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**lonmar06** · 11-08-2014, 07:04 PM

First match of the season is a university match against Loughborough UCCE. As it is just a university match I decide to give Adam Riley a run out as our spinner ahead of James Tredwell to see what he is made of. Mark Davies starts the season injured so those are the only shortages for the full team for this match.
The teams are as follows.

Kent: Rob Key (c), Sam Northeast, Darren Stevens, Brendan Nash, Sam Billings, Fabian Cowdrey, Geraint Jones, Mitch Claydon, Robbie Joseph, Doug Bollinger, Adam Riley.

Loughborough UCCE: Ben Meier, Neil Hopcutt, Timothy Hyams, Tom Chamberlain, Anthony Underwood, Christian Lappin, Charkes Marlowe, Mitchell Robin, John Coop, John Gregson, Daniel Edmead,

We lose the toss and are asked to bowl first on a good batting pitch and day. Could be a toil even against a university side.

Loughborough UCCE 1st innings (231 all out)
Even start to the first day, Bollinger and Claydon opened up the bowling and reduced L’boro to 28-3 before Hyams, Underwood & Lappin brought them back into the match going to lunch at 135-4. Immediately after lunch Claydon removed Lappin, however Hyams proved much harder to remove moving to a 124 ball century. Giving Loughborough a very impressive platform. Regular strikes at the other end however kept us squarely in the match. Bollinger finished off the innings with a triple wicket maiden including the wicket of the much impressive Timothy Hyams for a very impressive 125 from 151 balls. Bollinger ended up with equally impressive figures of 13-1-51-7.
Kent 1st Innings (407-5 dec)
Key and Northeast were completely untroubled in the 9 overs remaining before tea and the session ended with us at 30 without loss. After the break the two openers proceeded to pile on a partnership of 186 from just 33.4 overs which was broken with this wicket of Northeast falling agonisingly 3 short of what would have been a magnificent century. Key however moved into three figures shortly afterwards, from just 127 balls. We managed to finish day 1 in a very dominant position at 228-1 only 3 runs short of the Loughborough total. The first hour of day 2 saw Stevens move past 50 however he shortly fell to Robin for 58 from only 57 balls. After a few late session wickets we went for lunch at 384-4. Upon the wicket of Sam Billings (49) 5 overs into the second session with a lead of 176 runs I decided it was time to declare.
Loughborough UCCE 2nd innings (108 all out)
Regular wickets kept Kent in the ascendancy and Loughborough heading quickly to a 2 day loss. Even first innings centurion Timothy Hyams (8) couldn’t provide any resistance to a Bollinger inspired bowling attack. The left arm seamer completing a second five for in the match. to finish with match figures of 12-93.
Match Result:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/129261...5/15554994069/
Match Awards:
Batting: Rob Key 140 (174) Great innings to set up an impressive display of batting from the whole team.
Bowling: Doug Bollinger 12-93. Need I say more.
Opposition: Timothy Hyams. Impressive century in the first innings was a thorn in our side.

Attached Files

**lonmar06** · 11-08-2014, 07:22 PM

First match of the season is a university match against Loughborough UCCE. As it is just a university match I decide to give Adam Riley a run out as our spinner ahead of James Tredwell to see what he is made of. Mark Davies starts the season injured so those are the only shortages for the full team for this match.
The teams are as follows.
Kent: Rob Key (c), Sam Northeast, Darren Stevens, Brendan Nash, Sam Billings, Fabian Cowdrey, Geraint Jones, Mitch Claydon, Robbie Joseph, Doug Bollinger, Adam Riley.

Loughborough UCCE: Ben Meier, Neil Hopcutt, Timothy Hyams, Tom Chamberlain, Anthony Underwood, Christian Lappin, Charkes Marlowe, Mitchell Robin, John Coop, John Gregson, Daniel Edmead,

We lose the toss and are asked to bowl first on a good batting pitch and day. Could be a toil even against a university side.

