Farncombe 01May05

Kings were up against Surrey Championship side Farncombe CC for their second game of the season. Kings gave a first game of the season to Dave and Joel Miah, along with Simon Pipe, whilst their opponents were Captained by Asif Jan, who had played first class cricket in Trinidad in the same side as Brian Lara. Farncombe were further strengthened by four further first team players, including their opening bowler Dunn plus an England Deaf International player Mahoney. Having won the toss Farncombe decided to bat first.

The opening overs were a tight affair with both young Joel Miah and Pipe producing tight opening overs. Miah beat Lee on a few occasions as the Middlesex colt showed great maturity with the new ball, whilst Pipe in his first bowl of the season found some early movement off the pitch. Slowly the opening batsmen felt their way into the game and started to get the scoreboard moving. Kings though were producing a far better performance than the previous week with some controlled bowling and tight fielding. Carter was fortunate when he edged Pipe just wide of Wright at slip and Miah continued to threaten with balls bowled across the batsmen. However as Miah tired in his 6th over the batsmen started to find their shots off him. In line with ECB regulations Miah was rested after his 6 overs and was replaced by Bygrave.

The first breakthrough came when Carter drove at Pipe and he edged to slip where Wright took a smart catch. This brought Asif Jan in and he was fortunate to survive a big shout for lbw off Pipe before he soon showed his talent with some crisp straight drives off Bygrave. The second wicket came when some good work by Evans saw a perfect return to Smith to run out Lee as he went for a second run. There then followed a profitable partnership between Jan and Mahoney as their higher level of skill told by working balls into the gaps in the field. Jan was fortunate to survive when Skipper Young spilled a difficult chance off Bygrave. Mahoney fell when he drove Bygrave straight to Dave Miah at short extra cover. Meanwhile Jan was plundering runs to the short boundary but was once again fortunate when he was dropped again by Young, this time off namesake Gordon.

Dunn fell without scoring when he when was stumped by Smith off Norman and Jan could have gone the same way had Smith been able to gather the ball quicker. Soon after, Jan retired to allow his other batsmen a chance. As the acceleration came toward the end of the innings Tighe produced a good spell in which he had Patterson caught by Joel Miah at mid off and Dray caught by Pipe at cover. At the end of the forty overs Kings had done well to restrict their illustrious opponents to 205-6.

Kings reply saw the two Paul's, Norman and Bygrave, open the batting. The opening over saw Norman see out a testing over from Dunn before both got off the mark against Ekins. But it soon became a battle of attrition against the outstanding Dunn who was extracting excessive movement, which encouraged a field of four slips and 2 gulleys. At one stage the bowler had an 8-1 split field, with nobody in front of square on the leg side. Meanwhile the going was somewhat easier against the wayward Ekins. Norman continued to do well in his battle with Dunn but in the bowlers fourth over the bowler claimed the first wicket (18-1). Dunn was then rested and Bygrave and Evans were able to push the score on to 33 before Evans was superbly caught down the legside off Edwards (33-2).

Bygrave's long vigil came to an end straight after he had whipped Patterson off his legs to the legside boundary, the bowler gaining his revenge as Bygrave played an expansive drive.(50-3). Although Kings were holding their own they were well behind the required rate - the fifty coming up in the 18th over. Gordon Young's stay was terminated by the 'home' umpire who ruled him lbw despite the bowler being the only one to appeal, and most agreeing the ball was too high and too much to leg (61-4). Kings then enjoyed their best partnership as the technically correct Joel Miah and the free attacking of Pipe saw Kings dominate for a period. Miah played superbly with sweet drives and pulls, whilst Pipe was content to drive straight and work the ball off his legs.

However the turning point in the whole game came with Pipe's dismissal. Edwards return to the attack accounted for the Kings all rounder for a fluent 19 (104-5) and then without addition to the score Dray produced a miscalculated shot from Miah that saw the Kings youngster dismissed for an excellent 32. In the same over Tighe drove a full toss hard at Jan at short extra cover and the Trinidadian took a superb catch (104-6). At this point Dunn was reintroduced to the attack and the innings quickly subsided in the path of some high level fast bowling as Dave Miah, Smith and Young were all clean bowled to leave Kings 105 all out.

Despite the crushing 100 run defeat the difference in strength between the two sides was clear, and Kings could be proud of the way they had battled throughout the game against their talented peers. Once again Joel Miah stood out for his talented bowling and batting, scoring his second successive 32 - separated by the winter months. What was a good sign was that despite Kings low score they occupied the crease for 34 overs against a skillful attack and had bowled and fielded superbly to keep their opponents to a reasonable score. If Kings can turn in the same level of performance against their usual standard of opponents then the first win is not far away.