Tenterden

Match Report

A seriously strong Straggler side turned up in Tenterden, so strong indeed, that there was even a 12th man (for which inability to count, Theo, while sunning himself in Greece, is a certainty for the new Straggler Euclid award for basic arithmetic).  Losing the toss and asked to field, the Straggler opening bowlers, Hugo (3 for 10) and Joe Gordon (1 for 7), proved too much for the Tenterden top order, and, with 6 maidens between them, it was not until the tenth over that the score crept into double figures.  A change of bowling reduced the pressure, and a few runs followed, but some sharp Straggler catching (two each by Zac Rahman and Freddie Horlick, both on debut) prevented anything more than a partial recovery.  Fred Sharp floated some hard-to-read leg spin, and then picked up a wicket with a full toss. And the innings was brought to a close with a brace of Toms (Pollington and Tribe) picking up wickets, the final one a hard smack by young Corbett, which picked out the sole fielder on the leg side with pin-point precision, and Freddie held a hard catch above his head.  All out for 72 in the 28th over, and an early break for tea, not that the sumptuous cricket teas of old look as if they will survive Covid-19.  Unpacking a small supermarket sandwich doesn’t have the same glamour.

Debutants Freddie H (28*) and Zac (27), opening the Straggler innings with care, punished anything loose, and finding the boundary at least once in most overs.  Zac was undone with an atypical heave, but this only brought in James Pollington, who has been guarding his not out status (100* in this fixture in 2019) and not padded up since then.  James continued much in the same vein as a year ago, clubbing four 4s in an over to take the Stragglers to a 9-wicket victory and finish, still undefeated, on 19.