An excellent start to the season in idyllic weather. We won the toss and rightly batted first. We started rather slowly, ignoring the main instruction, ‘rotate the strike’, by scoring the first single at the end of the fifth over. Luckily, we had already been given 14 extras by that stage, and had reached 39 before Joshi, having missed out on two successive longhops from a new leg spinner, then tried to hit a good ball and was bowled for 14. Clarke and Hargett then put on 48 in the next 6 overs, with Clarke playing some good straight and lofted drives before being caught out trying one more (28 off 27 balls). The scoring was increased further by Peranatham, producing early candidates for ‘champagne moment’* by coming down the pitch to flick a ball on the ground through midwicket for four (all wrist and timing), followed by a lovely fine sweep for four. We looked set for 160+, but the good intent for further upping the rate, led to a mini collapse as we lost 3 wickets for one run in the 17th and 18th overs, including both set batters, Hargett 31 and Peranantham for 32 off just 18 balls, and Trend for a second-ball duck. Hurley scored 3* and Watson prevented our innings from petering out with 8* from 7 as we ending on 145 (including 29 extras!).

After an extremely impressive tea which would have generous even for a full afternoon game, let alone a T20 (thank you, KES!) we took the field.

Our opening bowlers, Walmsley and Wye were impressively accurate right from the start and were eventually rewarded a double breakthrough at the end of the fourth over, as Wye forced the opener to play on and KES no 3 slashed a catch to Goodrem at backward point first ball. An enormous appeal for the hat-trick ball was turned down as even from my scorer’s bench on the boundary it was obviously off pad down the legside to the keeper. [Trivia point: I discovered last week while visiting Broughton Castle in Banbury that the oldest surviving ‘hat-trick’ hat is on display there. If you didn’t know, the cricket term (and for other sports) does derive from early instances in first class cricket of a bowler taking wickets with three consecutive balls. A suitable reward for that (not just getting the match ball) was being bought a brand new, grey silk, top hat, by one’s grateful teammates. When Trend got a wicket in his first over, KES were 20-3 after 6 overs, and well behind the run-rate. This enabled further changes for bowlers who had I think not bowled at all since last summer, though it geuinely did not show. Goodrem bowled tightly, without much luck, while Thomas managed a classic set-up of which many faster bowlers would have been proud, with a straight, though slightly loopy ‘bouncer’ followed by a yorker that pinner the KES opener right in front, before also quickly dismissing the next batter, and finishing with 2-20. By this stage, KES were 49-5, after 12 overs, and effectively out of the game. Walmsley returned to pick up a deserved wicket with a very smart stumping by Hargett, and finish with 4-0-12-1. Wye finished with 4-0-13-2, and by the end the main interest was whether the KES no 5 would reach a half-century: dropped off consecutive balls in Wye’s final over in the forties, he faced Watson’s final ball on 49, and hit it low to square leg, where it was dropped! So he finished 50*, KES on 99-6 as we won by 46 runs.

WS 145-5 (20 overs) beat KES 99-6 (20 overs) by 46 runs.

Champagne Moment*: Thomas’ bouncer followed by yorker to pin KES’ opener lbw.

* I don’t think there are any players or parents entirely new to my match reports, but just in case there are, or even any ISI inspectors, I should stress than no actual alcohol products (or any products at all) are involved.