OldLeagonians04Jul04

Kings returned from tour with a game against Old Leagonians played at a new venue in Hook, near Chessington, not the greatest of venues (not quite a Sidmouth) but an entertaining game followed. The pitch, which sat on a raised plateau was remarkably dry following some heavy rain in the days before the game, however with heavy cloud cover and rain in the air Kings, having won the toss, decided to bowl first. The day saw Skipper Rob Young making his 200th appearance for Kings, both as player and Captain

Nick Tighe started the innings off with a lively over that saw no runs scored. OL's Skipper took 8 off Joel Miah's first over before being run out in Tighe's second over, P Golding fended off a short ball from Tighe behind square, Raj called for the run, but Golding stayed rooted to the spot, Joel Miah fielded the ball on the bounce and calmly threw to Tighe who removed the bails to run Raj out with both batsmen standing at the same end. Golding followed not long after when his miss timed drive, off Miah, went straight to Perry at mid off. Tighe and Miah were replaced after five overs by Pipe and Gordon Young.

Mickel's attempts to smash his way to a score soon failed when Pipe bowled him and Kennedy soon followed caught behind by Smith off the same bowler. Meanwhile Young was having no joy with English cutting on the up several times just wide of both gulley and point fielders. J Golding went first ball when he got a ball that popped and Paul Norman took a fine one handed effort at gully to give Pipe his third wicket. Young finally got his reward when English was bowled and with the score struggling Tighe and Miah were reintroduced to try and finish the innings. Tighe soon claimed Terry caught and bowled and Miah comprehensively bowled Mason who had adopted a heave at everything style of attack.

Miah should have had further wickets as several chances were missed. However Kings game plan did not work out as they had hoped and with Miller and Perry coming into the attack to finish the remaining overs Taff and Bradley made hay with a series of agricultural shots. Bradley finally perished caught at mid wicket by Tighe off Miller and the innings finally came to a close when Miller bowled Shee. Taff, the number 9 batsman made 31 not out in the OL total of 143.

Kings made a good start with Miller playing a magnificent off drive to the boundary and Perry playing a fine pull shot to the mid wicket boundary. But both batsmen had to play watchfully against English who was getting some away swing. Then Miller got a ball that leapt off a length, caught the shoulder of his bat and flew to slip where Taff took an excellent catch (25-1). This brought Gordon Young to the crease and he had some close calls against English but soon punished a short ball with a fierce cut shot. Perry continued to play with dominance over the bowling and he was quick to punish anything short with some powerful pull shots.

Young had a life, what turned out to be one of six, when he got a leading edge off English but Kennedy juggled the ball at short mid wicket and spilled the chance with Young already walking toward the pavilion. As English tired OL's best threat to the batsmen had gone, the back up bowling was punished with excellent shots and some superb running between the wickets. Young continued to make the most of his lives given to him by the OL fielders and under what was now a clear blue sky and warm sunshine the Kings batsmen enjoyed themselves.

Perry played one outstanding punched shot through point that shot to the boundary, while Young showed no mercy through the covers. Young was first to his fifty and then played for his partner to enable Perry to take 12 off Mason to reach his own fifty. Young then finished the game in style crashing two consecutive boundaries off J Golding to the cover boundary to give Kings a deserved victory by 9 wickets in just the 25th over, scoring at close to 6 runs per over. Perry made 50* from 74 balls, with 7 boundaries whilst Young made 58* from just 57 balls, 40 runs coming in boundaries. They added a superb unbeaten 121 for the second wicket. This was more like the Kings performances of 2003.