Category: Midweek

25/05/2015 Away vs West Farleigh

The marathon weekend of cricket continued with another away fixture at West Farleigh. Confidence was high after a so far undefeated weekend and so Eastry looked to establish a big target for West Farleigh to chase. But after 8 overs they had lost the two openers for not many runs and the wickets continued to fall on a flat track (slight slope). Matt Deveson dug deep for 33 but was running out of partners until a resolute Stewart (Steve) Thomson came to crease. It was not quick scoring but they looked to use the overs take the runs when they came. A few slogs at the end brought the total up to 141.
Eastry used the tea break to reflect on the disappointing performance with the bat and concluded they needed wickets. With a youthful team in front of the wickets Eastry looked to keep the runs tight and soon got their reward with a couple of wickets including a great catch from Pete Eastman using every inch of his long reach at wide mid-on. Buoyed by some great bowling and fielding Eastry were getting back in the game but it wouldn’t be an Eastry display without a few drops. McKellow played a patient innings for West Farleigh and was nudging them closer but like a mirror of the Eastry innings, wickets fell around him. A rare appearance with the ball from Aaron friend gave West Farleigh a shock in the form of some chin music (even if it was on the lowest speed of the Gramophone). Rupert Hill was brought on to take the last wicket, with James Wethered taking the final catch.

http://eastry.play-cricket.com/website/results/2576433

Eastry vs Alkham 17/07013

On Wednesday, the Midweek XI traveled to Alkham Valley for a T20 match. Eastry won the toss, and skipper Gareth Friend elected to field, putting the home team in on a seemingly erratic track. Friend’s suspicions were confirmed as the first over from Gleave saw balls viciously popping off of a length and troubling the batsmen greatly. Whilst pitch seemed to assist the bowlers, wickets were hard to come by and the Tomkins raced to 59, dispatching bowlers Deveson and Kenton with Ease to the tiny boundary. Indeed the first wicket did not come until the 17th over when Dawkins had Tomkies caught by Aaron Friend, and had Lee caught by Betts soon after for no score. The Alkham innings was steadied however by Foster who carried his bat for 62, leading the team to 158-3 off of 20 overs, with Eastry contributing a whopping 32 runs in extras.
Needing just under 8 an over to win the openers Friend and Betts went to the crease and created a sturdy base for Eastry to build on with both scoring 24 runs at a quick rate. However it soon became apparent why Alkham were not upset with batting first, as after the first 5 overs the sun began to set behind the bowlers arm, making batting almost impossible. Alkham harnessed the elements to their advantage, bowling as fast as possible to make the most of the glare. iIn the process Anderson took 3 wickets in one over, with Betts (24), A Friend (24) and then Gleave (0) all being bowled after swishing blindly at a seemingly ethereal ball. As the squinting subsided the new partnership of Matt Sear and Harry Kenton came to fruition as Kenton rekindled the run chase by hitting 30 off one over of Foster’s bowling, who appeared to be more than a little annoyed with the situation as he chuntered back to his marker. Kenton reached 56 before Foster had his revenge by catching Kenton at short cover (on the boundary) off the bowling of Hassan, with Matt “Bumsdale” Sear reaching his personal best of 11 runs to a rapturous applause, before also being bowled by Foster. It then fell to Dawkins and Eastman to finish the innings, and they did so comfortably with Dawkins blasting a quick 27 to seal a win with 7 balls to spare.

Matt Deveson – 19/07/2013