HYTHE SUNDAY XI vs SHIP SHOP

Sunday 8th June

Hythe beaten by 5 wickets on Mike’s return.

There was no fairytale return for Mike Bowman as Hythe lost by 5 wickets to Ship Shop after setting a low total. Russell Moore and Rich Last both hit 22 as the green caps could only manage 102. The visitors had little difficulty in reaching the target despite two wickets apiece for Pete Stevens Jnr and Greg Woods.

On a swelteringly hot day the captains agreed that Hythe would bat first leaving the visitors to field in the baking sunshine. Opening for Hythe was the captain Russell Moore and the experienced Sean Tongs. From the start the green caps struggled to deal with Ship Shop’s openers who bowled consistently and accurately on a dry Hythe surface. First to fall was Sean Tongs without scoring after bottom-edging onto his stumps - a second duck in two days for the Guru. That brought in James Page but he too soon fell smashing a cut straight to the fielder for another duck.

Ewan Bell then joined his captain at the crease with the green caps two wickets down already. After a small recovery Bell edged behind for 8 and Mike was brought to the crease sooner than he expected. It was not to be however, as after surviving a caught behind chance he followed Sean in chopping onto his stumps for a duck which left Hythe reeling with four wickets down. Matt Howe came in at number six and joined Moore in seeing off the impressive opening bowlers, Shepard finishing with the most impressive figures of 8-3-9-4 whilst Barnes returned 8-4-11-0.

Slowly Moore and Howe rebuilt the Hythe innings and saved a potential embarrassment before Moore was finally dismissed after an hour and a half of close application for 22. Unfortunately for Hythe that sparked the loss of a couple more wickets as Howe holed out in the deep for a positive 15 and Matt Young was caught behind for Hythe’s fourth duck.

This brought Rich Last and Greg Woods together at the crease and with both playing natural attacking styles against the visitors change bowlers they pushed the score towards 100 before Last was bowled for a quick 22. Woods remained 16* at the end but ran out of support as both Pete Stevens Jnr and Jonjo Stovell fell cheaply to set Ship Shop the small total of 103 to win.

In reply Ship Shop never really seemed unsettled against Hythe’s youthful attack despite Pete Stevens picking up the wickets of both openers. The visitors number 3 Rowell hitting an unbeaten 42 as he guided the team home. There were good performances in the field though as Greg Woods picked up two wickets and Moore picked up one but the score was always too low to defend. Jonjo Stovell and Matt Young both bowled well but Ship Shop wrapped up a five wicket victory with plenty of time to spare.

Innings of : HYTHE 102 All Out (36 Overs)

Innings of : SHIP SHOP 106 For 5 (24 Overs)

(Rowell 42*, Hickman 12, Wainwrights 10)

Hythe Bowling