HSMCC v Brockham Green

Holmbury St Mary 285 for 8, Brockham Green 215.

Holmbury cemented our position at the top of Division 2 with a comprehensive win against third-placed Brockham Green.

Skipper-for-the-day Charles Colvile won the toss and Nigel Menzies and Dan Russell shared another good opening partnership, scoring 66 before Dan was out LBW for 39. Raoul Colvile then joined Nigel in a partnership that realised 152 runs, despite Raoul being forced to use a runner for most of that time. As the only batsman already out, that runner had to be Dan Russell, who was predictably thrilled at the opportunity!

Raoul looked odds-on for a century after hitting 3 successive sixes but perished for 99 trying to reach three figures in style and was quickly followed by Nigel who made an excellent 80. Mat Evans (37) and Phil King (9) put on 40 for the fourth wicket and, until Mat was caught in the deep when the ball bounced off the thigh and into the hands of a fielder who fell over trying to make the catch, it looked like we would make a score in excess of 300 but a quick flurry of wickets saw us post a challenging but chaseable total of 285 for 8.

With Dave Hadaway, Geoff Finch and Bradley Cooper missing, Charles had a challenge to manage a depleted bowling attack to defend our score. Brockham's openers started aggressively, staying ahead of the required rate of about 7 an over, despite accurate bowling from Paul Seligman (5 overs 26 for 1) and Monu Sharma (8 overs, 3 maidens, 36 for 2).

Hit for two early sixes off good balls, Monu was delighted to accept a sharp return catch and also claimed the visitors' number three batter when Dan claimed a difficult high catch at mid-on (although he was fielding at mid-off!). Brockham put on 90 for the third wicket and kept up with the rate as Charles juggled his bowlers, turning to Phil King (8 overs for 50 runs) for a first bowl in more than a season and, at the 20-over drinks break the score was 122-2.

Bowling from the Weald end Charles (8 overs, 70 for 4) then took 3 wickets from the first over after drinks and, despite a further stand of 70 for the 6th wicket, again at a decent rate, the game felt safe from that point. There was just time for Ignaz Fischer (2 overs, 9 for 2), who excelled in the field on his Holmbury debut, to take two late wickets and wrap up the game in the 34th over, with Brockham 70 runs short of our total.

This was a good performance from our top-order batters and a good team performance in the field, recovering from a slightly off-focus second 10 overs, to regain our composure and claim maximum points and keep us 1 point clear of Nutfield and, 42 points clear of third place.