Gents catches: Palmer 2, Toft 2, Gilkes 1, Khan 1

In very overcast conditions the two captains agreed the toss with The Gents to bat first. Tony Buck and Sachin Desai started the innings watchfully before the very accurate Dempster removed Sachin with his fourth ball and Richard Gilkes with his sixth in the fourth over. Richard must have been considering a deal with the Devil after the ‘evil’ Kingston pitch sent a good-length delivery rearing up at him to give an easy catch to short extra-cover. At 7-2 things were not looking too clever and they got worse when the pitch claimed another scalp (literally) in the eighth over when Ahsan took one on the crown from another good length ball that reared up and struck him just above the eyebrow. With blood flowing from the gash he left the pitch to receive treatment. Ravi then joined Buck (playing his 200^th. game for The Gents) and together they put on a valuable 42-run partnership taking the score to 49 in 15 overs. The dismissal of Buck brought the return of club skipper Sanjay and the biggest partnership of the day (70 in just over 10 overs). A well constructed innings of 33 was eventually ended by an innocuous shot to give Duncan a dolly off his own bowling. Ahsan bravely returned to the crease to score a brisk 31. Ravi brought up his half century in the 28^th. over but unfortunately departed the same over to give Duncan his second wicket of the match. A fine batting display from a fine batsman. Ahsan kept the scoring flowing until his departure in the 31^st. over with the score on 151. Naveed, Richard Palmer and Horrce then proceeded to scramble as many as they could in the final overs with a combination of swats, sweeps and overthrows to lift the score to 177 off 35 overs.

After tea the pattern of two early wickets continued, Horace snapping up both openers (helped with a fine catch from Richard Gilkes) with Naveed supporting at the other end. Cue Cloete, whose fine innings from last season was still fresh in the memory, to come to the crease. He stroked 15 in quick time including a 6 off Hibbert. Inspired captaincy from Sanjay led to Ravi removing Cloete’s middle stump with a peach of a delivery. Ravi struck again to bring Dimond to the wicket who crafted a wonderful knock of 42. Running out of partners, Dimond eventually departed and with Richard Palmer taking an excellent catch (his second of the game) the Enterprise innings came to and end on 119 in the 31st. over.

Ravi gets man of the match in my humble opinion. Ahsan gets the Victoria Cross for courage under fire. Congratulations to everyone on the day for a good all-round performance. Congratulations to the club as a whole for the eleventh straight win this season. Let’s hope the sun is shinning in all senses of the word this time next Sunday.