Dunsfold

Sun 14 August                                Dunsfold                                Won by 7 wkts

They 141/9 in 39 overs     (Berry 52, J.Wigmore 27, Amar 2/17, Shailendra 2/24)
We    145/3 in 29.2 overs  (Ghosh 74, Gore 33, Westland 1/18, Manton 1/41)

Sunil Amar doesn’t ever recall having a full team at the start of a game at Dunsfold, there is always a traffic jam somewhere on route and this time he was right in it, arriving well after start of play.  Maybe having lunch at The Sun should be a must.

There were three debutants for KCC. Martin Sumpton, a golfing friend of Sunil, and two young Bangladeshi lads, Manas Roy and Al Naser Regan, the first to play for KCC from that country.  We won the toss (in Sunil’s absence) and elected to field.  Dunsfold lost their opener to Akhi in the first over, while Berry held on at the other end to some hostile fast bowling from Manas who was unlucky not to have the edges taken in the slips.  Stefanos came on first change and bowled a tight line and length taking a useful wicket in his five overs.  Regan was given a go but nearly caused a diplomatic incident with a less than straight arm action.  Sunil persuaded the opposition captain and umpire for Regan to have just 3 overs, enough to involve him in the game (and to take a wicket).  Apart from Berry who managed to score a worthy 52 before being lbw to Sunil, Dunsfold were not particularly strong this year and at 88/6 after 28 overs we relaxed our grip.  Young Wigmore flung his bat with great success to enable Dunsfold to declare on 141/9 at the stroke of the fixed tea interval.

San and Rohan opened the KCC innings and weathered a barrage of lifting seamers from Young and Manton to put on a 63 run stand.  Rohan continued in a rich vein of form to his fifty, then opened his shoulders against some high-lobbed bowling with a six and a four, but was dismayed to be bowled next ball on the second bounce!  Martin (14*) and Neeraj (13*) saw us home with some 12 overs to spare.

Dunsfold is probably the oldest fixture in the KCC Year Book and what a delightful place it is to play village cricket.  The friendly nature of the opposition and lovely tea are well worth visiting this place and we all look forward to being there next year.

Rohan in full flow at Dunsfold 2011