Hollingbourne

Match Report

George BW has clearly taken a liking to Hollingbourne, with a century in 2016, and this year he went on to score 160*, the third highest individual Straggler score and only the 5th of 150 or more. Occasional early miscues were soon behind him, as he built momentum and finished with a ferocious flourish (a last ball six into the crowd in front of the pavilion to make sure everyone was watching!). Early partners came and went without moving the needle (Will Hilton offering some gentle catching practice). Straggler run-machine, Jasper (41), upped the tempo with George, but fell to a wonderfully agile, one handed slip catch by a young bowler, who had just taken himself off with a groin strain. Jasper was still looking for the ball on its way to the boundary, so unexpected was the catch. Al managed to run himself out first ball, but that just brought Jamie Lavers (36) to the crease for his annual cameo, to join George in the final rampage (they put on 86 in 8 overs). 298 for 6 from 40 overs looked like a pretty stiff target (6th highest Straggler score). George’s century is the 7th Straggler century of the season, never previously achieved.

Hugo worked on the theory that taking the second over seemed to produce more wickets than going first up, and was proved correct. Nick Wright hurled himself uphill with no success, while Hugo strolled down and took 3 for 16, one key batsman surrendering arms to see the ball hit the top of off. One young Hollingbourne opener rode his early good fortune to build a solid half century, but the spin twins of Benny and Jamie were wreaking havoc at the other end. Benny also has a fondness for Hollingbourne, this year with a modest 4 for 39, supported by some excellent catching. Jamie finished with 3 for 54, less well supported by the Chairman at long-on, who did his best to amuse the crowd with stranded starfish impressions, while completely misjudging a couple of big skiers from the number 10 bat hiting the ball a long way. Behind the stumps, Al broke the all-time record for keeping dismissals in a season, going to 15 with a very simple lobbed catch, and then had a stumping to close out the innings in the penultimate over – 201 all out.