Henley

Sun 14 August                                 Henley                                   Lost by 2 wkts

    We    197/7 in 40 overs     (Shanker 117*, Shahzeb Mohammed 39, Brock 3/27)
    They 201/8 in 38.2 overs  (Ward 43, Brock 42, Ranger 42, Johnson 27,
                                                Gorasiya 3/40, Tabrez Khan 2/31)

Something looked a bit odd as we walked towards the square at the picturesque Henleyground in patchy, warm sunshine.  It looked as if there were two strips, each beautifully prepared and ready to enjoy.  On closer inspection the more central of the two had tiny scratches at the crease, as if a hen had dallied there, and a bowler had clearly jogged through his action a few times, warming up we presumed.  It turned out Henley’s first team had bowled out their opposition for something like a Kim Jong-Il golf score (11 holes-in-one in a 38 under-par round), promptly knocking off the runs and sending the club into an all-day session by way of celebration.  Fortunately, they had arranged a young side to take on KCC, either untouched by Mr Booze or quicker to recover than cricketers of a proper age.

Typically, the coin came down tails for Matt and Kensington chose to bat on the scarcely marked surface (or did we use the one we were supposed to use?). The home skipper Nick Johnson, tall and bouncy, took the new ball from the pavilion end and struck straight away, having Furquan caught at slip for having the temerity to cuff him for 4 through backward point off the previous ball.  While Amit Shanker settled in for the duration only Shahzeb kept him company for any time, the rest of the line up contributing little to back up his measured, unbeaten century.  Brock was easily the pick of the bowlers and, but for 2 expensive overs, would have bowled his 8 for close to nothing, taking 3 wickets in the process.  197 seemed a little light but Kensington had a bit of bowling to play with so the game was well set.

This optimism looked misplaced as the openers tucked in to the new ball.  Brock struck it particularly cleanly and, after Khush had Davison caught behind, the free scoring ‘Sideshow Bob’ Ranger joined him and these two started slicing the target into little pieces.  Leg-spinner Gabriel Thomas was quickly brought into the attack to try to stem the flow with a wicket or two, and would have done so with either luck or some elementary catching.  He found neither and it took a great piece of fielding at mid-on by Tabrez to force a run out and give us a sniff.  Bharat bowled with new found pace and Tabby joined in, ducking the ball about.  When Tabby took a stinging catch at mid-off to remove Ward, whose 43 was a fine rearguard, giving Bharat his 3rd wicket, we were right in it.  But Chappell and Fitzpayne held their nerve and saw Henley home by 2 wickets and with 10 balls to spare, which didn’t feel too bad, since at one stage they looked like knocking it off in 20 overs.