Loughborough UCCE 1st innings (231 all out)
Even start to the first day, Bollinger and Claydon opened up the bowling and reduced L’boro to 28-3 before Hyams, Underwood & Lappin brought them back into the match going to lunch at 135-4. Immediately after lunch Claydon removed Lappin, however Hyams proved much harder to remove moving to a 124 ball century. Giving Loughborough a very impressive platform. Regular strikes at the other end however kept us squarely in the match. Bollinger finished off the innings with a triple wicket maiden including the wicket of the much impressive Timothy Hyams for a very impressive 125 from 151 balls. Bollinger ended up with equally impressive figures of 13-1-51-7.
Kent 1st Innings (407-5 dec)
Key and Northeast were completely untroubled in the 9 overs remaining before tea and the session ended with us at 30 without loss. After the break the two openers proceeded to pile on a partnership of 186 from just 33.4 overs which was broken with this wicket of Northeast falling agonisingly 3 short of what would have been a magnificent century. Key however moved into three figures shortly afterwards, from just 127 balls. We managed to finish day 1 in a very dominant position at 228-1 only 3 runs short of the Loughborough total. The first hour of day 2 saw Stevens move past 50 however he shortly fell to Robin for 58 from only 57 balls. After a few late session wickets we went for lunch at 384-4. Upon the wicket of Sam Billings (49) 5 overs into the second session with a lead of 176 runs I decided it was time to declare.
Loughborough UCCE 2nd innings (108 all out)
Regular wickets kept Kent in the ascendancy and Loughborough heading quickly to a 2 day loss. Even first innings centurion Timothy Hyams (8) couldn’t provide any resistance to a Bollinger inspired bowling attack. The left arm seamer completing a second five for in the match. to finish with match figures of 12-93.
Match Result:

Match Awards:
Batting: Rob Key 140 (174) Great innings to set up an impressive display of batting from the whole team.
Bowling: Doug Bollinger 12-93. Need I say more.
Opposition: Timothy Hyams. Impressive century in the first innings was a thorn in our side.

Attached Files

**lonmar06** · 11-09-2014, 09:49 AM

Adam Riley has been injured and will be out for 2 weeks. This isn’t too bad a piece of news because I was always going to be going to James Tredwell as my number 1 spinner. Onto the next match of the season though. First match of the County Championship and we travel up to New Road to take on an all round good team in Worcestershire.
Only 1 change to my team from the warm up game as our number 1 spinner James Tredwell replaces the injured Adam Riley.

So to the teams:

We win the toss and chose to bat first.
Starwatch: Mitchell & Ajaml

Kent 1st Innings (324 all out)
A good first session sees the two openers Key (61*) and Northeast (51) put on a second 100-run partnership of the season, Northeast falling shortly after his half century to the Pakistani off spinner Saeed Ajmal. Lunch comes around with us 121-1. The second over after lunch sees Key fall to the otherr front line spinner Shaaiq Choudhry for a well compiled 66. 3 wickets in the second session leave us in a precarious position at tea with the scoreline reading 224-4. Stevens (50) joined Key and Northeast with half centuries however none converted into a century. Regular strikes from the Worcestershire spinners meant that we finished the day on an average score of 310-8, hopefully we can add a quick 40 on day 2. It was not to be however as Ajmal made short work of our remaining batsmen and finished off the innings with just 14 runs added to the overnight score.

Worcestershire 1st Innings (280 all out)
Bollinger, Claydon and Joseph all took a wicket in the 23 overs before lunch on day 2 to send back Pardoe, Ali and Fell, Mitchell ( 31*) hanging in resolute as you would imagine. However it was much more tough going for the bowlers after lunch as Mitchell and Kervezee paired for a well compiled 100 run partnership. Before the latter was dismissed by Robbie Joseph just after reaching his half century. Mitchell posted the first century of the match from 184 balls providing the backbone of the innings, before being expertly caught in the slips by Tredwell off the bowling of Claydon for 119. With the new ball taken, Bollinger, Claydon and Joseph finished off the innings leaving us with a first innings lead of 44.

