Wrotham St George were the latest visitors to the Ex Blues Ground and the Ramblas were keen to seek redress for the loss earlier in the season where a batting collapse snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The day started with the threat of rain and some large grey skies looming over the Ex Blues, but there were some returning rays of sunshine, as we welcomed back Mark Loughlin, Steve Fitch and Dave Green to the Ramblas XI and were at full complement for a match that was approached with confidence.

Again captain for the day, Sam Ford was keen to bat first and despite losing the toss he got his wish when Wrotham’s captain elected to take to the field.

Under the ominous clouds above, the opening pair of Alex Danks and Sam Ford entered the arena and set about giving the Ramblas a firm platform to work from.

The opening bowlers for Wrotham, Allison and Snaddan, made life reasonably difficult for the Ramblas openers and their enthusiastic fielders ensured that every run was fought for.

A. Danks in particular rode his luck in the early stages and survived when, having played on to his stumps, he was relieved to see the bails stay firmly intact. Despite a couple of further scares, with Danks dropped and Ford scrambling home to narrowly avoid a run-out, the pair managed to see off the opening bowlers and arrived at 35 runs from the first 10 overs.

With both batsmen looking set and now beginning to score with a little more freedom, the score moved on to 61 before A. Danks was caught by Maylan off the bowling of Coyes for 26. A. Danks was disappointed to have done all the hard work in seeing off the opening bowlers but not taking the opportunity to get a further ton against the opposition to add to his fantastic innings last year.

Joining the increasingly confident Ford in the middle was Matt Rudgyard who, after the slow death of his 16-ball duck last week, was keen to get some runs on the board. Despite taking some time to notch a first run against some consistent bowling from both A. Ives and Coyes, Rudgyard was looking calm and steadily started to exert his influence before drinks were taken with the score at 80 for 1 after 20 overs.

In the overs immediately after drinks, the score quickly moved on to 107 with both S. Ford and Rudgyard finding the boundary regularly and both walloping big sixes off Ives which saw his captain replace him with Patterson.

Unfortunately for Rudgyard, Coyes was maintaining his good line and length and had him bowled with Rudgyard attempting a cut shot to a ball that he should have taken more care with. With Rudgyard now gone for 17 brisk runs, S. Ford was joined by Mark Loughlin who was promoted to number 4. Alas, that promotion looked somewhat optimistic, with Loughlin not lasting long – dismissed caught at short mid-off from a slower ball from Coyes which Loughlin had already played through. With a two-ball duck, Loughlin was back in the changing rooms much quicker than he’d hoped for.

Three wickets soon became four when Dave Green was bowled for a duck by Patterson shortly afterwards. A lack of time at the crease this season was most likely the downfall of Green.

With dark clouds still lingering, this quick flurry of wickets from Wrotham was beginning to look as ominous for the Ramblas as the sky above.

Next in to give support to S. Ford was a lesser known member of the Ford clan, Steve Aldridge, cousin to Sam and Pete and nephew to Rich, who was adding to his Ramblas appearance total. Over the next few overs, Aldridge and Ford steadied the ship and this saw Ford reach his second half century in consecutive innings.

Aldridge’s first runs on the board came courtesy of a booming six, but unfortunately he was not able to add much more to his total when he was adjudged to be out LBW of the bowling of Coyes for seven. Aldridge felt the ball was a little high having struck him above the kneepad, but at this level without the benefit of DRS he had no choice but to accept the decision of the umpire.

Next up was Geoff Parrett, who despite the suggestion by some of his team mates to try to hit is first ball for six, chose to carefully defend the first three balls he faced before finding the boundary for a nicely timed four. Sadly, Parrett was unable to add much more before being caught by Patterson off the bowling of Mayan for six.

Once again, two quick wickets meant that S. Ford was running out of partners and the chances of him going on to make his century were diminishing.

Hopeful of bearing some of the weight of his son’s burden was Rich Ford who was next in line with his 38 inches of willow at his side.

With both Fords at the crease, the Ramblas innings was once again steadied and the pair set about accumulating much needed runs that would give the bowlers something to defend. R. Ford grew into his innings and found the boundary with a couple of well-timed fours before being bowled by Patterson for 13.

To add insult to injury S Ford was caught off the bowling of Patterson in the same over and was left just 17 runs shy of his century on 83 runs. Whilst he was disappointed to have fallen short Ford had played a fine innings and was warmly applauded off the pitch by all.

With two new batsmen at the crease in the form of Ed Gibbs and Doug Danks, the pair then set about dismantling the Wrotham bowling attack with some ferocity. D. Danks smashed a six off his first ball, which delighted Alex Danks who now had to pay his father’s subs for the day. Meanwhile, Gibbs was on fire on his way to a 10-ball innings of 20 runs in which he tonked a six and three fours before being given out LBW off the bowling of Patterson.

With the innings drawing to a close, Fitch joined Danks for the final few balls and saw the Ramblas to a final total of 200/9 from their 40-over innings, with Danks finishing on seven not out and Fitch not scoring, but making sure he did not lose his wicket.

Tea was taken and thanks go to Fitch, Parrett and Rudgyard for their efforts. An oversight meant a lack of milk and thereby a hot beverage but this was more than made up for by the selection of sandwiches, snacks and cakes on offer.

During the tea break, there was a miraculous break in the clouds and the Ramblas returned to the field to sunshine and a significant increase in temperature. It’s fair to say that the conditions were now very different and, whilst the Ramblas retained their confidence, they knew the conditions for the batsmen were much more favourable.

The captain Ford threw the ball to Fitch for the first over and was rewarded with a wicket from the fifth ball of the innings when the opener for Wrotham, Witts, was given out LBW.

A great start from Fitch was followed up by an excellent response from our other opening bowler, D. Danks, who had Wrotham;s other opening batsman, Fleming, caught at mid-off by S Ford without scoring. Another wicket fell in D. Danks’s second over, when he spectacularly caught A Coyes off his own bowling for another duck.

At this point, the Ramblas had the opposition at 5/3 off just four overs and were wondering if a victory in double quick time was on the cards. Unfortunately, what followed was a lesson for the Ramblas that
if you drop catches you don’t win matches.

Rather than provide a detailed over by over report of the Wrotham innings (apologies to any Wrotham players that may have come across this report), I can advise that Bacon scored a very decent 57 runs and that Dallison scored a match-winning 121 runs to take the game away from the Ramblas and reach their target with five overs remaining. Stats fans can see all the details in the scorecard.

The Ramblas cursed themselves that, despite a very good opening spell and controlling the game with decent bowling and fielding through to the drinks interval, they then let Dallison score freely and rapidly and also saw him dropped on four occasions throughout his innings.

By the end of the game the Ramblas were left hot, tired and despondent but had to congratulate both of the Wrotham batsmen on their performances. Whilst I don’t feel that the Ramblas will see this as their most disappointing defeat of the season, I do feel that they will look back on it and feel that they were probably marginally on top for the best part of the game, but that they couldn’t find the key wickets they needed to turn the result in their favour.

Ramblas MVP: The choice this week is quite simple and due to his fantastic knock of 83, the award goes to Sam Ford (#VoteSam) for the second week running. With only two more matches to be played before the end of the season, the Ramblas will be looking to get back to winning ways without delay. Next Sunday sees us at the Ex Blues Ground, welcoming the visit of Global Cricket CC, new opposition to the Ramblas which will no doubt be interesting. That leaves me with only one last thing to say – COYR!