Match report 16 June 2007 Selmeston v Isfield
Isfield won the toss and elected to bat.
Selmeston 229-7 dec (34 overs), Isfield 120-10 (37.4 overs).
Selmeston 30 points, Isfield 8 points.

GOOD KNIGHT – BAD DAY

The slips were kept busy at Selmeston on Saturday as no less than 7 catches were taken by both sides. Tim Knight belying his many years sprang like a young salmon with an electric current up its backside to take two unbelievable one-handed efforts. Unfortunately other important chances and half-chances were not taken as Selmeston roared ahead after they were put in by Healey.

Under threatening skies Selmeston rode their luck as they got stuck into anything loose without too much regard for safety. With only ten men it was impossible to plug all the holes and Mick Baldwin smashed his way to a century although he could have been taken by Huw Williams at long-off but the difficult chance slipped out as he dived backwards.

With the late loss of an unfit Lawrie Richards, still suffering from a holiday cycling accident, the attack was missing a fifth bowler and Huw Williams took a whipping as the Selmeston batsmen continued their assault. So rapid was the scoring however, it got to the stage where they would have to declare, potentially giving Isfield a chance to chase down a target with a lot of overs to play with. With that in mind, Healey went for wickets and not for defending the boundary in the hope that the home side would declare too soon.

After 34 overs Selmeston had reached 229-7 and were happy to end their innings having achieved 10 batting points but giving the visitors 7. In high hopes, Healey and Chasseaud had half-an-hour to face before tea and they had almost negotiated that first target when Emile inside-edged a slower ball from Clark onto his stumps. Huw Williams nervously hung his bat out to the  first two deliveries but when he turned a ball to leg with some velocity on to the bonce of the short-leg fielder he seemed to settle. With no permanent brain damage inflicted the teams went in for tea.

After hot-dogs, Huw set about the bowling with a vengeance as he struck four boundaries followed by a six over square leg that never went above 6 feet above the ground but travelled clear into the next field. After the storm, the quiet as an attempted repeat performance had an embarrassing result as the ball failed to get up and the off stump was knocked back. Healey had dropped his bat in dismay at the dismissal but dug in with Russell Brocklehurst playing freely and hitting runs without too much trouble. Just as it seemed everything was stabilising the Skipper got a leading edge as he attempted to glance down leg. One slip grabbed at the ball which ricocheted off his colleagues throat, rolled down his body, was grabbed a second time, slipped out and eventually pouched at the third attempt.

Russell, after scoring an aggressive 20 also went to a slip catch leaving Tim Knight with Robin Goodyear. The madman with the dodgy knees (Robin not Tim) was further handicapped by not wearing a jockstrap so that every run was only possible if grabbed his crutch to stop his box slipping out. Healey became infuriated by this and forced him to wear a jockstrap over his trousers. Unfortunately it was not so much an impression of superman but more like Steve Bell's cartoon of John Major. Needless to say he was out soon after as the slips snaffled another victim.

Tim Knight took a liking to the leg spinner and merrily clouted him to the boundary including a straight six, but his attempt at a late cut due to him no longer being able to play the square variety gave yet another simple catch to the now well practiced slip cordon. Moose was unlucky as he smashed the ball back towards the bowler and was taken low down. Chris Saunders scored 14 with Martin Fellows at the other end bravely blocking it out until Martin forgot that a ball pitching on middle stump and which would have hit middle can be given out leg before. He was perhaps a little exposed by Chris scampering a single off the first ball of the over which he explained was due to thinking like Mark Farley, perhaps a practice not best followed. Simon Bailey with a bad back was last in but Saunders left the gate open and the game was over with Isfield still 109 runs behind.

It was a game of 'what if's', like what what if we had scored another 110 runs but beers were partaken in the appropriately named Cricketers at Berwick and relations between the teams were cordial. At least it didn't rain very hard.