Woodbury 27Jun03

Kings first game of their 2003 tour to Devon was against Woodbury. The morning of the game saw showery rain which left the pitch damp, but the game went ahead with sun bathing the ground during the afternoon and with a good drying wind. A 40-over-a-side format was agreed between the Captains, Woodbury having won the toss asked Kings to bat first.

Kings opened with their first choice of Miller and Perry and the two experienced batsmen rode the opening overs with some ease but whilst having to play watchfully on the slow pitch. After ten overs Kings had made a useful start having put 35 on the board, with both batsmen finding the boundary regularly. The innings continued in very much the same vein and the Woodbury Skipper bowled out his opening bowlers. By the half way stage Kings had taken the score on to 83 without loss and seemed well placed to set a big total. Both batsmen continued to push the score on and Perry soon reached his fifty, his third in succession.

But when the score had reached 104 the game was turned on its head. First Perry was bowled by Jones and in the next over Miller (38) was bowled by Smith. Pipe then added a single before Bygrave holed out at cover without scoring (105-3) and then Tighe top edged his first ball to see Kings slump to 105-4. Only three runs were added before Norman fell to Jones and Pipe soon became the bowlers fourth victim as the slump continued (108-6). Things got worse whenWright was run out, which saw Kings collapse from 104-0 to 110-7, thankfully Mears and Smith batted with common sense and reconstructed the innings. With ten overs left there was still time for Kings to post a reasonable total. They started to pick the over rate up to 5 or 6 an over and they successfully added 40 for the eighth wicket before Smith was caught for a handy 19. (150-8) Mears (21*) and skipper Young then took the score to 155 by the end of the 40 overs.

The Woodbury response was restrained by some excellent opening bowling by Tighe and Sones who made life hard for the batsmen on the slow pitch. During this spell Sones picked up an early wicket when Haldon, surrounded by close fielders, played all around a straight one and was bowled. The next pair of batsmen, Ingham and Dibbo, continued to play watchfully but struggled to keep the scoring up with the run rate. Sones finished his spell after eight overs with characteristic 1-17, whilst Tighe's 7 overs cost just 13 runs. Pipe and Mears were then introduced to the attack and Dibbo saw the opportunity to up the scoring rate, but once Mears had found his rhythm it spelled the end of Dibbo's innings, being bowled for 32.

Not long after the new batsman Thomas could only steer Mears straight to the waiting hands of Bygrave. Kings then suffered a double injury blow, first Sones, whilst trying to take a catch off Mears fell heavily and injured his ribs, and then Mears pulled a calf muscle in his delivery stride which forced him out of the attack. This allowed Bygrave in and this brought virtually immediate rewards as he first saw Ingham stumped by Smith for 19 and then the new batsman Cooper bowled by Pipe. By now the required rate was up to 10 an over and it was clear Kings would be the only winners, even though Wensly showed some late resistance, Kings put in an attacking field to try and bowl out their opponents.

Bygrave picked up his second wicket as Smith once again completed the dismissal by stumping Jones. Whilst the return of Tighe accounted for Taylor. Even with the help of an error from the scorer (41 overs being bowled instead of 40) Woodbury could muster just 103, making Kings victors by 52 runs. One observation was that the Woodbury total was the same as the runs added by Miller and Perry for Kings first wicket.

This was a good start to Kings tour, and the win made it a record breaking seven successive victories, however on the downside injuries to Norman and Sones were to rob Kings of their bowling services for the rest of the tour.