Fletching Cricket Club

Ten men of Fletching were hopelessly outclassed on a pudding of a pitch at Rotherfield. Missing four players from last week and with the remaining 30-odd players in the squad unavailable, competing away to Rotherfield was always going to be tricky.

Can’t remember who won the toss, it didn’t really matter. Fletching batted first. We stared very solidly but became rather bogged down…pun very much intended. Even so, with Clive and Chris Hartup at the wicket at 94-2, Fletching still looked capable of posting a vaguely competitive total. Paul Kemp looked very comfortable at the crease after an absence from cricket for a couple of millennia and was unluckily out to a stunning catch at square leg. The tail pretty much folded after this, the exception being a calypso-style cameo from Matt Lee…smashing the ball on the up through point and extra cover like he was batting on a flat track in Barbados. Tea was exceptional, as it always is at Rotherfield. They also had this behind the bar:

142 might have been defendable, or at least interesting, if Fletching had had their usual bowling options available and a full side…and if we could get John Baldock out early. He did drive airily just short of Matt Lee at deep point off Ali’s bowling…but he was on sixty-odd by then! Chris Hartup, carrying a dozen or so injuries, claimed the one wicket to fall, lbw, but Rotherfield reached their target with plenty of overs to spare.