Hawley 03Sep06

Kings welcomed Hawley, on their first visit to the Kempton ground and following their embarrassing dismissal for just 11 runs at the hands of Kings earlier in the season.
Kings made several changes from the previous weeks draw at Ottershaw and were able to welcome back Dave and Joel Miah, James Melligan, Nick Tighe and Paul Bygrave, in place of Miller, Perry, Wright Blissett and Ensor. Having won the toss Kings decided to bat first on a warm, sunny, if what breezy afternoon.

Kings went with a new opening pair in the form of Nick Tighe and James Melligan and Tighe was soon into his natural aggressive game with some crunching boundaries square of the wicket both sides. In comparison Melligan was having trouble timing the ball but was content to play the support role to the dominating play of Tighe. Whilst Miles was unfortunate to just beat the bat on numerous occasions there were enough four balls for Tighe to keep the scoreboard rattling along. Anything pitched short was ruthlessly crashed to the boundary and Melligan also now started to find his feet with straight drives and immaculate cover drives off Hyam.

Fifty runs were posted on the board before the tenth over and this pace continued as Tighe sped to his first half century of the season. A change of bowling saw Delaney introduced to the attack and Tighe was quick to pull for six, followed next ball by a super straight drive. However another change of bowling which saw J. Adams take over Miles saw Hawley achieve the breakthrough they desperately needed; Tighe being bowled off his pads for an impressive 63 off just 41 balls (91-1). Worse was to follow for Kings as the previous weeks batting hero Jaemie Gale played down the wrong line to Delaney (96-2) and then Dave Miah somewhat softly gifted Delaney a second wicket to be caught at cover (114-3). However this brought Joel Miah into bat and from the off he looked at ease, soon laying into a superb square drive off Adams to the point boundary and then cover driving the same bowler 3 balls later. Meanwhile Melligan was becoming becalmed against Delaney who consistently beat the outside edge of the rather statuesque batsman.

The bowlers frustrations were not helped when Melligan then finally laid into a sweet cover drive which should have been the catalyst for the batsmen to find his rhythm. Unfortunately though Delaney finally nipped one back enough to beat the resolute defences of Melligan to end his vigil for a battling innings of 41 (130-4). The innings was now continued by Miah and Bygrave and the scoring slowed somewhat as Bygrave settled in and the previous free scoring Miah became becalmed. However once this quiet spell was overcome the pace picked up considerably and Miah started to take a heavy toll on the previously thrifty Delaney. A succession of straight drives and cover drives soon saw Delaney being removed from the attack and Harris also started to take some punishment, Bygrave picking up four over throws to help the cause. The search for runs finally accounted for Bygrave who was beaten by a direct throw (187-5).
With time ticking down toward the declaration Pipe laid into some big shots and then Miah picked up the four runs he needed to take him to his half century (51 off 50 balls) before he was run out off the final ball of the innings (210-6).

The Hawley innings got off to the worse possible start when arguably their best batsmen Adams was cleaned up by Miah. Soon Pipe found the shoulder of Delaney's bat and the ball flew to gulley where Sones in attempting to take the catch deflected it toward point where Bygrave was quick to react and complete the dismissal. Helliwell's stay was short, he fell to the impressive Miah before Daggett's solid defence was joined by skipper Mitchell. However Miah struck again when he found the outside edge of Mitchell's bat and keeper Smith took a good low catch. With the game now clearly beyond them it became a battle of wills as Hawley hung on and Kings hunted for victory. Then Bygrave, who had replaced Miah, picked up his first wicket of the season as Hyam miss timed a drive to extra cover where Tighe took a comfortable catch, whilst Melligan had little luck in his attempts to remove the solid Daggett.

With the last twenty overs of the game starting Kings turned to spin at both ends from Gale and Gordon Young. Gale's leg breaks finally removed Daggett, bowled behind his legs and Gale struck again when J. Adams skied a catch to Pipe at mid off. Kings were closing in now and the Harris brothers had to be at their best to keep out both Young and Gale. With the overs ticking down Gale picked up his third wicket when he bowled J. Harris, and in the 20th over Young bowled Miles. Having bowled their overs so quickly Kings were able to claim an extra over before 7:30pm and this gave Gale one last chance to claim victory. However it was not to be and the batsmen survived to deprive Kings and they had to settle for their second frustrating draw in a row, on both occasions the last wicket eluding them!