Kent 2nd Innings (338 all out)
The close of the second day came after 2 overs of the second innings with the openers untroubled finishing on 6-0. In the second session of day 3 Northeast went past 3 figures to become the first Kent centurion in the County Championship moving to 100 from 185 balls, ably supported by Brendan Nash the lead was taken to 269 at tea. Northeast was to eventually fall LBW to Shantry for 118 with the lead at 311. 156 balls was all it took Brendan Nash to bring up his 3 figures however he fell shortly after in an attempt to push the score on. Cowdrey, (7) Jones (3) and Tredwell (2) all perished as well in the pursuit of quick runs. The day ended with just one Wicket left for Worcestershire to take and the lead on 377. The last wicket was roundly taken 3 overs into the 4th morning. Setting the target for Worcestershire to win at 383.

Worcestershire 2nd Innings (198 all out)
Pardoe fell early in the innings, however first innings centurion Mitchell and England prospect Moeen Ali set about breaking the back of the target with a 97 run partnership before both fell in quick succession for 45 and 69 respectively. They never managed to get back into the game from there as a succession of wickets fell to Claydon and Tredwell, who took 8 wickets between them in the innings (Bollinger taking the other 2).

Match Awards:
Batting - Sam Northeast, 51 and 118 in his two innings, set up the innings in both and looked comfortable in doing so.
Bowling - Mitchell Claydon 7 wickets in the match including the key wicket in both innings of Mitchell.
Opposition - Saeed Ajmal, 4 wickets in each innings kept us from reaching huge totals. Wasn’t supported by the batsmen.

Starwatch:
Mitchell scored a century in the first innings & 45 in the second. A very good outing.
Ajmal took the opposition award for his 8 wickets, which didn’t prove enough to get the victory.

**lonmar06** · 11-09-2014, 06:06 PM

Great start to the County Championship with a victory over a strong Worcestershire side. We can take a lot of heart from the way we played in that match. Never really letting the opposition into the game we were very ruthless. The season has only just begun and with that in mind we head back home to Canterbury to face the last placed team from last year Leicestershire. Can’t take them lightly however as they have some talent in their side.

There will be no changes to my team in this match, although I will be looking intently at Robbie Joseph as he was not that impressive in either the warm up match or the match against Worcestershire.
The teams are as follows.

We win the toss again and chose to bat.
Starwatch: Sarwan and Shreck

Kent 1st Innings (325 all out)
Not a great start to this innings as Northeast (9) and Stevens (4) both fall early, followed a few overs later by captain Key (31) all bowled by the danger man Shreck. Brendan Nash however stood resolute and untroubled for his innings going for his lunch at 61*. An hour after lunch Brendan Nash brought up his second century of the season with a strike rate of 74.5. A very impressive knock. Before falling to Shrek’s new ball partner Anthony Ireland. Cowdrey chipped in with his first half century of the season before becoming Shreck’s sixth wicket of the innings for an important 81. The innings came to a close with 42 minutes of day 1 to go.

Leicestershire 1st Innings (373 all out)
With half an hour left of day 1 Bollinger and Claydon set about trying to make a breakthrough before stumps however Robson & Smith proved resistant to all their efforts, bringing the day to a close on 24-0. The opening partnership was thwarted by Joseph, Taking the wicket of Smith LBW for 46. Robson followed in the same fashion to Tredwell in the next over. 3 wickets followed quickly before O’Brien and Redfern came together and proceeded to put on another 90 run partnership which again was broken by Joseph. In what proved to be a difficult day Leicestershire aided primarily by Robson, Smith, Redfern & O’Brien took a first innings lead of 17 with 4 wickets still in hand at the end of the days play. However the start of day 3 Mitchell Claydon and the under pressure Robbie Joseph cleaned up the 4 wickets to restrict Leicestershire to a lead of 48 runs, leaving Redfern stranded 4 runs short of a century.

Kent 2nd Innings (290 all out)
Once again 3 wickets fell quickly at the start of the innings and once again Brendan Nash lead the recovery. This time alongside him was Sam Billings. Nash passed a century again in the second innings this one coming slightly slower from 164 balls. However he got less support in this innings with that top score aside from him being 37. We finished the innings setting only a middling target for Leicestershire to chase of 243.

