Kempton 25Sep05

Kings last game of the season saw them play "away" against their landlords Kempton CC. With resources severely drained, with nine players unavailable, Kings gave a debut to Matt Hammond and were grateful to Teddington player Andy Ward guesting for them. Meanwhile Kempton turned out a strong side fielding several first team players. Having won the toss Kempton skipper Nad Rashid elected to field first.

Kings opening batsmen were father and son in Dave and Joel Miah. They rode the opening overs well against the bowling of Standen and Porter. But in the fourth over Dave Miah guided a ball from Porter straight into the hands of Rashid at short leg (9-1). This brought Hammond in for his debut and from the off he looked confident with quick hands and a fast bat speed. Kings task was assisted by an injury to Standen who turned his ankle and had to hobble off the field, but Miah and Hammond still had to play watchfully against some accurate bowling from Loveridge. Rawlinson then replaced Porter and he gained the second breakthrough when the bowler's third lbw appeal in the over saw Miah dismissed (30-2). With James Melligan now joining Hammond in the middle Kings had two of their newest players at the crease.

Hammond now started to find his feet and hit some sweetly struck boundaries. Meanwhile Loveridge conceded his first runs in five overs when Melligan punched three runs through the covers, a shot he repeated in the next Loveridge over. After Rawlinson's good start Hammond was now starting to gain the upper hand with some powerful back foot drives. However when Rashid introduced a slower pace into the attack the game really swung in Kempton's favour. With his third ball Trevor Warne defeated Melligan in the flight (68-3) and two balls later he bowled Andy Ward with a full ball (68-4). Kings now needed a good partnership and Evans, batting unusually low in the order and Hammond set about the task ahead of them. However when Rashid bowled Evans behind his legs Kings slumped to 86-5. Hammond was now if full flow hitting sweet boundaries off Rashid and Warne whilst the attacking Pipe played an ideal foil by playing a shot a ball.

They saw the score past the 100 mark and Hammond was now accelerating toward a maiden Kings fifty which he duly reached with his least impressive shot of the day. However the game was about to swing again. When Warne bowled a short leg side ball and Pipe could only manage to pull the ball straight to square leg (120-6) and then Warne bowled Mackenzie (125-7), before Smith was caught at slip to give Warne his fifth wicket (125-8). Kings were in serious risk of not posting anything close to a competitive target. With Hammond still at the crease, but struggling with back pain, there was still hope however in his attempts to push the score on he mistimed a drive off Warne to fall for a superb 72 (135-9). Kings last pair of skipper Rob Young and Paul Bygrave then added 26 runs off just four overs before the innings was declared at 161-9. Warne finishing with an impressive 6-36.

Kings should have made the perfect start to the Kempton innings when in the first over Sohail drove loosely at Simon Pipe but Mackenzie could not take a sharp chance at mid off. Pipe then had a good appeal for lbw turned down against the same batsmen. This was the pattern for the next few overs as Pipe continued to beat the bat, whilst Osborn struggled to come to terms with the left arm bowling of Miah. Kings had another chance when Sohail again drove at Pipe and Mackenzie put down a far easier chance at mid off.

Smith then just got a hand to an edge by Sohail again off the unfortunate Pipe. However the umpire then warned Pipe for running on to the protected area of the pitch, despite Pipe's protests that he had been moving across to the field the ball, but this upset the bowlers rhythm enough that the threat of the early overs had been lost. Kings now introduced Andy Ward and from the start this experienced leg spinner started causing problems for the batsmen. However the Kempton batsmen were making safe progress toward a target of a 100 off the last twenty overs. There was disappointment when Osborn was dropped by Young off Ward but the breakthrough came soon after when Bygrave was introduced and he tempted Sohail into a false shot and Evans took an easy chance at mid off (69-1).

In the next over Osborn fell to Ward when Smith took a smart catch behind (69-2). Despite Ward still causing big problems for the batsmen, and at times the Kings keeper as well, the batsmen were still able to keep up with the required rate and Inwood and the impressive Watts moved the scored positively past the 100 mark. However the return of Miah brought just reward when Inwood was bowled (119-3). Watts was then joined by Rawlinson in a partnership that took Kempton to the brink of victory, however Kings felt they were still in with a chance and a double strike, Ward bowling Rawlinson (150-4), and Pipe trapping Warne lbw (150-4), gave Kings a fresh hope in the gathering gloom. The turning point came when off the last ball of the penultimate over Pipe served up a leg stump full toss that Watts put away to the boundary leaving Kempton two to win off the final over. With Ward bowling Kings still clung to hope of a gaining a draw. A quick single nearly brought a run out, with Ward just shaving the stumps with his underarm throw. But with two balls to spare Watts cracked the ball away for the winning runs.

A great finish to a great season. So the honours finished even between the two sides, both winning one game, by the same margin of 5 wickets. For Kings Hammond's batting promised much for the games he can play next season, whilst Melligan continued to impress. Ward's bowling was quite wonderful to watch. For Kempton Warne's wickets and Loveridge's mean spell led the way backed up by a perfectly timed innings from Watts.