Free Foresters

Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you the match report from Sunday 26th July, when my home ground, the glorious Buxted Park, played host as we welcomed the mighty Free Foresters down to East Sussex.

With a meet time of ‘no later that 11am, please’, I naturally had 9 players as I ventured to the middle to toss at 11.15am. Mind you, the FF were no better punctuality wise. With the sun and heat in recent weeks, the Park was looking a bit dry and the outfit as rapid as ever. Despite this, to my surprise, our visitors won the toss and elected to field first. Cool.

Opening quick turned opening bat and wicket keeper, Jordan Shaw, faced the first rock, with what was supposed to be Sam Carter at the other end, but turned out to be Luke Forster due to an ‘apologies skip, nightmare morning’, for Sam. Classic. Unbeknown to us unsuspecting Martlets, the Foresters had brought with them a test match Dukes to bowl at us mere peasants with. No wonder they wanted to bowl first. The next surprise of the day was that Buxted Park’s own Redding Barnes had been handed said new ball. Red has not bowled on a Saturday for nearly 3 years. Red also opens the batting for Buxted Park 1st XI on a Saturday. This was another sign of just how strong this FF top order was going to be…

Unsurprisingly, the Duke’s was doing a fair bit of talking and making Red look far better than he actually is (sorry mate). Jordan did Jordan things and slapped a few around at over a run a ball, before being caught behind, just as Luke did a few overs prior. Luke has a bone to pick with me, I must say and had a (only a little) blow up as he trudged back to the pavilion. He was due to bat 4, but with Sam’s late arrival he ended up opening and facing the new ball, meaning Sam batted at 4 instead. Sam then got to face the first change spinners and scored 58 at quite a quick rate by his standards. Sorry, Lukey! The next to fall was Eastbourne overseas, Jack Shelly, who rather comically for one reason or another, went through 3 lids in 3 balls. On the 4th ball, as was bound to happen, he was out LBW. Mind you, he did inform us that he was in fact out ‘PBW’. Given the ball hit him in the box, I shall let you decide what ‘PBW’ stands for.

This brought Iain Allan to the crease, formerly of Buxted Park, who now plies his trade in East Sussex Division 6 North-East-South-West-Left-Right for Bell Yews Green. A wasted talent in my eyes. To Luke’s annoyance, Iain kept chipping balls into gaps and avoiding fielders. ‘I hate cricket’, was Luke’s sentiment. Iain then hit a big bomb into the groundsman’s shed before finally being dismissed going again and was well caught by Red running back. Following Iain, was Tom Clift, who came and went in quick fashion falling LBW (actually LBW this time) to the left arm spinner. Being asked, ‘was that hitting do you think?’, Tom replied with ‘Ha, oh yeah’. No complaints there! This left the Martlets 102-5, which was not ideal in my eyes. However, young Martlet Ed Middleton joined Sammy at the crease and played beautifully, making full use of the rapid outfield and shorter bowling from the spinners.

When Sam fell that left the boys 182-6, which brought yours truly to the crease. A bit of selfless batting from the skip boosted us to 227-7 before I was made to look a bit silly running past one for 24. Lol. Ed fell not long after for a very well made 65. The tail wagged for a bit and in the end we were dismissed for 256, which saved me a job as I was wondering when on Earth to declare knowing the batting we were about to face.

After a quick change around, we were back out to defend, what I thought, was not a bad total. Oh how wrong I was. Opening up with the ball was yours truly and Matt Clement of Chiddingly CC, making his Martlets debut. Matt, unfortunately, suffered the brunt of Henry Wells of New Zealand. Matt, who will admit himself bowled a tad short in the first over, went for 20, which somewhat set the tone of the innings. What happened next was all a bit of a blur, in truth. Wells just kept going and going and before we knew it he was raising his bat for an incredible hundred. By the time he fell for 122 off only 75 balls, caught at short third man by yours truly off the bowling of Rob Burgh, the score was already 185-3 off 22 overs. Game over.

Just as we thought we’d get some rest bite for a bit, this brought South African pro Josh Dodd to the crease. Doddy then smoked 64 from 38 balls to see his side home, including 5 fours and 5 sixes. One of those sixes, was still rising as it hit the oak tree the other side of the road over cover. Some player indeed. Needing only 4 to win, I decided it was my game and my ball and I wanted to be the man to bowl the final over as the game was won by the FF. For some reason, I decided I didn’t want to play properly and shortened my run up to bowl some right arm orthodox filth. At the other end, was poor, unsuspecting, New Zealand international Emma McLeod. I then, for some reason, decided to bowl one of the best balls I’ve ever bowled, pitching outside off, beating the bat on the inside and clipping the top of off. ‘Oh my god, it turned’, I exclaimed. Cue hysterics. The next ball was a full toss that was right fully sent to the rope and that was that. Apologies, Emma!

Despite the result, the Martlets thoroughly enjoyed their day and I hope the FF boys did the same. Drinks and mingling ensued, with yearbooks and fixture cards exchanged between the two sides. A massive thank you to my own Buxted Park CC for hosting us and a massive thank you to Geoff and Sylvia for putting on an amazing lunch and tea. The FF were very complimentary of both our stunning ground and our hospitality in general!

Hopefully the day has gone a long way to keeping this fixture alive and well for two teams that are very close to my heart, after a few ‘interesting’ meetings the last few years, shall we say. Thank you all for playing and see you on the circuit.

Love, Reado x

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