A. Woolley             3
R. Pierson             19                            8-2-10-1
J. Smith                  5                              8-1-15-2
D. Owen                4                              6-0-31-1
J. Kleinveldt          38                             9.2-2-31-3
J. Boyle                  4                               5-0-18-0
R. Boyle               16
S. Smith                 4                               4-0-19-0
D. Love                 1                               4-0-23-2
D. Smith                12 not out
C. Woolley            2 not out
 
On an incredibly windy day St James took the field at Nat West’s home ground at
Beckenham. Jack and Robin both steamed in and gave the openers nothing to hit.
Macleod poked a tame catch to Ryan at point to give Robin the breakthrough. Soon
after Jack frustrated Harris into chopping a ball onto his stumps. Even with
this good start we knew that the experienced pair of Jones and Butt would be the
real challenge. Still the tight lines bowled by Jack and Robin kept the runs
down and when Jones clipped one to point he misjudged the talent of Ryan Boyle.
Ryan dived to his left to stop the ball before spinning around and throwing down
the stumps to remove Butt. With the day’s champagne moment secured Jack resumed
the attack and got the real prize by getting Jones to cut the ball to Ryan at
point who took an excellent catch to leave Nat West 20-4 and the St James
fielders cock-a-hoop.
 
20-4 became 30-5 when Dave Owen came on and got Freeman out driving loosely to
cover where Robin took the catch. Stan came on at the other end and created
catchable chances as Patel and Gladwin tried to keep the Nat West innings
moving. But no catches went to fielders as the Nat West pair hit over the top to
get out of trouble. They managed to rescue their side with some big hits but St
James were always in the hunt especially as John Kleinveldt came on to bowl a
teasing spell of off breaks. James Boyle and Darren Love came on at the other
end and it was Darren who made the breakthrough. Taking the pace off the ball
nicely he got one through Gladwin’s (38) defences. He also finally got Patel
(79) out and John worked his way through the tail with clever quicker balls and
ended with three wickets. Special credit goes to skipper Dave who kept wicket
and suffered only three byes to his name.
 
Nat West’s 152 looked a decent total on such a windy day and the feeling was St
James might have let them off the hook slightly. But they are a canny team which
they showed as their bowlers maintained an excellent line throughout our
innings. Wachi and Ahmed bowled full and straight and managed to clean bowl Jack
and Dave Owen after getting Andrew caught off a bouncer. With St James tottering
at 24-3, John joined Robin and they calmed things down. John’s power saw to it
that poor balls were punished and the two nicked some quick singles in putting
on 54 runs. But having creamed the off spin of Bansal for a six and a four John
got under one and was beautifully caught at deep square leg. 79-4 soon became
82-5 when James was bowled for four by Butt.
 
The weight of responsibility had becalmed Robin who hung on at one end and he
received the ideal partner in Ryan who arrived with some wild swishes at the
ball. But his judgement got better as he picked off some full tosses and short
balls to strike 16 before becoming the fourth St James batsmen to be clean
bowled. The partnership of 36 with Robin took St James to 112-6 and within sight
of the win. Gladwin offered some width for Robin and Stan to score off but then
Robin misjudged a pull and Gladwin took the return catch to end his painstaking
innings of 19. Stan soon followed, mistiming a full toss, leaving the selfless
skipper Dave to come in and join Darren.
 
Faced with quick accurate bowling the pair did well to stay at the crease and
add eight runs before Darren was caught. Dave played the shot of the day when he
unfurled a glorious cover drive for four to keep hopes of the win alive. Chris
looked solid too and needing twelve to win off the last over they did us proud
as we finished with a draw only seven runs adrift.
 
Afterwards there was much praise for the team as well as the understanding that
there is much to improve on. Robin was the populist choice for man of the match
though Ryan and John received similar plaudits.