CRICKET – THE Almoayyed Ford Awali Camels opened their 31st annual summer tour with a stunning victory over Farningham Exiles at the iconic Gore Court grounds in Kent, England.
The last-ball thriller featured brilliant bowling, classy batting, outstanding fielding, and the tightest of finishes – along with moments of laughter, pain, and disappointment.
Put into bat on a parched wicket and a bullet-fast outfield, the Farningham openers, both named Evans, regularly found gaps despite the nagging consistency of Camels bowlers Steve Turner and Matt Rees. Their 50 partnership came to an abrupt end with Tom Wooding’s diving, elbow-skinning catch off Rees.
Nepal under-19 international Vee Chattri then showed his class from the very first ball, with cultured shots all round the ground, including a massive six off Dan Viles.
The other Evans was lured into leaving his crease and was smartly stumped by the evergreen Dave Mason off Guy Parker’s loopy off-break. A similar ball saw the demise of Chattri, who lobbed a catch to Dan Viles attempting a reverse scoop.
Another highlight in a match of highlights saw Charlie Viles’s rocket throw from the long boundary hit the stumps directly to run out the dangerous Sohail. Camels skipper Charles Forward gave eight bowlers a chance to pick up tour wickets, two of them, Dave Hilton and Fergus Shaw, benefitted from this largesse to snaffle a wicket apiece.
Meanwhile, the Farningham batsmen made hay, pushing the scoring rate to almost seven an over. The final score of 230 looked daunting indeed, and it looked even more so when, with the Camels reply only three balls old, their Welsh star Huw Caffrey was smartly caught off the bowling of Spice.
Wooding and Graham Hoar set about rebuilding, biding their time and picking off the odd boundary. Another setback followed, as Wooding edged to slip off Sohail for 22. Rees started slowly, then suddenly cracked three sumptuous boundaries. His departure, trapped LBW by Deamer, saw a drop in the run-rate.
Things were, however, not lost because, at the other end, Hoar was just getting into gear. His runs came in groups of successive boundaries as every bowler suffered from his perfect timing and clever running between the wickets. It soon became obvious that the only way he wasn’t going to get the Camels’s first century of the tour would be through exhaustion or injury. Indeed, suffering a badly bruised foot, he stumbled to a mighty century and retired.
Now, Charlie Viles needed to step up, and he did just that. He emerged from a series of dot balls to smack eight fours in quick succession, ably assisted by Mumtaz, whose 13 came at a run a ball.
Still, the task looked challenging. Dan Viles joined brother Charlie for the final push – 30 needed off just three overs. Together they almost managed it, but with two balls to go and five to win, Charlie was run out.
A single meant four to win off the last ball. Forward hadn’t faced a delivery but was now tasked with knocking a four off his first ball. Calmly, he surveyed the fielders in their positions scattered around the boundary. With three men behind square leg, he eschewed the option of the hook shot, opting instead for a glorious lofted cover smash that just kept going till it cleared the boundary for a maximum six – giving the Camels the victory.
Forward was graciously clapped from the pitch by a shell-shocked Farningham.
The Camels next face the might of Gore Court Cricket Club in an all-day match.
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