Touring side Chalfont St Peter from Buckinghamshire made the journey down to the garden of England to play Eastry on Saturday. The touring side, who claimed before the game that they were more experienced in the pub than on the cricket field, batted first on a cool and overcast day. Aaron Friend decided to take a break from getting all of Eastry’s runs and instead opened the bowling with David Waring. Both bowled economically on a pacey wicket, with Waring sending the second and third batsmen back to the pavilion for a duck. Chalfont sputtered to 45-4, not to the disappointment of the dismissed batsmen who decided that being back in the hutch was far more agreeable, as they could continue their mammoth drinking session! Arriving late, the touring side’s secret weapon, Neave, was unleashed on the spin bowling of Sumner and Eastman, thrashing huge shots to all corners of the ground. While Neave continued to play his shots, the opener Cottam resolutely stuck to his guns and provided the anchor of the innings, building up to a credible 48. In the 22nd over Neave played one shot too many on 36, and top edged a loopy, spinning catch to Betts, who snuffled it with ease. This started a swift collapse of the Chalfont St Peter innings as the remaining batsmen added just 12 runs for the remaining 5 wickets, resulting in the tourists finishing on 133 all out.
After tea there was a rare sighting of a double Deveson opening partnership as Kevin and Matt were sent out to chase down the low total. Much to the dismay of captain Phebey the two openers seemed content to just nurdle the ball around for singles, rather than crash the ball to the boundary, and indeed the skipper found himself hoping that Chalfont’s unused overs would be awarded to Eastry if we needed them. However, after the dismissal of Matt Deveson, who was clean bowled for 23, the run rate sped up as Waring and the remaining Deveson decided to deal in boundaries to finish the game. Deveson quickly sped to 79, hitting 14 4s in the process whilst Waring reached 22 in a dismissive show of dominance, as Eastry chased down the target with 18 overs to spare.
Matt Deveson – 22/07/2013
Recent Comments