1st XI Match Report: Beddington v. Beckenham - 16th April 2022 (pre-season)
The sun shone and Beddington Park had never looked more glorious as the trusty Beckenham scorer arrived with umpire Alan Ewen to embark on his 32nd season ‘in the saddle’. With several newcomers in today’s lineup, it would be interesting to see how they all performed. Lacking last season’s two prolific run-scorers James Fear and Johan Malcolm, skipper Alex Senn nevertheless opted to bat first having called correctly. And so it was ‘here we go again time’!
On a typical early-season deck with not a great deal of pace, skipper Senn and young keeper Gethin Roberts started steadily against the seam of Alfie Gardner and the off-spin of Tor Burrowes. With the score on 20, Senn played a very loose shot to depart for 9 and shortly afterwards, Harry Jones dragged one on, both wickets falling to Gardner. Worse was to follow as first change Parth Byas had newcomer Harri Aravinthan driving firmly to cover to mark his Beckenham debut sadly with a duck. It was not looking good at 25-3 but Roberts was batting very sensibly and, together with veteran Jason Bilimoria, pushed the score up to 35 before Roberts nicked Byas to be caught by keeper Wilkins. Bilimoria found a willing ally in the arrival of Oliver Falero, a product of Beckenham’s excellent junior section. Displaying a classy technique, the Trinity schoolboy displayed an even temperament as the score was pushed along steadily until Bilimoria departed. Another junior product, Archie Holman then batted well to share a useful stand with Falero before falling to the left-arm spin of South African Moolman. The returning Junaid Nadir departed for four to leave Beckenham in a perilous position on 83-8 before another newcomer, Isaiah Elie, arrived. It wasn’t long before the left-handed Elie called upon the famous words of a legendary former member of many years ago, “this place needs livening up!” And liven it up he duly did with a barrage of powerful drives and pulls that rocketed the score along until Beddington took the final two wickets leaving Elie unbeaten for a splendid 37. The final score of 124 was going to take some defending but the side was packed with bowling so it had all the ingredients of an excellent second session. For the hosts, Moolman took the bowling honours with 4-21 with good support from all the other bowlers.
Beddington openers then sallied forth to face the visitors’ opening attack of Junaid Nadir and young Archie Holman who quickly demonstrated that he was considerably quicker than last year. It was Nadir who broke through by having Dharam Byas well held by Falero for 5. D’Ardenne and Moolman then pushed on as skipper Senn introduced Harri Aravinthan to the attack to replace Nadir. Bowling at a brisk pace, it wasn’t long before the former Ashtead all-rounder made his mark with two wickets in his second over. With the left-handed Elie coming on at the other end and grabbing a wicket quickly, Beckennham were back in the game with the home side 40-4. Aravinthan then struck again to remove the classy Moolman for 14 which signalled the last Beckenham success for a while as Carson and Burrowes combined to wrest the game back Beddington’s way. They had put together a good stand of 44 before the ‘Hero of Bexley’, Ishan Sabharwal, had Carson smartly stumped by Roberts for 21. Back came Aravinthan to replace Elie and he struck immediately to bowl Burrowes for 22. At 88-7, the game was turning into a fine, nail-biting contest in the glorious Easter sunshine. Keeper Tom Wilkins took up the reins and further runs were eked out before Aravinthan completed a superb ‘fivefer’ by having Gardner caught behind to make the score 100-8. The game was soon over as Cook was run out and then skipper Ben Butcher bowled first ball by Nadir to give Beckenham victory by 22 runs. Harri Aravinthan deservedly took the bowling award for his 5-14 but all the bowlers bowled well with James Ronay bowling at good pace at the end.