11/07/1999 v BEXLEY HOSP

lost

It was only the introduction of Richard Coverly which slowed the run rate down. By bowling slowly on a pitch with green patches on a length Richard denied the Bexley batsmen the ability to use the pace of the ball to work the ball away.

Richard bowled the other opener as he advanced down the pitch and then Clive Stringer took a juggling catch in the outfield to get rid of the number three bat. Bob Dunkley replaced Tony Day at the other end and soon started exploiting the variable nature of the pitch. Richard took another 2 wickets and Bob chipped in with a couple as the catches started being snapped up and Bexley were reduced to 113 for 8. This was a tremendous fight back by Old Dartechs but Bexley themselves staged a recovery and the ball started racing across the bare outfield to the boundary once again. The eight wicket put on 39 invaluable runs and finally Bexley ended on 171 with a few overs of the 40 over allocation left. Steve Lawton and Clive Stringer opened up and it was soon clear that Bexley's bowlers knew what length to bowl on their own wicket. Clive played out a maiden first over but Steve Lawton played a glorious shot for four through the covers off the back foot from his second ball.

Unfortunately his third ball was a shorter delivery which left him slightly and the ball looped to first slip. Jock came in and tried to hook a ball through mid wicket off his third ball but only succeeded in skying the ball to mid wicket. Worse was to follow as Tony Day was out for nine several overs later.

This left Old Dartechs reeling at 17 for 3 and facing some very straight and penetrating bowling from the Bexley openers. Clive survived a few strong appeals for LBW but was intent on seeing off the openers with Steve Jones who was playing an unaccustomed defensive role.

Several short singles tested Steve's dodgy knee severely but it was the Bexley fielders who were showing the strain as several overthrows were given away to keep the scoreboard ticking along. Clive somehow made it through to the last ball of the openers eighth over and he took great delight in hooking it to the fine leg boundary for 4. This lead to a relative flood of runs as Steve and Clive took the required 5 an over from the replacement bowlers. However at 106 Clive was eventually run out by a direct throw and was replaced by Neil Priddy. Neil took a while to get going but gave Steve good support in a stand of 35. The introduction of Fisher at the end stemmed the flood of runs as Steve found it difficult to get him away and Steve was eventually bowled for an excellent innings of 52. Rarely can he have shown such a mixture of application and extravagant attacking shots in what may be his final innings for the club for a while as he takes up a new job in Singapore. Steve was replaced by Adam who was run out for 5 and it was left to Richard Coverly to score 6 off the last ball to win. Despite a gallant effort, Old Dartechs failed to win this exciting match and they extended a losing streak to 5 matches.