he ended up with a creditable 85 but was stump by symbols, lets just say cymbols did not have hold of the ball or was anywhere near the stumps and to be fair wasnt even looking at the stumps when he managed to claim his first stumping of the season!!! this bit of luck picked up Raj's 1 and only wicket. D.S and matt Davey then came on and wrapped things up, matt bowling pretty well and picking up 3 wickets and D.S picking up 2. In the end they ended up with 278 all out of 49 overs.
Then it was our turn to go out and really show that we could do this and return home with 16 points, Cymbols and Stan opened on this one in about the second over Stan had a short ball bowled at him he went to play then he didnt, it has then hit him on his left nipple with this Stan has gone down like a sack of S*** and everyone suspected that he was dead 10 out of 10 for style, but he was ok and got up and continued with his knock. Cymbols went fairly early scoring 11 then in came matt davey, he scored a relativley quick 33 with some classy leg side shots when the ball was actually half a yard outside off stump, matt then went caught in comes the Rajput and we were thinking 10 overs of him and we will have nearly one, this wasnt to be he failed to get going and was caught for 20 and mid off, shortly followed by Stan for 35. D.S and Hickers then hung around for a while both making 21 before hickers being caught and DS being bowled, cream of came and went given out LBW, Tom PAYNE was their and in I walk, our target at this point was get to 200 for max points and then go from there, I along with tom got us up to 197 before yours truly was triggerd playing a defence shot, I hit the ball and then the ball hit my pads but apparently this is out. In comes Lawsie, he plays a big shot at one outside the off stump and gets caught behind, Sam Newman has then gone in and he was caught we ended up 205 all out.
Basically if you look in the scorebook the majority of wickets were caught I think 7 or 8 of them, this says a lot. It wasnt a hard track to bat on, we had the better conditions and failed. Without a shadow of a doubt we were more than capable of scoring those runs but we didnt.
Positives out of the game, we bowled the side out taking maximum bowling points, we again scored over 200 runs (just) taking maximum batting points, picking up 8 in the game. We turned up on time and we were keen and ready to take the game on, we all particpated in the warm up and we looked a hell of a lot better than the previous week. Negatives our fielding was poor again we probably let 40-50runs past us that we shouldnt have, it was an improvement but still poor, we again went quiet in the field, it was the usual few who were doing all the talking and trying to motivate each other. It is hard especially if you are not on top of the game, but the only way to get on top of the game is by getting behind everyone and enouraging as much as possible, this will then create those chances for us.
Our first 2 games of the season have been against both sides that have been relegated from the premier we knew they would be tough, we lost fair a square but if we put a bit more effort in then next time we play them it will be us walking away with the points.
This league is full of tough games, next week is Whitsatble at home, we also have to play the Mote and Canterbury who are also quality sides, if we dont start putting the effort in and people turning up to nets work depending then we are going to struggle all year, and i sure as hell dont want that.

Tunbridge Wells
We were put into bat in overcast conditions on a green looking wicket. Neither the weather conditions or the wicket helped the bolwers during the afternoon on what proved to be one of the best batting wickets that I have seen in a long time. We got off to a very positive start with Stan and new skipper Hickers into their stride quickly. Hickers (9) was first to go with the score on 33 - but not before bringing the pull shot into action at least 2 months early for a normal Park wicket - global warming does have some benefits. Doing what's best for the team has always been a strong ethic at the Park, and both Oz and I sacrificed our wickets in order to allow the "big guns", Si Wren and debutant Shahid Rajput to the crease, but not before Stan had contributed a fine back to League form 76. Si and Shahid then set about seeing who could hit the ball the hardest in a rapid middle order partnership, before Shahid, fearing that Si would outshine him on debut, sent Simon (42) back to the non-strikers end to be run out and injured in one go. In came "recently back from injury" Tom Guy (10) who assisted Shahid in a quick 59 run partnership. A final partnership of 33 saw the innings finish on 259 for 6, with Shahid on 82 not out and Muzzer with, if my memory serves me correctly, a career best 6 not out.

A good effort from the batters, and a vast improvement from last year.

The second half started well with Sam Newman getting the early breakthrough during a lively opening spell, producing one of the only balls that moved all day to bowl out the Tonbridge Wells opener, Alex Williams. This brought to the wicket, Kent League Legend (apparently) Mark Alexander. Together with Will Stickler, the two managed to accumulate a chanceless partnership of 247 to win the game by 9 wickets. The Park were beaten by two centurians who batted very well on the day, and even Stan (our very own Kent League Legend) complemented one of the batsmen saying " You were a well ranked player 20 years ago, and are still a well ranked player today" or words to that effect.

Although beaten comprehensively, I believe that we can take many positives from the game. Our batting showed strength in depth; Muzzer bowled for 15 overs straight off and would have been rewarded with several LBWs had it not been for the fact of the bat getting in the way of the batsmen's pads; and Sam showed that he has the pace and accuracy to trouble batsmen in his first season of League cricket.

We now need to take these positives, tighten up our fielding a little and believe in ourselves to beat whoever is facing us.