Leicestershire 2nd Innings (226 all out)
With 243 to win, Robson and Smith opened the batting, however they didn’t last long together as 5 wickets fell on the 4th morning leaving Leicestershire at 137-5 at lunch. Although with just 106 runs needed for their victory we would need to keep taking wickets after lunch as well. That looked like it was going well apart from Redfern had something to say about it, scoring 74 he nearly took his side to victory however he fell with Leicestershire 21 away from the target. Tredwell taking the all important wicket. However with only 21 runs needed and 2 wickets in hand it all seemed to be too late. Thankfully Joseph had other ideas, taking the two wickets needed in the same over to seal the victory by 16 runs and in the process completing his 10 wicket haul in the match.

Match Awards:
Batting - An easy one this. Brendan Nash. No-one can score centuries in both innings and not get the batting award!
Bowling - Also easy. Robbie Joseph. I so very nearly dropped Joseph for this match, but 10 wickets in the match means I am very glad he didn’t
Opposition - Dan Redfern. 96 in the first innings, and a 74 in the second that so very nearly won Leicestershire the match.

Starwatch:
Sarwan - Not an impressive match for the West Indian, only scored 14 and 13 in his two knocks.
Shreck - 6 wickets in the first innings were impressive, just the one in the second. Good match.

**lonmar06** · 11-15-2014, 04:58 PM

2 victories in 2 matches. Not a bad start at all. Adam Riley has been declared fit again however he cant force his way back into the team as Tredwell has done enough so far to keep his place. Joseph also keeps his place after his 10 wickets against Leicestershire. So no changes are necessary. Darren Stevens heads into this match against Surrey in need of a few runs, as does Geraint Jones.

So the teams:

Surrey win the toss and elect to bat first.
Starwatch: Steven Davies & Chris Tremlett.

Surrey 1st Innings (108 all out)
An impressive first session sees us take 5 wickets including star watch batsman Steven Davies. The wickets were shared between Tredwell (2), Joseph (2) and Claydon (1). Lunch sees Surrey reeling at 80-5. An even more impressive second session saw the innings close an hour in. Tredwell finished as the top wicket taker with 4-24. The other three bowlers each taking 2. Extremely impressive bowling has put us in the box seat in this match.

Kent 1st innings (321 all out)
By halfway through the third session we had already taken the first innings lead having only lost the two openers, Key and Northeast. Stevens took advantage of the situation looking comfortable in scoring the runs he needed, passing 50 for the second time in the county championship season. However he shortly departed for 57. 175-3 was the score at the end of the first day. A lead of 67 runs. Rain meant we lost the first 40 minutes of day 2 but it cleared up and Nash and Billings walked out to resume the innings. Nash moving on to his third consecutive century, once again getting out in the 120s. We lost the final 5 wickets for the addition of just 19 runs, however it was too late for Surrey as we had already took a lead of nearly 200. The lead ending on 213.

Surrey 2nd Innings (198 all out)
Tea came around on day 2 with Surrey already floundering at 42-2 still trailing by 171 runs. The pressure was kept up by our bowler, even though Surrey proved a slightly harder prospect to turn over than in the first innings. Wickets kept coming and Surrey were eventually for 198, 15 runs shy of making us bat again, Surrey struggled to build partnerships as evidenced by only 1 crossing the 50 run threshold.

Match Awards:
Batting - Once again Brendan Nash takes this award, a third consecutive century lands him a second batting award. He is in top form.
Bowling - This is a tough one so I am going to give it to All The Bowlers it is so difficult to separate them because they all contributed so it goes to the whole bowling attack who destroyed Surrey so seemingly effortlessly.
Opposition- Another hard one I’ll have to say Jason Roy being the only batsman to show some backbone.

Starwatch:
Steven Davies - Top scored in the first innings with 29 and scored 11 in the second. Not an amazing return but no batsman was that great.
Chris Tremlett - Took 2 wickets in Surrey’s only bowling chance. Not impressive but not terrible.

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