Kings
made their annual visit to Berkshire league side Sulhamstead on
a warm sunny afternoon and having won the toss elected to field
first in a 40 over match. The game was played on a used, dry and
heavily scared wicket which was sure to deliver some uneven bounce.
For the match Kings gave a debut to young Samuel Tighe, son of
long time member Nick.
Kings made a good start to the innings with both Joel Miah and
Simon Pipe finding the pitch to be helpful. However the pitch
had nothing to do with the first wicket as Pipe delivered a useful
full length ball that beat the defences M.Abbott to remove the
opener without score (2-1). The batsmen then had to play very
cautiously as Pipe was extracting good bounce from the uneven
surface. Miah was also proving a handful with his extra pace keeping
the batsmen on their toes. Both bowlers were rested after 5 overs
of their eight over spells which opened the door for the Tighe,
father and son combination to take over. In his first over Samuel
Tighe looked at ease with his step up to adult cricket. However
its was his dad Nick who caught the attention with an impressive
spell of bowling, first taking a good return catch to dismiss
Booth (24-2) and then had Doole caught at leg gulley (33-3). Tighe
Snr then had Lattimore caught behind by Smith (48-4) and then
took his fourth wicket when he extracted extra bounce from the
pitch and Knapp could only fend the ball off to short leg where
Evans took a good one handed catch (50-5). With Tighe finishing
his spell with impressive figures of 4-16 Richard Sones was brought
on in place of Samuel Tighe whilst Pipe took over from Tighe.
Two wickets then fell in quick succession as Pipe bowled Steimens
(78-6) and Sones removed Thomas (78-7). When Pipe struck again,
White being caught behind by Smith (86-8), Sulhamstead were in
deep trouble and Kings took the gamble of bringing Miah back to
try and finish the innings off. This seemed to have worked when
Miah bowled Small (87-9) but Kings were unable to take the chances
that were then offered and the home teams skipper Abbot and their
number 11 Tucker were able to see off Pipe and Miah before making
some late runs against Samuel Tighe and Richard Evans to finish
on 118-9.
Kings did not make a good start to their reply, losing Nick Tighe
without score when he tried to cut White and was bowled (7-1).
But there then followed a good partnership between Perry and Miah
as they started to overcome the threat from the quick bowling
of White and the left arm seam of Small. Scoring was certainly
not easy and the batsmen always had to be wary of the vagaries
of the pitch, but having seen off Small they were able to start
to score more easily off Lattimore. With time on their side Kings
were content to pick up runs when they came rather than having
to force the issue and Perry and Miah were both quick to pick
up the singles. Once White was out of the attack Kings were able
to open up and Perry was particularly savage against Tucker with
some superb boundaries. There seemed nothing to stop Kings moving
to an easy victory now, but the reintroduction of White saw Miah
dismissed when he offered a return catch for a fine 33 (94-2).
Dave Wright was then promoted up the order and he was welcomed
to the crease by a brute of a delivery from White, but gained
his revenge soon after with a superbly pulled four - however the
next ball was faster and fuller and yorked him (106-3). There
were to be no more alarms though and Perry moved to a highly deserved
fifty before completing the winning runs.
