Sunday saw a Letcombe team
packed with experience (age-wise if not ability) meet a decidedly youthful
looking Kennington team in the cup quarter-final.
Hales returned as captain and,
on winning the toss, invited the opposition to bat first on a wicket still
slightly damp from the recent downpours.
After the first fielding practice
of the season, Letcombe took to field with extra vim and vigour and were immediately up
to the task.
With a somewhat sparse bowling
attack, Andrews took the first over from the bottom end and Taylor joined
the attack down the hill, both immediately finding an excellent line and length.
I n his second over, Andrews trapped the dangerous opener on the back foot
for a cast iron LBW and followed by bowling the number three via a bottom
edge as he tried an ill advised cut stroke on a Letcombe wicket.
Indeed, Andrews and Taylor continued
to play on the visitors lack of local-track knowledge and seeming unwillingness
to stay around to take a look. The third wicket was soon taken, Andrews
again nipping one back to trap the batsmen right in front on the back foot.
With an attacking field and tight bowling, the vistors struggled to make any
headway and, after a couple of half-chances were put down, Andrews pulled
off a spectacular diving caught-and-bowled to claim his fourth wicket of the
afternoon.
Bowden replaced the luckless
Taylor at the top end and with his first ball, a perfectly pitched leg-break,
found the outside edge, Taylor pouching a straightforward catch at slip and
half the visitors were back in the pavilion.
Andrews soon had his fifth wicket,
nipping back a sharp delivery to take off stump, again profiting from an ill-judged
cut-stroke on a Letcombe wicket. After his eighth over failed to produce
a wicket, Andrews was ruthlessly withdrawn from the attack with figures of
5 wickets for 8 runs and retired to hobble around the outfield.
At this point, Kennington sent
in their youngest batsmen who proceeded to teach his elders a thing or two
about playing the pitch on its merits. Indeed, he was only dismissed
by a smart caught-and-bowled by Hume who picked up a further three wickets
with a "mixture" of deliveries and the assistance of two stumpings from Stone
and a catch on the way to cow corner.
The visitors were dismissed
for 63 inside 25 overs and the match was effectively over.
Hales and Rich made a comfortable
start against some good spin and seam bowling before Rich knicked one to the
keeper. Bowden briefly appeared and departed in even time to leave Hales
and Taylor to stear the home side through to the semi-final by 5.30.