Forget the FA Cup of Darts, the Harry Bright Cup is the FA Cup of U12 North Kent cricket!

Potentially the final game of a very short summer of cricket for Beckenham U12s started somewhat inauspiciously on Tuesday evening with a lost toss against Bromley at the not-so-delightful Downham and Bellingham Cricket Club in the semi-final of the Harry Bright Cup. Long time (well, about three years so far…) local rival team Bromley didn’t hesitate to put Beckenham in to bat, perhaps fancying an early finish. The weather was murky, and there was a little bit of rain in the air, so chasing seemed like the right thing to do at the time. The weather wasn’t nearly as big a problem as the wicket and outfield however. The wicket had a hump the size of a mini roundabout in it, and the outfield better resembled a ploughed farmers field. Still, both sides had to contend with the difficulties, so game on it was!

Reyansh, first up to face Bromley’s excellent attack was given out LBW to just the fifth ball of the innings, having taken a huge stride down the pitch and the ball hitting his knee roll at least 2.5m from the stumps. The Bromley umpire’s finger went up almost before the ball had reached Reyansh (2 from 5) and he was walking back to the shed to remove his kit. A harsh start, and 2/1 certainly wasn’t what we were looking for from the first over.

Things steadied somewhat thereafter until Bertie (4 from 12) was stumped coming down the pitch to the first spinner of several for the day. When Ady fell for a very fluent 19 from 21 balls at the end of the seventh over Beckenham were in a spot of bother at 31/3. This brought the two Henrys together. Lodder and Edwards combined for a team high partnership of 30 before Lodder (12 from 18) was caught trying to hit another spinner over the top. The situation had improved though, and after Benedict (6 from 8) fell the score had reached a slightly less precarious 80/5 from fifteen overs.

Henry Edwards retired shortly afterwards bringing our second namesake partners to the crease, Jack Buchanan and Jack Kemp-Jones. Good running for byes and a couple of wides saw the score move on before Buchanan fell to a scarcely believable catch plucked out of the sky for a stylish and confident 12 from 8. Kemp-Jones (1 from 6) fell soon after to a run out, and when Ellie (2 from 2) was dismissed 3 balls later the score was 104/8 with just two overs to come.

Luke (13 not out from 9) and Jamie (8 from 8) faced Bromley’s two returning best bowlers but managed to add another 18 runs from the final two, with Beckenham’s innings closing on 122/9. Bromley’s bowling had been tight throughout, and despite every single player getting at least one over, impressively bowled only two wides and one no ball.

It was very overcast and the atmosphere heavy when Bromley finally started their innings, but having taken nearly two hours to bowl their twenty overs, nobody in the Beckenham camp felt too concerned! Ellie steamed in for the first over, with Luke taking the second, the third ball of which got Beckenham’s first wicket. If the catch in the first innings was scarcely believable, Luke’s caught and bowled was unbelievable. The crowd were left roaring as he dived full length to hold a left handed catch just above the turf. Beckenham were on fire. The noise from the field (all supportive and encouraging I might add…) was so loud that the umpire had to ask for quiet to be able to hear the new batter’s guard request!

Ellie’s second saw a couple of boundaries, and when Jamie’s first ball was given wide the game could have slipped away quickly. Instead, his second was a wicket, with a ball hit hard but straight to Henry Edwards. Just the wide from the over left the score on 23/2 from four.
Runs flowed for several overs after this, and although Jack Buchanan took a solid catch off Bertie’s bowling in the seventh over, Bromley seemed to be cruising on 73/3 after ten. Andrew Bibby’s half time team talk remotivated the team, and by now it was becoming pretty dark. With ten overs to go, this could really work to Beckenham’s advantage, especially as their best batter, a regular Surrey player had now reached 25 and retired.

