A stilted, topsy turvy year for the Ramblas ended with a flourish, winning three of their last four games to banish a few demons after a sticky mid-season period.
Yes, remarkably the Ramblas 16th season has come to an end, but despite a few games lost to the weather (and the odd shellacking), there were still plenty of stand-out moments and milestones to look back on.
The season began in unpromising fashion, as Blue Star exacted quite the revenge for last year’s loss to put on a mighty 301 in their 40 overs before bowling the Ramblas out for just 86. At least tea gave us the chance to savour Ganesh’s vada pav, which – alongside Mark reaching 200 games for the club – really were the only moments of note.
Any fears that chastening defeat would precipitate a continued downturn in fortunes were soon allayed by back-to-back victories against Tatsfield (h) and Chevening (a), as Jonny scored successive 50s, James got his first Ramblas half-century, and Stitch took five important wickets across the two games.
Breaking the eight-game losing streak was important – and done in style – but the fly in our ointment/tie in our soup that is Hildenborough soon brought us back to earth at home, despite the efforts of Ganesh (2/20) and Mark (61 from 48 balls), while the following week saw Eltham edge us out in a low-scoring thriller, as we failed to build on Matt and Seth’s fine opening partnership to leave us defending a round 100. We did at least get to see Seth claim a screamer of a catch in the latter game.
Two more defeats followed as first London Itinerants put us to the sword (Faz’s one-handed pluck from the sky really the only highlight), before Chevening returned the favour to defeat us at home – despite an unlikely 50 from Thommo.
Another tense game against Tatsfield (a) followed, but had the same outcome as the first, with James and Coops sharing five wickets, before Mark’s 69* steered us home to win by three wickets, while the following week saw the weather get in the way of us building on a strong start (and Laurie’s superlative catch) against Telston & Mereworth.
The blazing sunshine of the following week felt like a different country, but despite Gibbo’s brilliant century, the Ramblas fell 16 runs short of Locksbottom’s total… with lots of head scratching as to how Coops wasn’t awarded an LBW on the home side’s centurion when he was still in the 20s.
The next month saw the schedule and weather put paid to two successive weekends, before Stitch had to work his magic and conjure up two replacement teams in the shape of Westerham (a) and Dartfordians (h). A mid-game downpour in the first game definitely made the pitch harder to bat on in the second innings, but the Ramblas were never really in either game – despite the glorious Stitch-JP last-wicket partnership in the former and Justin’s 2/19 in the latter.
With four games to go, the Ramblas’ season record read: P12 W3 L8 (with one abandonment) and were in danger of petering out once more, with some tough games on the horizon.
Alas, the return of Ben and Luke (five games and three half centuries between them) helped provide some impetus to the batting (and fielding – four catches and a runout combined), while an all-round determination not to end the season with a whimper saw the Ramblas find form at the right time.
First, in trying circumstances as we paid tribute to Mrs C, Lamorbey Park were put to the sword thanks to a Sheridans special and although Hildenborough were again a thorn in our side, we shook that off quickly with a close-run T20 victory over Ex-Blues before the pièce de résistance against Ash in the last game…
Having been comfortably beaten in the last two matches against Ash – and with a line-up looking light on batting – hopes were not high going into the final Sunday, but it turned out to be a game for the ages. Importantly, we also got to celebrate Laurie’s 100th game for the club. Definitely one for Tab 12…
First, the Ramblas scratched their way to 127 all out, built on a fine partnership between Mark (49) and Geoff (39), and although another economical opening burst from Ganesh (2/17) helped keep a lid on things, the visitors were still sitting pretty at 81/3 at the halfway stage, but strong bowling backed up in the field saw Duane (1/6) and finally Stitch (4/13) seal an improbable victory – the latter recording his first-ever hat-trick and four-fer.
The season ends with a record of P16 W6 L9 NR1, which is a win-rate of 40% that is not to be sniffed at and was a year where we celebrated plenty of milestones, not least the club’s 250th ever game.
Alongside that, there were appearance milestones for James (50), Laurie (100) and Mark (200), while Jonny added to his array of half centuries (22) and at the other end of things James and Thommo got their first 50s for the club. In the bowling stakes, James reached 50 for the club, while Coops and Thommo both reached 50 catches, and Matt took over at the top of the all-time wicket-keeping charts.
More of the same next year? It’d be rude not to…
TOP RUNSCORERS
TOP WICKET TAKERS
TOP FIELDERS
