Early Season Blues

Battle 2nd XI  107 (43.4 overs)  - 30 points

Sidley CC  96 (29.4 overs)  - 10 points

Having won the toss and asked the visitors to bat on a slow damp pitch, Sidley made steady inroads into the Battle batting, reducing them to 56-6 after 30 overs due to some accurate bowling by Craig Ramsden (10 overs, 3 maidens, 4-11) and Jim Stewart (15.4 overs, 4 maidens, 4-35). Holly Harrod, making her Sidley debut, impressed with her 2-8 off 6 overs, 3 of which were maidens, and Cavan O'Connor added 2-29 off his 9 overs. Less impressive, however, were the 27 extras (11 wides) contributed by Sidley, making them comfortably Battle's top scorer.

At the tea interval, the home side were understandably confident about overtaking the total posted well within the allotted overs. Dane Capon was bowled in the second over, but Dave Coveney and Cavan O'Connor moved the score on to 31 with a mixture of patient application and aggressive hitting. When Cavan O'Connor was bowled for 18, Sidley then tumbled to 39-5, and the alarm bells started ringing, even more loudly when Craig Ramsden was bowled first ball. It was left to captain Josh Bull to occupy the crease with some focused batting and to bring the visitors' total into view, but when both he (35) and Mark Gransden (13)  were bowled fin quick succession with the score on 91, the last 17 runs to win were always going to be a difficult challenge.

It was a testing, damp pitch, with the ball moving in the air and keeping low off the soft surface, but the statistics show that 9 Sidley batsmen were bowled in this match, and 8 were bowled the previous week in the friendly at Westfield. The players urgently need to improve defensive technique, and combine this with showing a higher level of patient application, particularly when the conditions are less favourable in this early part of the season.

A better outcome is hoped for next week, when Sidley travel to Wadhurst.