Forest Row II began their Stoner League Division 3 campaign with
a home match against Bolney on Saturday, and eventually fell to
a 43 run defeat, in a see saw game.
Bolney won the toss and elected to bat, but it was Row who began
brighter with Simon Trench bowling Jack Collins (0) with his first
ball. Then Mike Keeler ended a quickfire innings of 29 by Dean
Hamilton with an unplayable deliverable that felled off stump.
Opener Kevin Hall (30) put on a solid stand of 36 with Steve Bowles
(3) for the 3rd wicket, but Mick Humphrey struck back for Row
having Hall caught by
Jamie Brownlie, and Bowles out to an acrobatic catch by Phil Rowe.
A further wicket for Brownlie saw Bolney reduced to 91-5. James
Flower with a solid (23) and Keith Tyler with an entertaining
(36) kept the Bolney innings going, while Brownlie, showing great
character in coming back well from nightmare spell last week finished
up taking 3-16, while the ever impressing Lawrence Webb took a
well deserved 2-7 off 4 overs as they reduced Bolney to 140-9.
The return of Simon Trench saw the innings finished off for 151
when he demolished Fred Harrison's (7) middle stump, 7 minutes
before the scheduled tea. If the cricket wasn’t entertainment
enough, there followed a moment that if it had been videoed, could
appear on Question of Sport's "What Happened Next?"
round. Trench celebrated taking the final wicket by roaring around
the field with delight, which wasn't a surprise to anyone. But
what was unexpected was for the dismissed batsman to roar equally
loudly and go charging towards the bowler with flailing bat and
both end up doing some sort of tribal dance
out in mid-wicket.
In reply, the Bolney attack provided the Row batsman with a stiff
test. The
seam bowlers were producing a fair amount of swing and movement
of the
pitch, and the leg break bowler was bowling a tricky line and
length. Graham Rowe (13) and Phil Rowe (17) put on a battling
21 for the first wicket before G Rowe was bowled by Jack Collins.
But before too long Phillips (7), Phil Rowe and Marc Jordan (2)
found themselves back in the new pavilion and the Row innings
struggling at 48-4. Mick Humphrey (16) and Simon Trench (27) started
to rebuild with an assured
Partnership of 26 and were looking comfortable before Hall bowled
Humphrey. Trench and Mike Keeler (6) showed great fight and spirit
in keeping the innings going, adding a further 28 runs. But with
Keeler's dismissal with the score on 102 and only 4 wickets left,
the Bolney attack tightened their grip on the game. In the end
the bowling attack proved too good for the Row tail, as Collins
and Hall mopped up the tail for just 6 further runs and 13 overs
remaining.
BOLNEY 151 a/o K Tyler 36, K. Hall 30, D. Hamilton 29, J. Flower
23 J.
Brownlie 3-16, L Webb 2-7, M Humphrey 2-29, S. Trench 2-43
FOREST ROW II 108 a/o S. Trench 27, P. Rowe 17, M Humphrey 16
K. Hall 3-6, J
Collins 3-27 S Bowles 2-51
