Band of Brothers Over 40s

Martlets Over 40’s v Band of Brothers Over 40s

It was a beautiful afternoon at the very impressive Marden Cricket Club when the Martlets over 40’s recorded their first win of the Summer against Band of Brothers. On a shirt front of a wicket, where you could probably land light aircraft, the Martlets won the toss and following advice from Paul Lack decided to bowl in blazing hot conditions and without the full complement. This on the surface appeared foolhardy, but it worked out rather nicely in the end, thanks to a very good display of bowling.
The captain had got his Stu’s confused so the Martlets only had 10, but fortunately not his mixed up his Dave M’s….and Dave Mann was soon into the action catching Henderson off the metronomic Deepak Kapadia who took 3 for 45 from his 7 overs. He would, I am sure admit that he was ably assisted by our ringer and Marden CC all rounder, Ben Tomkinson. Ben swung the ball away at a good pace and on the hard wicket possibly had some of the slips feeling glad that their openers were not good enough to knick it. The key was that Ben’s luckless and wicketless seven overs only went for 21 runs and set the tone for a miserly Martlets bowling performance. Jeremy McGahan continued the good work taking 1 for 39 from his seven with a good deal of guile and skill. And when James Dahl lept in salmon-like fashion to catch the dangerous Mike Bellhouse at cover, the Martlets were on top. Paul Lack bowled with admirable accuracy to only go for 20 runs from his seven overs and really frustrated the batsmen with his excellent control. He totally deserved his wickets including one snaffled sharply at first slip, with the scorebook proudly reading caught Newman, bowled Lack. First slip informed the captain that this was a collector’s item. The captain, who also somehow managed a stumping from Paul’s bowling, thinks he has a similar action to Georgia Adams of the Southern Brave! Similar point of release (that at one point nearly endangers the umpire) but by getting in so close the result is incredibly straight and extremely effective. While this bowling clinic was going on Bromley played a really sensible knock for the Band of Brothers, meaning that they would reach a competitive total. The innings was rounded off with three overs a piece from Dahl and Mann who managed to pick up three useful wickets between them. This all meant that Band of Brothers had not quite got going as they might have expected, but had still reached a decent enough score of 179 for 9 from their 35. Therefore the game was very much in the balance.
What only perhaps one of the Martlets team knew was that Tomkinson, as well as bowling away swing at a decent lick, was actually an all rounder from the Stokes school of thought. When he was out for 77, with the score on 118 for 3, he had hit 14 fours and made me slightly nervous about the position of my car. It also led to some questions about his eligibility for the over forties and whether he should retire having made 50’from 34 balls. Whilst having a modicum of sympathy, we sort of made the decision to ignore this completely from our position in the lovely new pavilion. In any case Ben was so entertaining to watch and I wanted to see if he could really get going and threaten the windows in the nice pair of oast houses that back onto the ground. We replied that he clearly just has a better skincare regime than some others and to get on with it.
Nonetheless when he was eventually out there was still a fair bit to do and the Martlets were indebted to a fine 57 not out from James Dahl which saw them home with 7 overs to spare. This win, by 5 wickets, was greeted with jubilation and a team photo.
Worth adding that Marden CC is a superb place to play cricket and we were really grateful for the opportunity to bat on such a good wicket and field on such a flat and true outfield. I had never been there previously, but I could not believe it was not a top premier league club. So many of the new style of cricket grounds are more like cricket facilities and lack a bit of soul and some decent views. At Marden CC they have managed to create an exceptional place to play and still maintained some of the charm. A lovely day and we were very appreciative of being hosted so well.

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