1st XI Match Report - Blackheath v Beckenham (League)
On what was scheduled to be the first proper day of summer weather, Beckenham made the short journey to the Rectory Field to take on Blackheath in a fixture that can be traced back to Beckenham’s foundation in 1866. This scorer found it hard to believe how good the Rectory Field looked with a near-perfect outfield due in no small part to an excellent new groundsman but also due to the fact that almost all rugby is played at another ground leaving the red and black painted Peter Piper Stand an almost forlorn reminder of the halcyon days of the oldest rugby club in the world. Having got to know colleague Paul, we awaited the result of the toss and found that Blackheath were to take first use of the new ball on a track that had a good covering of grass and indication of something for the bowlers.
Against the high-quality opening attack of Tanweer Sikandar and former Kent seamer Ivan Thomas, Beckenham did not start well with Finn Bryan pinned in front by Sikandar in the first over for a single. Two booming drives from the incoming James Fear got the score moving with Senn, short of time in the middle following his operation, obviously keen to do well against his old club. The score progressed steadily but the quality of the home bowling ensured that runs would have to be earned. Just when Fear seemed well set, Thomas produced a fine ‘nip-backer’ to end his innings of 21 and shortly afterwards, Sikandar found Senn’s edge to give keeper Basit Ahmed a regulation chance. Fortunately, Johan Malcolm was under way swiftly but then Thomas produced an identical nip-backer to bowl Rithik Hari and Beckenham were in trouble at 51-4 in the 14th over. Rob Clements gave Malcolm some solid support but was unfortunate in that many of his promising strokes found a Blackheath fielder. Clements then fell to the impressive Harry Ledger, bowling off a longish run but with fine control at decent pace and had his stumps disturbed at 83.
Enter another former Blackheath player in Jahid Ahmed and the best partnership of the innings began to take shape. As Malcolm continued to show his class on the way to an excellent fifty in 89 balls, Ahmed kept the score ticking over and a decent score looked in prospect after a poor start. Sadly this ended on the introduction of Rishi Roy-Mukherjee’s leg-spin. A scorching drive from Malcolm was parried by home skipper Charlie Sid-Speller who then plunged headlong to snaffle the rebound and again came the ghostly Australian tones from the celestial commentary box, “Super effort that!” Some wagging from the Beckenham tail was not enough to spoil the leg-spinner’s excellent spell of 3-11 from 5 overs as Beckenham were all out for 177 on the final ball of the innings. This was a splendid all-round performance by the Blackheath bowlers in what is probably one of the most powerful attacks in the Premier and the fielding was first-rate.
The Blackheath reply began against some inconsistent lines from Beckenham’s bowlers and, with the left-handed newcomer Jack Hersh looking particularly impressive, a good partnership began to develop with his partner Dipayan Paul. With the sun now out, the wicket had shown definite signs of easing with the ball coming onto the bat and Senn tried Johan Malcolm’s off-spin to try and make the breakthrough. Unfortunately this didn’t work and some punishment was handed out by Paul who completed an excellent fifty in 54 deliveries. Beckenham found themselves a bowler down with the normally steady Shojib Ali pulling up lame and then to make matters worse, keeper Balmforth dislocated a finger and had to be replaced by young Gethin Roberts whose 2nd XI match had finished early. The left-arm spin of Ishan Sabharwal was brought into play and the young bowler fell into a good line and length and will build on the promising start he made last season. With Rob Clements completing the all left-arm spin attack, the first breakthrough came at 109 with Hersh holing out to Malcolm off Clements. Some typically aggressive strokeplay from George Wells took the score to 129 before Sabharwal induced Wells out of his crease to give young Roberts a smart stumping. This was, however, the last success for the visitors as they found Tanweer Sikandar in imperious form as their unbroken partnership saw victory achieved in the 34th over. On this showing, Blackheath will soon be challenging the early leaders of this division while Beckenham will lick their wounds as they prepare for the visit of leaders Sandwich Town to Foxgrove next week.