Detail: 17-09-2022 - Chertsey
Result: L by 180 runs
Blues v Chertsey 2022
There was an epic cricket match on Saturday, at a classic venue, with a team of youth and experience pulling off a stunning underdog win.
But that's enough about Super Kent's glorious Royal London Cup final win over Lancashire at Trent Bridge, tradition insists this report has instead to be about Blues being drubbed at Chertsey CC.
On our last visit to this lovely ground Blues gained a comfortable victory and celebrated long into the night - well Digby did, to the extent the oppo asked us if we could be more restrained this year as they had their colts awards night following our match.
That, though, was a Sunday match. Playing on a Saturday meant facing a strong team full of league players rather than a mix of old codgers and young kids we could duff up.
Then again, that their 15-year-old opener scored more than our entire team suggests we'd have lost to their colts anyway.
Blues began well enough. Asked to field we opened with Sumit who hit the stumps off his first and sixth balls. Blues were in business.
Twenty-four overs and 184 runs later we took another wicket. To be more accurate, Chertsey gave us one with their skipper, on 80, calling a suicidal single and the 15-year-old boldly refusing to budge.
It wasn't quite as one-sided as this sounds. Both batsmen regularly hit into the air but their shots usually evaded fielders, though the teenager was dropped twice. He also survived two very adjacent lbw decisions.
It did not help when Karthik, halfway through an excellent spell, pulled a hamstring in his delivery stride. Coming a ball after Sumit had worn one in the chops on the boundary, drawing blood (but saving a four), the injury summed up Blues' difficult afternoon in the field.
Aided by two more daft run-outs Blues just about kept Chertsey below 300, the hosts making 292-5 off their 35 overs. Sumit (2-33) and Karthik (0-24) aside, the bowling figures were grim.
Ever confident, and buoyed by successive high-scoring victories, the Blues decided over an excellent tea that this was gettable on such a good track.
It might have been with Pikey, Sam M, Fitz, Lawrie and Fyfe all in the XI and form, but they were absent, perhaps in the Queue. Nevertheless, openers Metto and Prem looked solid, until Prem fell victim to the hari-kari run-out habit. Metto was then bowled and Zubair caught, and Blues were suddenly 18-3 off eight overs.
Youcef (17) and Naga (15) rebuilt, but then the lad who'd suffered a diamond duck gained revenge dismissing them both, and Blues went to drinks 67-5 needing 12-and-a-half an over.
James Howe (14) made some lusty blows, and Sumit (10) also reached double-figures, but when Glenn ended several overs of disciplined batting by missing a straight full toss Blues were 9-89 and looking at a 200-run-plus defeat, possibly a record.
Enter, limping, Karthik, bravely coming to the crease (slowly and gingerly) to help us avoid such humiliation. In company with John Syfret (14), and with the oldest playing Blue in the club improbably acting as runner, the pair got us past the important 93-run mark, and then into three figures.
We were finally dismissed for 112 to lose by 180 runs.
Despite this it was a cracking afternoon under sunny skies at a very pleasant venue against a good set of lads (only one incident, when Cef - who else? - refused to walk, albeit on the perfectly reasonable grounds that he didn't think he'd hit it).
Indeed, it was almost as much fun as getting bladdered at Nottingham watching Kent win their first final since 1978 would have been.
Almost.
Bowling: You don't want to know (or, rather, we don't want to tell you)
Batting: No, that's best forgotten too.
[updated 17 11 2022]