The John Kent Show

We were unbeaten at home, top of the league and had defeated Sudbury at their ground earlier in the season. Given that they had the very talented Jon Kent in their side though it was hard to know which team was favourites to win this one. We needed to win 5 of our remaining 6 games to be champions and our eyes were firmly fixed on winning this one. The team news was that we would be without Elmo, Arkle, Toby and in came Rare, James Ellis and Steve Gozzett for his only appearance of the campaign. A shock followed when Spaggs lost our first toss for more than 2 months, in fact since the away game at Sudbury away in May. On that day we had been inserted but on this occasion Sudbury weren’t about to be similarly generous! Pete Siegert the Sudbury skipper had missed the first game with an ankle injury, perhaps he wouldn’t have bowled first in that one? Sudbury began cautiously as the openers Simon Halliday and Jay Philips looked good lay a platform for a big total by adding 32 off the first 10 overs. Halliday scores more freely but eventually Phillips was dismissed having contributed only 13 to a stand of 69 in 19 overs. Neal Harrington was the man who made the breakthrough with James Ellis taking the catch. It was to be Harrington’s final contribution of the season as he became another of our first choice XI to succumb to injury. Halliday fell for 41 without any further addition to the score the victim of an lbw decision which went in Spaggs favour. This bought Jon Kent to the crease in the 20th over with the game in the balance at 69/2. What happened next made me wonder why Kent was lurking at number 4 instead of being at the top of the order kicking his heels watching the slow progress. He added 47 in 8 overs for the 3rd wicket with Charlie Phillips who contributed 8 before departing. He then added 72 in 12 overs with his skipper who totalled 22 before he headed back to the pavilion Both these wickets fell to Legend but like all our bowlers he was going for a run a ball. The next partnership saw Kent and Matt Pears add 44 in 7 overs of which his partner only scored 7 before Rubber removed him. In those 3 partnerships Kent had scored all but 37 out of 163 runs, fairly dominant even allowing for a few extras! During these stands Kent went smoothly through the gears and in the process completed his 100. He finally missed a straight one from Trevaskis in the penultimate over when he had 130 against his name. His innings contained 17 boundaries and would probably fit into a top 10 that I saw at Drapers. Sudbury closed at 259-6 off their 50 overs and that looked like a very good score from where I was standing. One glimmer of hope for us was that Guy Robbins (Spaghetti or Shells) had tweaked a hammy whilst running with the more youthful Kent and was unlikely to trundle his low slow nagging line at us. Taking only 6 wickets was a season low for us and meant we wouldn’t pick up many bonus points. Rubber, who had batted at 8 in the return fixture, showed the versatility his nickname suggests by becoming Spaggs opening partner but saw the skipper dismissed early. Spaggs was the first victim for Kent falling caught behind with only 5 to his name and the score at 12-1 in the 5th over. Although Kent had been held back at 4 with the bat he was entrusted with the new ball - he definitely got good value for his match fee! Dubbers and Rubber set about rebuilding and reached 40-1 after 10 overs (comparing favourably to 32-0). In the 17th over Kent struck again and this time it was our leading run scorer, Dubbers who nicked one behind with the score at 69. I made a rare appearance in the top 4 and joined Rubber in a partnership of 51 in 12 overs where we battled to keep the run rate up with that we required. In the 29th over (and Kent’s 15th on the spin) he clipped my off stump and I was out for 26. 110-3 became 140-6 as Kent completed his five-fer to go along with his ton. Rare managed to get himself run out for 5 thus denying Kent the chance to take all 10 wickets!!! Amongst his victims were Rubber for a fine 60 (his first half century of the campaign) which contained only 4 boundaries and Trevaskis who managed just 5 before being bowled. Two more quick wickets fell (not to Kent) and at 148-8 the game was done. At this point and having bowled 20 overs in a row Kent was granted a rest with figures of 20/2/65/5. Legend and Jap then had some fun in adding 51 for 9th wicket in 12 overs. Legend had most of the fun, his 35 not out was the only time he got more than 10 all season And he was able to stroll off with his bat over his shoulder. Jap nurdled 11 singles in support. These two narrowly failed to help us secure an extra bonus point as we finished our 50 overs with 199-8. We we’re beaten fair and square and could have no complaints. Our defeat at Browns had been annoying as we should have won but this one was down to a star performance and we had to take it on the chin. Next up was a “must win” game at second place Wivenhoe and our seam Bowling options were looking thin. Both Elmo and Jap had opened the bowling in support of Trevaskis and now neither were available. We turned to 15 year old Katan Patel to make his first XI debut with the intent to entrust him with the new ball. The team news was Out = Jap, Steve Gozzett, James Ellis In = Katan Patel, Arkle, Toby We had plenty of spin options at a venue where we expected to see dust! Our season hung in the balance at this point and the next 5 games would all be crucial.