1stXI Match Report: Beckenham v. Bickley Park
Beckenham’s old friends and rivals were the visitors to sun-drenched Foxgrove on Saturday and another chance for the two scorers to try and outdo the other on the cricket trivia stakes!
A firm pitch with traces of green indicated some movement and the result of the toss was that Beckenham had won and Alex Senn opted to bat first. Sadly it was the old story as, with some movement from the pitch, batting was cautious and runs hard to come by. With 15 on the board, Senn holed against Jason Benn and, shortly afterwards, Nick Rigg was back in the hutch playing across the line and being bowled by the same bowler. James Fear and Harri Aravinthan tried to get the innings started and to build a decent platform against the pairing of skipper Dan Magin and left-arm spinner Elliot Hooper who was already extracting sharp turn from the Neil Simpson End. The stand was ended when Magin bowled Fear for 16 and shortly afterwards accounted for Ross Piller by the same method. The score was now 45-4 and a familiar story with Aravinthan trying hard to get the innings back on track before he too holed out against Hooper. David Moody and Adam Senn shared a promising stand which was ended by the return of Max Luckett who bowled Moody. Senn and James Balmforth then combined with sensible shot selection and good running as the score approached the hundred but, after the returning Benn had Senn caught behind for 27, the innings crept past the hundred before subsiding to 107 all out. All the Bickley bowlers bowled well with Magin (4-19) and Benn (3-13) the pick but this was yet another poor batting display from Beckenham.
Beckenham made a good start when the express pace of David Moody had Elliot Hooper edging behind to Balmforth for 5. As Charlie Smith dropped anchor at one end, Safwaan Imtiaz batted brightly with some good shots in taking the score up to 37 before Aravinthan held on to a fine slip catch to get rid of him off Moody. The introduction of talented left-arm spinner Ishan Sabharwal brought the game to life when bowled Padmanabhan and then had Moen well held by Aravinthan in successive overs and, when Moody returned to have Ridley again held by Aravinthan to make the score 61-5. The question was, could Beckenham break through to the tail and force an amazing victory? Despite good bowling and fielding, Smith and skipper Magin were in no mood to give the game away as, slowly but surely, the target came closer until victory was achieved in the 33rd over with Smith unbeaten on 30 and Magin 17. With six matches to go, it now looks as if Beckenham face an uphill task with key man Johan Malcolm showing no signs of returning to action.
Scorecard: https://beckenham.play-cricket.com/website/results/5093727 (external site)