An odyssey at The Mote

Quick-fire 45
By Seaxe Man
December 18 2004

In the third of our guest articles, Seaxe Man looks back on the Twenty20 Cup tie with Kent at the Mote in Maidstone and recalls his memories from the day out.

Fri 2 July v Kent - this entailed a trip to Maidstone which was a first for all of us. Went to Victoria to catch the train. There, met Barmy Kev and The Lord of the Chairs.

Things didn't look to good weatherwise, as heavy showers enveloped the environs of Victoria before we left. The showers, interspersed with the odd sunny period, followed us to Maidstone.

At Maidstone East, we met a glum looking Lord Lucan outside, grumbling about the weather and saying if he had,nt bought his ticket in advance, he would have gone home.

This was also notable for Barmy Kev. On heaving up his back pack, he parted company with a bottle of plonk, which promptly smashed on the pavement and showered my legs and shorts with wine. Fortunately the flying glass missed.

We made our way to the ground in drizzle. This persisted throughout the evening.

As to the match itself - As stated, it was played with the crowd (circa 3,500) holding umbrellas and we made 155ish. This was increased by a paltry 2 runs D/L as we were forced off for 2 overs by heavier rain. Off 18 overs this was not bad, though I'd gamble that we would have made more than 2
more, had we batted the lost overs.

The 155 received a considerable boost by a quickfire 45 from Keegan who hit a couple of heavy blows over the (long) midwicket boundary. It was also a first sighting of Dan Van Bunge, who as I recall, made 11 backing away to leg to play his shots.

Kent chased down this score in about 14 overs with a quickfire century from Andrew Symonds. Our bowling was pretty average and fours and sixes went all over the place. He was fortunate on about 12 that Keegan was unable to hang on to a high swirling catch, due to a wet and greasy ball, at long off.

Symonds failed to reach these heights again in the remainder of the competition and Kent like us, failed to qualify.

Barmy Kev, The two Lords' and myself wandered a little disconsolately back to a pub to to drown our sorrows. Kev managed this better than the rest of us, being comatose on the train journey back to Victoria.

Lucan turned up for the 20/20 matches at Southgate, Richmond and The Rose Bowl where he was last seen ordering a pint a the bar at at around 2030 July 13th. He then disappeared from sight until Fri 15th Oct at The White Horse, Harrow -on-the-Hill where the Harrow Chapter of The Midd-x boys were having a pre Xmas drink.

Happy Days.