The second half of the innings began with Henry Edwards, who’d gone for 9 in his first over opting to bowl a leg side more defensive line to try and stem the runs. Luke set a remarkable 6-3 legside field with Jamie seemingly covering almost half the ground on the offside. Thankfully it worked beautifully with only a leg side wide coming from the over. A similarly tight over from Luke followed, and the wickets began to tumble. Luke bowled Bromley’s number 6 with a peach, there was a run out from an equally tight over from Edwards the next ball, and when Reyansh had the Bromley captain caught by Edwards in the fourteenth, the score was 91/6 and Bromley needed 33 from 6 overs in very dark conditions with the quickest of Beckenham’s bowlers still to come.

Jack Kemp-Jones came on to bowl the fifteenth over, and promptly took the seventh. At this point the order of the day was to hang it outside off stump and not take more wickets. Unfortunately (!), he got a second with his last ball, and with the score on 93/8 the next wicket would see the return of their best player, previously retired.

The whole Beckenham team finally picked up on the need to stem runs but not take wickets, but the sixteenth over went for 10 and Bromley needed 20 from the last four overs with two wickets remaining. Benedict returned and bowled a wonderful seventeenth over, consistently on 6th/7th stump to a heavily guarded offside, and the batter barely got bat on ball. When he seemingly managed to induce an edge for Jack B to take a good catch behind the stumps, the ground fell in to deathly silence. Not a single word was said – the most extraordinary moment of the game so far! No appeal, so not out.

Henry Lodder bowled the eighteenth, but with nine coming from it, Bromley were only whiskers away from a place in the final. 7 needed from 12 balls. Time for another near perfect over from Benedict. Perfectly hanging the ball outside off stump to a similar field, the first two balls were dots. The striker had a swing at the third, perhaps the widest of the lot, and got a huge inside edge to divert the ball back on to the stumps. 7 needed from 9, but with the retired batter back and facing.

He managed to get his second ball away, but a superb diving stop in the field from Jamie prevented no more than 2 runs coming from the over, and most importantly, kept Bromley’s number 11 on strike for the final over. Still with only 5 needed for the win, it was game on.
Lodder steamed into their number eleven, and brilliant wicketkeeping and fielding in near darkness saw two dots come from the first two. Bromley were getting scared, and made it clear they were just about to try and run a bye. Jack Buchanan, rather than standing up to the stumps, confidently declared to the whole ground that he would get there before their batter did, and so it proved! They tried to run the bye, Jack got to the stumps first and whipped off the bails for a Beckenham win. Cue utter mayhem at Downham! Beckenham were through to the final.

This was a real team performance. Despite the ground conditions, the fielding was committed throughout with Luke’s amazing caught and bowled, Henry Edwards’ bucket hands for two catches, and several classy stops from others. Bowling was extremely tight, with particularly impressive line and length especially from Benedict and Henry Edwards who worked out “the plan” so quickly, and Jack B not taking a catch at a critical moment, all sacrificing personal stats for the team. Everyone chipped in with the bat – there was largely good running, putting pressure on the Bromley field, which in fairness was excellent. Above all though, it was the team mentality that probably got us over the line. It was very obviously a close-knit team who were incredibly supportive of each other.

There were many brilliant moments throughout the game, not least Luke’s captaincy and determination to work with the bowlers to set the right fields (some of them absolutely insane on paper, but worked!), and support of all the players all through the game. But the Player of the Match award goes to Henry Edwards. Three brilliant overs bowled, two solid catches, and 25 unbeaten runs at over a run a ball. I vaguely remember Henry being player of the Snowman Tournament just before last Christmas, including taking a hat-trick against Bromley. He always seems to turn up against this particular team – I can’t think why….!!!

On to the final then. The other half of the draw is a little behind us at the moment, although the eagle eyed of you will have seen that Dartford played Orpington last night. Dartford batted first and amassed 181/5 from their 24 overs. In reply Orpington were all out for 13. That means the semi-final will be Dartford vs Roebucks, with the winner playing Beckenham in the final. As soon as I know anything about potential dates and venues, I’ll let you know.

Up the Bees!!!!