It was a glorious day as Chessington welcomed Dorking for their next league game but the first in the timed format. Chessington won the toss and decided to field first. The ground looked wonderful and everything pointed to a good game but nothing pointed to the denouement that was to come.

The Chessington opening bowlers, Roman Qazi and Colin Watson, started with a couple of maidens as the Dorking pair of Douthwaite and Chave played themselves in. It was Qazi’s third over when the Dorking pair announced their intentions, hitting three boundaries. One of which nearly decapitated Rob Edmond at square leg. Douthwaite had already been dropped at second slip with Qazi being the unlucky bowler. Dorking continued to score at a healthy rate until Watson made the breakthrough as Chave shaped to cut and found himself tucked up for room, doffing a catch to Karl Thorns in the covers. Pitt came in and was quickly in to his stride. Pitt had a preference for flicking full length deliveries over and through the legside. He did have one escape when one such shot caught the leading edge and arced towards mid on. Luke Barnard was the fielder sprinting back, leaping and just failing to hold on to a one handed catch. Douthwaite, on the other hand, looked solid although he did manage to edge a number of runs to the third man area from the Chessington seamers. Qazi and Watson were replaced by Prince Singh and Luke Barnard but Dorking continued to find runs relatively easy to come by.

Chessington’s fielding, which had been such a high point the previous week at Esher, looked very ragged in contrast. Along with the dropped catches, there were misfields and overthrows. Douthwaite was the first to his fifty, launching both Barnard and Daniel Yarnley for a boundary and a six. Pitt was given another life on 49 when Thorns inexplicably dropped an absolute dolly. He got to his fifty next ball but was gone soon after for 52, with the partnership having accrued 92 runs, when he tried to launch Yarnley for a six but only found Roman Qazi at long off. Douthwaite was gone the next ball, playing back to Yarnley and being struck in front for a very solid 62. Chessington had given themselves a lifeline. 128 for one had suddenly become 128 for three. Swift and Rogers calmed the situation down.By this time, Chessington had, perhaps rather belatedly, introduced spin at both ends. Swift launched Richard Singleton for one six but generally, Singleton bowled exceptionally well, keeping the batsmen guessing and quiet. Yarnely was not able to assert quite the same pressure from his end as Swift used his experience to keep the boundary count going. Rogers, on the other hand, was not as fluent as his partner but was able to help add to the Dorking tally. The pair added 41 runs before rogers was caught by Conor Young off Singleton on the long on boundary. Qazi was brought back on and he quickly accounted for Cameron, caught behind by Matt Alldis. Wickets now fell quickly as the Dorking batsmen tried, unsuccessfully, to hit the accelerator. Singleton was the beneficiary as Blood drove to Young at mid off, Ward was bowled, Gale adjudged LBW on the sweep and Blood junior bowled. Chessington should have wrapped the innings up soon after when a simple run out chance was missed. It enabled Swift to launch an attack which took him past a hard hit fifty and add 28 runs for the final wicket. Swinging hard, he hit Singleton for two fours and two huge sixes. One of these hits smashing a chair to smithereens. Singleton gained his revenge by bowling Swift for 67 and Dorking’s innings ended at 246 in the 54th over.

It was a big score. However, the wicket was playing well and the outfield was quick. Chessington would have 47 overs in which to chase this total. Chessington’s innings started in the opposite manner to the Dorking innings. Runs were aplenty in the first two overs as the Dorking bowlers bowled too full. They adjusted quickly and Prince Singh was gone in the third, bowled by one that nipped back. Conor Young and Karl Thorns found run scoring much, much harder thereafter. There were a lot of dot balls with an occasional single and the odd no ball. The innings re-awoke when a head high full toss passed the batsman and beat the keeper on the way to the boundary. A warning followed and runs started to flow more easily. Dorking replaced the opening bowlers with the off spin of Swift and medium pace of Ward. Ward was greeted by Thorns with a maximum back over his head. However, in the next over he gained his revenge when Thorns flat batted a shot straight to cover. Thorns had grafted to 42, although not always convincingly. He had added 57 runs with Conor Young and Chessington had a good basis at 72 for two. Rob Edmond now joined Young and the pair moved the score threateningly towards the hundred mark. Edmond was careful whilst Young was starting to expand his innings. Young had already hit the aforementioned Ward back over his head twice,once for a maximum and Dorking quickly removed him from the attack. It was now off spin from both ends. With the score on 98 and Conor Young on 38, he advanced down the track to Sift but was beaten all ends up to find himself stumped by the preverbial mile. Suddenly Chessington were on the defensive. Matt Alldis was adjudged to edge Edwards behind and Niall Stewart drove Edwards to mid off. Chessington had fallen to 107 for five. A new rule, introduced this year, restricts bowlers to fourteen overs maximum in the timed games. This caught Dorking out when Swift took the ball for what would have been his fifteenth only to find that he could not bowl it. Rob Edmond (21) could not benefit from this as he was bowled by Edwards trying to make room to cut a ball. Colin Watson joined Daniel Yarnley and the pair added 44 useful runs. The win, and indeed the winning draw were realistically out of sight. However, batting bonus points were still up for grabs so the Chessington batsmen continued to play their shots. Watson greeted the returning Pitt by driving over mid off for another maximum. Perhaps, in hindsight, this was not the thing to do as it prompted Dorking to turn to the leg spin of Rogers. Chessington were eyeing a second bonus point, earned when the score reached 175, when Watson (25) skied Edwards to Cameron in the covers in the penultimate over. The rest of that over was played out rather quietly by Yarnley. The final over was entrusted to Rogers. Roman Qazi was on strike. First ball appeared to be heading harmlessly down the leg side when it struck Qazi high on the pad. An appeal and it was upheld. Next ball and Luke Barnard prodded uncertainly. The ball struck his pad and another appeal upheld. Third ball and Richard Singleton kept bat and pad together. Another appeal and another finger raised. Amazingly, Dorking had won on a hat trick of LBW decisions in the final over. Chessington were distraught whilst Dorking could not contain themselves. Daniel Yarnley was left stranded at the non-strikers end on 23.

You can argue until the cows come home about LBW decisions. The real truth is that Chessington should not have allowed themselves to get in that position. Congratulations to Dorking for having the nous and courage to try the part time leg spinner at the end of the game.

Author: John Yarnley (Chessington CC)