Catford & Cyphers Sunday IX (I haven’t got this numeral the wrong way round) were ambushed at Beckenham & Sydenham’s Cricket Lane ground. Losing the toss, unsurprisingly B & S chose to bat on a white-looking strip with the customary very short boundary. Any early hope that might have been taken from an early breakthrough, when Abbot got the new ball to nip-away leading to a superb slip catch by Dolman, began to swiftly ebb when an identical, easier chance to B & S’s former Surrey batsmen, Richard Deer, the next ball was grounded. He proceeded to make a punishing century against an increasingly flagging team whose outfield performance was not one that anyone could be proud of. Deer was finally removed caught behind by Abbott who had taken over glove duties from Golbey, who bowled a hostile spell but with only this reward. The punishment did not lessen as B & S continued to use this friendly match to get in batting practice against a team further weakened to VIII when Gold tweaked his calf whilst chasing a ball down at mid-off. After 30 overs, B & S declared on 262 for 4.
The reply was always going to be a half-hearted affair, especially when opening new boy (possibly soon to be new girl) Richard Black got clobbered where the box should have been. He’s learned his lesson, we hope. Dolman pulled a ball from Morris Johns across the line to be caught at square leg before Richard was bowled. Abbot and Assam put up some game resistance, but their dismissals heralded the end of anything approaching “care” in a demoralised team, and the end soon came with less than 50 runs and 15 overs on the board.
Clearly we need to try and get XI players out on a Sunday to make the contest more even. But by the same token it would be great if the opposition at least pretended to reflect the friendly nature of the game, or go and join a Sunday league if they want to play competitive cricket. Next week versus Downe promises, on paper, to be a more friendly affair.