By Josh Taylor
Scorer - Peter Harding
Umpire - Mike Charman
We arrived to what was a very sunny yet breezy Bognor with excitement of starting our first game of competitive cricket. This game was the start of the August cup, a game that would arguably be one of our hardest but we went into it with confidence.
West Chilt won the toss and decided to bat on what was a green and slow wicket. This decision sent out Tear and Gillespie to open the batting. With the pitch proving challenging to play on Charlie and Hugo were looking good until Charlie unfortunately skewed one up into the air attempting a big shot over mid-on but the ball ended up in the hands of second slip having scored just the 2 runs. This then brought Matt Machan to the crease and this kicked off West Chilt’s strong first wicket partnership. With some aggressive attacking shots from both Gillespie and Machan we found ourselves in a dominant position of 98 for just the one wicket at the drinks break. Unfortunately for Chilt the saying “a wicket for drinks” proved its worth with Machan getting unlucky hitting the first ball after the drinks break up into the air and getting caught for a quickly scored 40 off 38 balls. This wicket brought Reuben Taylor to the crease to join Gillespie. Ruben also struggled with the pace of the pitch and this resulted in him pushing one into the hands of mid off for an unlucky 0. Despite losing the wickets of Machan and Taylor, Gillespie continued to play his strokes and got himself to a very well deserved half century. His innings was soon to be ended however after aggressively coming down the pitch to hit the offspinner and not quite getting hold of it being caught on the boundary. Hugo finished on a very well played 53. After what was such a dominant start for Chilt they then found themselves on the back foot slightly having lost both of the set batsmen in fairly quick succession. Jackson and Taylor were then at the crease. Both had to work hard to get themselves in on a pitch that proved difficult for everyone but they persevered and got through the tough period of a Bognor side with their tails up. Jackson in particular played a very mature innings despite his age and arguably played the shot of the day with a delicate reverse sweep for 4. This got him himself to a hard worked 21 when he was stumped attempting to come down the pitch to the spinner and not quite getting his bat on it. Chilt found themselves 160 for 5 when captain James Howgate came to joint Taylor at the crease. Howgate came with a clear intent from his first ball putting the pressure back on Bognor with his aggressive running and stroke play. This was shown particularly in one of Howgate shots where he came down the pitch to their seamer and hit him for four through the offside. With the experience of Howgate and the set Taylor they both looked to push on to get Chilt to a score they could defend. Howgate’s positive running was surprisingly also his way of dismissal being run out for 11 bringing Milne to do his best for the last one of the innings. ‘Bat on ball’ was the message from the other end and he did exactly that with them managing to scramble two runs leaving Chilt 191 for 6 off their 40 overs, Taylor 56*, Milne 2*.
Bognor then went out to bat in pursuit of 192 runs to win the game. Chilt opened the bowling with Matt Machan who set the standards immediately and proved very challenging for the batsmen to face and got unlucky to only get the one wicket. Charlie Davies opened from the other end and it didn’t take him long (2 balls in fact) to get Chilt their first wicket of the game. Both Davies and Machan bowled very well getting Chilt off to a very good start in defending their total. Bognor’s number one and number three batsmen started to form a bit of a partnership until the experienced Howgate came on to bowl. A certain Chris Gayle came to mind when Howgate was bowling, both cap and shades still on, but this clearly led Maskell into a false sense of security with him skewing one into the air getting out for 33.
Joe Ashmore their number three stuck around for a while despite his partner Taylor Jaycocks departing after a superb catch at fine leg from Lyle Aichroth off Ludo Milne’s bowling and Chilt started to build up some pressure. It was Ashmore and Harris who were getting Bognor’s runs until Ben Lucking was able to get Ashmore’s wicket for 41 and this really got Chilt back into the game after it was just getting away from them. At 161 for 7 the game could’ve gone either way. It was Davies and Lucking who looked to claw Chilt into the driving seat and had a very good effort at doing so with Davies picking up his second wicket of the set Harris and Lucking his second as well bowling Hood for 2. Chilt did superbly well despite a few inevitable mistakes to get the game down to the last over and it was over to Reuben Taylor to bowl it. Having got unlucky with the bat it was his time to make his mark on the game and he definitely did so. Getting Bognor down to the last ball they only needed one run to win but Reuben remained calm and bowled the batsmen resulting in the match being tied.
A great game of cricket to kick off our August cup campaign.