Any comments or problems with these pages, please contact the maintainer (martinsj@lycos.com).
Produced using Notepad. Page last modified 30 Oct 2003.
The Annual General Meeting took place on Wednesday 20th November 2002, at The Vine, Goudhurst. There were minor changes to the committee and officers of the club. First, Ken Owen stood down as Sunday captain, and Matt Tye was appointed; Ken will stay on as vice-captain. Second, Mark Skinner stood down from the committee and a vote of thanks was recorded for his contribution.
The Annual Dinner took place on Saturday 9th November 2002, at The Vine, Goudhurst. This was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended; some photos are available here. Presentations were made as follows: Batting - Gary Sargent, Bowling - Matt Tye, Catches - Martin Eke, and Sixes - Stuart Smith. Congratulations to all of them.
By combining the stats for 2001 and 2002 I can reveal the leading career figures for KLCC as follows. (Notes: this is for KLCC per se, as opposed to KCC and LCC. As ever, it can only include matches that have made it into the scorebook! Evening matches excluded. The club has played 61 matches, won 21, drawn 10 and lost 30.)
First (and so far only) to 1000 runs: Stuart Smith, who reached it with the first scoring stroke of his innings vs Groombridge. This match was also his 50th appearance for KLCC; he has since moved on to 52. Next behind Stuart in runs is Steve Martin (890), who has been neck-and-neck with Richard Smith (823) over the latter part of the season, and in fourth place is Gary Sargent (611).
In appearances, next behind Stuart is Martin Eke with 50, then Kevin Francis and Richard Smith on 43.
Steve Martin has the best batting average - 40.45, with two 100s and 8 fifties in 24 innings. Gary Sargent (five 50s in 16 inns) and John Newton are also averaging over 30, and both Smiths are above 20.
Turning to bowling, the leading wicket taker will come as no surprise - Matt Tye with 49 (just missed the milestone of 50). Kev Francis has 37, and Graham Bateup 36. Adrian Hammond and Kev Francis both bowled their 200th over during the President's match; and would you believe it Matt Tye just missed passing that milestone - 199 overs and 5 balls.
Best bowling average belongs to Simon Clark, who has only played three times, but has 15 wickets at 4.27. If we disallow this (but who is to say he can't keep it up!?) then it is Matt Tye at 12.67, followed by Graham Bateup and Peter Jovanovic. Most economical run rate belongs to PJ with 2.98, followed by Matt, Gary and Graham.
Catches: the men into double figures are Martin Eke (18), Stuart Smith (12) and Richard Smith (10), and (in far fewer appearances) Gary Sargent (10).
Finally, the really important one: Sixes. I'll read the results in reverse order. Third: Tom Nicholson, 8. Second, Gary Sargent, 12. First: Stuart Smith, 21.
Our League season ended on Saturday, and ended badly. We conceded 328-2, with two centurians on the Groombridge side, and clearly had no real chance of competing. It is perhaps some small consolation that we denied Groombridge a bowling point, finishing at 154-4.
This means that following our fifth win, against Four Elms, we then lost six games and had one abandoned. Our playing record finished P14 W5 L8 A1. We finished in 10th place (of 15), just behind Pembury (whom we beat) and just ahead of Outwood (who beat us). Consensus of opinion seems to be that we could have done a little better, but overall not at all bad for our first season.
