Kempton26Sep04

Kings 2004 season came to a finale with an away game at Kempton CC. This saw a much weakened Kings side matched against a very strong opposition. Kings having won the toss took to the field despite being hampered by the late arrival of leading wicket taker Gordon Young.

Kings made a impressive start, keeping the very talented and experienced opening Kempton pair of Watts and Warne very quiet in the opening overs. Both bowlers gave little opportunity for the batsmen to make use of a short boundary, and young Joel Miah showed maturity beyond his years with a tidy 5 over spell. This proved to be the pattern of the game as Sones joined the attack, with the batsmen being restricted to singles and the very occasional boundary. Such was the level of control that Kings applied that there were soon comments of derision from the watching kempton players toward their own batsmen.

Adams' spell of ten overs finished with him having conceded just 29 runs, but all the time Kings did not look like a taking a wicket. Then without warning the batsmen changed their approach and started to take the game from Kings as they started to score regularly to the short boundary. Mears, in his first bowling spell for some weeks, replaced Adams and he offered some variety to the attack. It was Mears who finally claimed the breakthrough. Watts, having passed fifty, went to drive back over the bowlers head but the athletic Mears stuck out a hand to take a fine one handed return catch.

However this was to be of scant consolation for Kings, as Warne marched on past fifty and accelerated toward three figures. Norman was introduced in place of Sones and with the slow bowler having to contend with the short boundary Warne was quick to capitalise. Mears seemed to have Ellix plumb lbw but the umpire turned down a confident appeal before the arrival of Gordon Young gave Kings another option. After a two over spell from Miah, Young entered the fray and should have had Ellix caught at mid off. However when Ellix was run out by Miller, with the score on 209, Kempton declared, with Warne having made 112 not out.

Kings response got off to a confident start as Miller slammed two quick boundaries off Porter's opening over. Both opening bowlers had problems with their discipline and were constantly over stepping to give Kings total a boost with extras. Inwood, who had taken 6-37 when playing for Kings earlier in the season, also seemed to adopt a short pitch line, and peppered the batsmen around the mid riff. However Miller and Norman were riding the onslaught well and the score had move smoothly to 43 before disaster struck.

Inwood, in another over of short pitched bowling, finally got one to spit toward the glove of Miller, who was helpless as the ball ballooned to the keeper. In the next over Loveridge, who had replaced the ineffective Porter struck a double blow, first bowling Norman, and then having Gordon Young edging behind. Kings had lost three wickets without addition to the score and this heaped untold amounts of pressure on young Joel Miah, who was now joined by his dad Dave.

These two rode out the pressure seeing both Inwood and Loveridge out of the attack, and then taking their toll on the second string bowlers. With some good shots and some well taken singles they soon had the scoreboard moving again. Such was the success of their partnership that both Inwood and Porter were reintroduced to the attack, Inwood again resorting to try and bounce out his opponents. The Miah partnership had added 77 before Dave Miah was bowled for a battling 32 (120-4), but this became 120-5 when Inwood finally pitched a ball up and produced a superb in ducker to remove Wright.

Kings were now totally focused on taking something from the game and Joel Miah and Smith played stubbornly enough take Kings to within five overs of the draw, this made Warne reintroduce Loveridge to the attack. Having played so superbly Miah was then tempted by a short ball which unfortunately he pulled straight to Inwood (127-6). There still seemed no alarms as Smith and Rob Young took the game into the final over, yet with four balls to go Smith was caught bat pad at short mid wicket, and then next ball Mears was adjudged lbw by the home umpire to heap the pressure on next man Adams.

With two balls to go for the draw and two wickets needed for Kempton to win the next ball was vital. Adams pushed defensively at Loveridge and the ball ballooned in the air fortunately for Kings just out of the despairing reach of Lewis. Somehow Adams had got away with it, much to the relief of the watching Sones who was next in. The final ball drifted down leg side and Kings claimed the draw that the battling performance of Dave and Joel Miah deserved.

With a much depleted side (missing four key bowlers, and four key batsmen) this was a good performance from Kings to round off their season. The outstanding Joel Miah stole the show whilst demonstrating great talent, skill, determination and guts for one so young. Dave Miller's innings of 20 ensured he scored the runs needed to pass 4000 career runs, becoming only the second player to reach this milestone.