1stXI Match Report - Sandwich Town v Beckenham

The Beckenham scorer, having settled into his delightful rented cottage the day before, arrived at the Butts to witness a somewhat greener outfield than of late (there had been rain the previous day!).  The Beckenham side was on the young side so it would be interesting to see what would transpire against a Sandwich Town side looking to move away from the dreaded ‘drop’ zone..

Colleague for the day was Siobhan, late of Folkestone, and the result of the toss was announced which was that Alex Senn had called correctly and opted to bat first on a good-looking track.  The innings did not start well as Gethin Roberts got a good ball from Harry Bee to be caught behind.  Senn and Nick Rigg pushed the score up to 39 before Senn hit first-change Ben Smith weakly to Harry Bee to make the score a familiar 39-2.  Harri Aravinthan was soon into his stride and both he and Rigg ran well in compiling a useful stand before Ben Smith trapped Rigg in front for 26.  Rob Clements kept up the scoring rate and Aravinthan continued to bat well with a fifty looking a distinct possibility.  Sadly he too holed out weakly to depart for 38 off the occasional bowling of Zack Fagg.  The arrival of young Archie Holman provided Clements with a willing partner and also a cool head.  The Beckenham pair began to put together the best stand of the innings with extremely sensible shot selection, superb running and runs were now coming from almost every ball.  Clements went on to complete an excellent and well-deserved fifty from 75 balls before falling to Bee on 187.  Holman continued to bat splendidly and was rewarded with a magnificent fifty from 56 balls being given splendid support by Junaid Nadir who struck the ball well in making 24 and was last out leaving Holman undefeated on a very fine 56 from the final total of 227-6.

The Town reply started steadily but neither Dave Moody, playing his last game, nor Junaid Nadir could make the breakthrough.  It was first-change Aravinthan who made it with his second ball by bowling Niewoudt for 10.  The aggressive Zack Fagg was in full steam and was given good support by Tom Burnap and the pair took the score to 84 before the second change bowler, James Ronay, had Burnap well held by Rigg.  Now it was the turn of the all left-arm spin attack of Clements and Ishan Sabharwal.  Fagg had completed a fine fifty in 59 balls before Sabharwal trapped him in front for 59 and he then struck again almost immediately to remove Keey.  It wasn’t long before Clements got in on the act by removing a brace of Smiths to leave Town rocking on 125-6.  Carney (22) played some pleasant shots but Sabharwal struck twice more on 145 to put Beckenham in sight of a third win of a hugely disappointing season.  Carney’s staunch effort was ended by Ronay who took the final wicket to give Beckenham victory by 63 runs.  For the visitors, Sabharwal took his second ‘fourfer’ in successive weeks with good backup from a much-improved Ronay and another splendid spell from Clements.

Scorecard: https://beckenham.play-cricket.com/website/results/5093790 (external site)