| Round | Opps | Scores | Result | Pts | Top Scorer | Best Bowling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | (bye) | |||||
| 2 | Pembury (A) | P 155-4, KL 156-6 | W by 4 wkts | 11 | John Newton 58 | PJ 2-26 |
| 3 | Bidborough (H) | KL 164-8, B 97 | W by 67 runs | 15 | Gary Sargent 81 | Mark Skinner 3-28 |
| 4 | St Lawrence (A) | KL 230-7, SL 36 | W by 194 runs | 16 | Steve Martin 89 | Kev Francis 7-20 |
| 5 | Sissinghurst (H) | KL 134-8, S 139-5 | L by 5 wkts | 1 | John Newton 47* | Steve Martin 2-22 |
| 6 | Outwood (A) | KL 148-8, O 149-2 | L by 8 wkts | 1 | Richard Smith 34* | Richard Smith 1-28 |
| 7 | Limpsfield Chart (H) | LC 111, KL 112-8 | W by 2 wkts | 14 | Roger Hammond 45* | PJ 3-14 |
| 8 | Four Elms (A) | KL 168-9, 4E 84 | W by 84 runs | 15 | Gary Sargent 63 | Mark Skinner 3-17 |
| 9 | Fordcombe (H) | F 199-5, KL 109 | L by 90 runs | 0 | Gary Sargent 43 | Steve Martin 3-35 |
| 10 | Hadlow (A) | KL 123, H 124-2 | L by 8 wkts | 1 | John Newton 21 Roger Hammond 21 | Matt Tye 1-27 |
| 11 | Cranbrook (H) | Cancelled | No result | 5 | ||
| 12 | Leigh (H) | KL 149, L 150-4 | L by 6 wkts | 1 | Gary Sargent 36 | Simon Bateup 1-14 Gary Sargent 1-14 |
| 13 | Flimwell (A) | F 195-8, KL 142 | L by 53 runs | 3 | Richard Smith 55 | Simon Bateup 2-17 |
| 14 | Eynsford (H) | KL 160, E 163-6 | L by 4 wkts | 3 | Gary Sargent 47 | Kev Francis 2-29 |
| 15 | Groombridge (A) | G 328-2, KL 154-4 | L by 174 runs | 1 | Steve Martin 84* | Steve Martin 1-53 |
We played Horsmonden under League rules, to give them a flavour of what next season might be like if they join our League. Having said that, when they arrived with only nine men, we provided a substitute, which we probably wouldn't have done in the League.
This proved to be a big mistake, as four K&L batsmen were caught by the substitute, all of them at point. (Martin Eke two catches, Martin Francis and Karl Hammond one each. Guys, they are not going to count in your KLCC stats.) We mustered only 100-9, Dave Hammond top-scoring with 34no.
In the Horsmonden reply, Graham Bateup mixed up his batting order, and we managed to take six wickets. However, this merely brought the two best batsmen to the wicket, and they finished it off at 102-6. Bearing in mind that we only needed to take eight wickets, it would have been interesting if Steve had accepted a sharp caught-and-bowled chance, but it wasn't to be.
In Tuesday's game at Horsmonden, Gary Sargent made yet another fifty; he has had scores of 10, 70no, 52 and 54 in the evening games this year. That's a total of 186 and an average of 62. All the other batsmen in these games have totalled 106 between them! Roger Hammond made 42 of those runs, and was only dismissed once, for an average of 42.
On the bowling side, Kev Francis has taken 7 wickets for 22 runs, so his average is 22/7 - which, as every schoolchild knows, is an approximation to the mathematical constant "pi". Isn't that interesting?
Moving on swiftly ...
None of this will count in the official averages, which exclude evening games. Gary will be unconcerned by this, since his official average is 53.75; in League games it is 53, and in non-League, 56.
You might think therefore that he was "top" in every case - but no, in the non-League games someone is leading him. OK, it is a freakish result: it's Peter Jovanovic, who has only scored four runs, but is undefeated, so his average is infinite.
Sadly the Boot Sale on 4th August had to be cancelled as the ground was waterlogged.
Fordcombe came to Kilndown having won all their games apart from one abandoned. Unfortunately for K&L (and the rest of KCVL Div2!) they left in the same situation.
We didn't bowl particularly well, but a target of 200 should certainly not have been beyond us. It looked very challenging after Steve had spectacularly demolished his own stumps and Richard and Roger had followed him back to the pavilion, but still not impossible. Then came the rain (and this began to look like our best chance of picking up some points) but it didn't last long and only resulted in Gary's dismissal from the first ball after the restart.
