Hawley 07May06

Kings stormed to their second victory of the season with an emphatic victory over Hawley CC which saw the hosts collapse to a humiliating total. On a warm humid afternoon the game was played on a sporting pitch which offered plenty to the bowlers and ensured the batsmen had to work for their runs. Kings made several changes from the previous week's victory over Bracknell, with Perry, D.Miah, Sones and Mackenzie all making their first appearance of the season. Having won the toss Hawley asked Kings to bat first.

The opening overs were a cagey affair as Perry and Joel Miah got to grips with the pace of the pitch against some accurate bowling from Adams and Miles, however both got confidently off the mark and set about building the innings. Although there was always a threat from the lively Miles and the nagging line of Adams there seemed few alarms from the batsmen in the middle. However in the tenth over Perry mistimed a drive and was dropped at mid on and the next ball he offered a simple return catch to Miles (17-1). This brought Evans to the middle to join Miah and there followed a nervy period as Evans tempted the bowlers time and again with his back foot defence, always offering the expectation of an lbw decision. Meanwhile Miah was struggling to find his timing. However these two saw off the dangerous Adamswho conceded just 6 runs in his 9 over spell, to be replaced by Delaney.

When Miles was replaced by first Dalgas and then Smith the pressure was released as Evans was quick to punish some wayward bowling. Yet Delaney was getting appreciable movement and Miah still seemed to be struggling when he gave the bowler the charge but keeper Dagget missed an easy stumping chance. Not that it was an expensive miss as soon after Miah mistimed a cut straight to Guppy at point (59-2). The best partnership of the match then followed as Paul Norman joined Evans. Norman was most impressive playing some exquisite shots, being quick to punish anything short of a length. Without the control of Adams the remaining bowlers struggled to keep the score in check and Evans and Norman soon took the score past the 100 mark before the latter miss timed his drive to cover to be dismissed for an excellent 34 off just 31 balls (117-3). With time working against them Kings were after some quick runs and Tighe was promoted up the order in an attempt to achieve this, however some poor running from Evans cost Kings what could have been vital runs. Tighe was somewhat unluckily out when he played the ball via leg, pad and boot onto his stumps to give Delaney his second wicket (132-4). This brought Pipe to the crease who launched into the returning Miles with some thumping shots, none better than two emphatic straight drives back past the bowler to the boundary. Meanwhile Evans completed an excellent half century just before the final over started. Kings lost one more wicket when Pipe was sent back by Evans off the penultimate ball (160-5). Evans had again produced a battling innings and was rewarded with an unbeaten 54.

Much of Hawley's hopes would have been for a good solid start, and on Adams to get in and flowing. However Kings were in no mood to be generous in the field and Miah, bowling with significant pace, reeled off two maidens, whilst Pipe soon found some movement off the pitch. The first blow in what was to be a sorry procession of Hawley wickets came in the fourth over when Pipe produced a peach of a delivery to knock over Adams' middle stump (2-1). In the very next over Miah produce a quick ball to bowl skipper Scott (2-2) and the next ball could have had another wicket when Miah induced an inside edge from Miles that just missed leg stump.

However Kings did not have to wait long, when Pipe again produced the perfect length ball with a hint of away movement Delaney could only edge it behind to Smith (6-3). The first ball of the next over from Miah accounted for the off stump of Miles (6-4) and very next ball the same quick delivery took the same stump to dismiss Dalgas first ball (6-5). Somehow Daggett just avoided edging the hat trick ball! The next two overs yielded no wickets but Pipe then struck again as he took a return catch to dismiss Mitchell (8-6). After 12 overs Hawley were totally rocking with Miah (3-5) and Pipe (3-2) having torn through the top order with some high class bowling. The change of bowling that followed gave no respite to the home team. Nick Tighe accounted for Clack in his first over (9-7) and in his second over bowled Smith (9-8). Soon after Norman, who had not conceded a run, then joined the party as he bowled McGregor (10-9). Two maidens followed as Dagget and Guppy attempted some sort of re-guard action but when the field was pushed back for the single Dagget could not resist taking the bait. This exposed Guppy to Tighe who produced his slower ball which the tailender could only swipe straight to Mackenzie at mid on. Hawley had been dismissed for just 11 runs in just short of 19 overs. It was an outstanding performance by all the Kings bowlers who found perfect lines and lengths with pace, movement and guile had blown Hawley batting away. This was the lowest ever score against Kings, beating the 1994 record of Reigate Heath (29 all out) by some distance and one of the most impressive fielding performances ever.