1stXI Match Report : Bickley v. Beckenham
On the short, traditional train journey to old friends and rivals Bickley Park, the Beckenham scorer sat musing on the prospects of the day’s match and hoping that his stuttering side could get their League season underway and, in doing so, lay the demon that seems to bring about disastrous Beckenham batting displays at the picturesque Bickley ground.
After the catching up with umpires and old friend and colleague Rebel, the toss was made and Bickley Park had won it and elected to bat. With Rebel seated in the legendary Norman Banfield’s position and Gary Naylor on manual scoreboard duty since the electronic board was temporarily kaput, the opening salvoes were fired with Jotty Singh and Seb Naylor batting cautiously against Dave Moody and Junaid Nadir. Runs were being earned but there was no sign of a breakthrough although the bat was passed fairly regularly. Skipper Alex Senn then made a double bowling change with Harri Aravinthan coming up the slope and Kamran Khan down. The former hit a superb line right from the off and in Khan’s second over, the game suddenly exploded into life. From the first ball, Naylor had his stumps rattled, Padmanabhan was bang in front from the second, keeper Imtiaz saved the hat-trick before touching behind to ‘Barney’ Balmforth off the fourth with the rest of the over played out. The score now stood at 39-3 and some serious repair work began with Singh and skipper Dan Magin digging in. Sixteen precious runs were eked out before the admirable Aravinthan had Singh edging behind for a solid 27. Khan then struck again to give Balmforth his third victim and send back star man Elliot Hooper with Beckenham well on top at 59-5. Another face-saving stand then began to take shape with Cambridge University captain Alex Moen joining his captain. Runs came steadily with Moen showing a lot of class with Magin prepared to act as anchorman. The off-spin of Adam Senn now came into play up the slope and he was now showing that he was back to his form of 2017 and it was he who made the crucial breakthrough when Magin was comfortably held by Nadir on the boundary for 23. Ridley and Browning gave sturdy support before Senn removed both to leave Park on 128-8. Moen reached a splendid fifty from 90 balls and then the return of Moody sent back Luckett and, after a spate of wides, Moen with Park all out for 153. Khan deservedly took the bowling award for his 4-19 with Adam Senn 3-26. Aravinthan bowled his 10 overs for a miserly 1-18 while Nadir was unlucky to remain wicketless. The big question now was could Beckenham’s batting, minus last year’s leading scorer Johan Malcolm, reach the target?
After nine overs, the Beckenham score stood at a miserable 14-3 and the early signs were that the Bickley Demon was up to his old tricks again! Aravinthan is beginning to show his class as a batsman with every match as he did today but, for Park, Max Luckett, fresh from his debut for Kent, bowled impressively and a good deal quicker than in 2021 and he struck to remove Adam Senn without scoring to make the score 22-4. It was now that skipper Magin, fit to bowl again, replicated Kamran Khan’s effort by taking three wickets in four deliveries to leave Beckenham on the floor and almost out for the count at 37-7. But not quite as Junaid Nadir joined forces with Dave Moody and both players showed impressively solid batting techniques to mount a last-ditch attempt to make the final score look respectable. Sensible shot selection allied to gritty defence and good running saw the score began to mount until, after the best stand of the innings (44), Nadir put one into the air and Elliot Hooper, racing a considerable distance, brought off a stunning, sprawling catch to end Nadir’s fine knock of 23. Sadly there were no more heroics from the tail as Moody was tragically run out and then Magin bowled Balmforth to dismiss Beckenham for a paltry 86 and a rock-bottom League position. For Park, Magin’s 4-17 took the bowling award but it was Luckett (3-11) who really put the skids under Beckenham early on.
Scorecard: https://kcl.play-cricket.com/website/results/5093744 (External site)