Stuart decided that attack was the best form of defence but miscued one that lifted and after that we certainly wanted the rain to return! It didn't.
Simon got some overs and some time in the middle under his belt, which should prove valuable next time out.
At Four Elms, Gary Sargent was the fourth different Saturday captain in as many matches, and he led the way with 63, falling to an LBW that not even the opposition thought was out. After that, John Newton again carried the innings, bringing up the 160 with a six off the pen-penultimate ball, then his own fifty with a six off the penultimate, and getting bowled by the last ball.
K&L bowled and fielded very well all round - wickets simply seemed to fall steadily and runs did not accrue. The only incident of note was Kev's (inadvertant, we think) repeated bouncing of one of the openers.
Highpoint of the season so far: Starting with 3 wins out of 3, the last by a thumping 194 runs and only using the opening bowlers.
Lowpoint so far: Then slumping to two losses, and soon after tea on 6th July being at 25-6 chasing 111, and staring a third defeat in the face.
However, we had enough batting to recover and win that one by two wickets, thanks mainly to Roger, Mark and Ken.
K&L last night won the deciding 16-over match in the three-match series against Bells Yew Green. Steve Martin had an interesting game. First, padded up to go in at no.3, he saw K&L openers Roger and Gary bat through to the final over, putting on 93, before Steve came in to be bowled first ball. Graham and Gary then nudged the score up to 97-2.
In reply BYG made steady progress without losing a wicket until Steve came on to bowl. First ball, a wide half-volley was played on. Second ball, a wide half-volley was sliced to point. Third ball, hat-trick ball, was Steve's alleged faster ball and was ... hit for four.
Was this jug avoidance? Opinion is divided on this point. Steve says it wasn't, everyone else says it was. Anyway, a third wicket fell to the last ball of the over. (This ball was somewhat short, but it did turn, and bowled the left-hander who was playing across the line.) Excitement over (for the moment).
Matt was bowling at the other end and it is hardly worth noting that he demolished the stumps a couple of times, so common is this occurrence. In Steve's next over he bowled the killer wide half-volley again and, you've guessed it, induced another batsman to play on. In his final over he finally bowled a decent ball (no, really) which almost went for six but was caught by Adrian on the long-on boundary as he barged the substitute fielder out of the way.
I've quite forgotten how the other two wickets fell, but it came down to BYG skipper Chris Fox and his young no.11 requiring 20-plus from the last two overs. That nasty man Phil Ashford sent down a demon delivery to bowl the no.11 and wrap up the game and the series.
Having taken five wickets, with some considerable luck, a debate followed on whether Steve should buy a jug or not. Opinion is divided on this point. I am sure you can guess in what way.
Matt Tye is (as at 11/7) topping the club's bowling averages and run rate chart - hardly surprising when you see that he has taken 25 wickets and bowled 25 maiden overs.
Glancing through the 2002 Wisden, I find that there are only two current first-class cricketers older than me.
Q1: Use a copy of Wisden to determine who are they and how old I am. Or ...
Q2: Without using Wisden, guess who they are. They are both well-known. Put cursor here to see clues. Let me know if this doesn't work for you. But if you have read the clues, you mustn't use Wisden!
Q3: In last year's Wisden there was a third, even older cricketer listed. Can you guess who it was?
Clue: You might be surprised that he was still considered "current"!
The first Boot Sale of the season was held on Sunday 9th June 2002. Despite the threat of bad weather and soggy conditions underfoot, there was good support from the locals for a slightly disappointing number of boots. The event made in excess of £NNN for club funds.
The idea of posting the teams for forthcoming games is under consideration. This would not replace the usual methods of face-to-face, telephone and e-mail communication between the Team Secretary and the players, but may be a useful fallback. It is certainly quite 21st century
. Any views?
Any comments or problems with these pages, please contact the maintainer (martinsj@lycos.com).
Produced using Notepad. Page last modified 30 Oct 2003.