SulhamsteadUfton01Aug04

Following a week off Kings returned to action on a glorious afternoon at Berkshire league side Sulhamstead & Ufton. For the second week running an outstanding bowling performance by Gordon Young set up a deserved victory for Kings with Dave Perry leading from the front carrying his bat for a third successive innings.
The original pitch proposed for the match was clearly un-playable, resembling a crazy paved patio rather than a cricket pitch. With a used pitch now being selected for the game the home skipper won the toss and elected to bat.

Kings were finally able to welcome a fit Richard Sones back to the attack and he was joined by Simon Pipe. The opening overs saw the batsmen play cautiously but once they had the measure of the bowling they started to open up. Seward in particular was strong on the off drive hitting boundaries off both bowlers. Meanwhile Smith was fortunate to survive when a ball from Sones bounced back off Smith's pads to clearly stump the batsman but the umpire gave it not out, and later acknowledged he had not be concentrating at the moment in question.

Smith continued to chance his arm to the mid-wicket boundary and gave Kings' Smith another chance to stump him but the opportunity went begging. Smith continued to drive powerfully but was forced to change his game plan once the off side field was strengthened. This forced Seward to change his game plan but he was unable to adapt his game and drove on the off again only to be well caught by Perry at mid-off. This gave Kings the breakthrough they had been looking for as the score had moved to 63 without loss. Abbott soon became Pipe's second victim when the bowler laid back the off stump and Smith's charmed life came to an end when he once again went for the mid-wicket boundary only to pick out Mears to give Sones his 199th career wicket.

Kings were back in the game now and Sulhamstead were effectively swept away as Young entered the attack. Young claimed the next two wickets as Abbott Jnr lost his off stump before Skipper Phillips lobed an easy catch to Tighe at short mid wicket. D Knapp then followed the way of Abbott when he too was bowled by Young. Waterworth then went on a big offensive, smashing Tighe to the boundary and then taking on Young as well. Tighe though removed Hallows without scoring and then when Waterworth tried to farm the strike he could only top edge a simple catch which would have been taken by keeper Smith had Sones not beat him to the ball. Gill became Young's 5th wicket when he drove to mid off and Mears took a good catch diving forward. The innings was wrapped up when Young claimed Gibson in identical fashion to Phillips. Sulhamstead had collapsed to 132, with the irrepressible Gordon Young returning a superb 6-23, following his 7 wicket haul in the previous game.

Kings experienced openers of Miller and Perry led off in pursuit of the target and they made a confident start against a tight start by Hallows, but against the left arm pace of Phillips they made better headway and were scoring around 3 an over off the first ten overs. Miller was lucky to survive, on 7, when he paddled a ball off Hallows straight to backward square but Knapp dropped the chance. Perry looked in fine form and struck some good boundaries as he led the partnership. The score was moving along so well the opening bowlers were forced to cut their pace, Phillips moving from medium left arm over to left arm around spin. This had the batsmen having to play very watchfully and the run rate dropped accordingly. However whenever the ball dropped short it was punished swiftly - Perry twice dispatching short balls for four.

These two had added 59 when Miller drove at Gibson but only reached Hallows at long off. Kings lost their second wicket not long after as Evans failed to get on top of a ball from Gibson and Phillips took a superb catch at short leg. This brought Simon Pipe in to join Perry and the two showed a superb positive attitude in taking the attack to the bowlers. Twice they ran all-run-fours and put the fielding side under enough pressure to force fielding errors, and for the second game in a row, the keeper to remove his pads to bowl. Pipe, showing the form of 2002 was clinical in dispatching the ball to the boundary and raced into the twenties. Perry went to a deserved half century off 70 balls. From then on Pipe led the way finishing the game in quick time with some powerful strikes, whilst taking his own score to 34 from just 27 balls. Dave Perry meanwhile had made an unbeaten 58 and in the process carried his bat for the third successive innings, having scored 154 runs and two half centuries in the three innings. Kings had won by 8 wickets, their fourth win in a row.