Development team go close against Holmesdale

A young Vine Development team played their second league game at local rivals

Holmesdale with the hosts put into bat first.

Captain P. Robinson and T. James made inroads into the Holmesdale top order taking 3

early wickets in the powerplay with Robinson bowling an inswinger smashing Off stump

out the ground.

However, Holmesdale were scoring fluently throughout the powerplay as the Vine turned

towards spin to slow the rate. This proved to be an excellent change with Reid Dick

claiming 3 wickets in his first spell spinning the ball sideways supported by Sackville-

West who bowled a very good spell.

At 86-6, Vine were on top until a questionable stumping by part-time keeper H.Robinson

brought the established Premier League batsmen to the crease with May hitting 91 and

Gallagher 37. May showed class accelerating at the right moment to bring Holmesdale up

to a total of 252-8. Reid- Dick the pick of the bowlers with 4-27.

D. Martin and J.Hogan started the innings nicely for the Vine putting away the bad balls to

the boundary. However a lapse of concentration saw the run out of D. Martin and the Vine

middle order struggling to get away the spinners. It was a story of starts for the middle

order but not being able to go on; the lower order showed some resistance with H.

Robinson (37) playing some outstanding shots before being bowled by May.

Unfortunately it was just too many runs for the young Vine team to chase but C.Williams

(20 not out) at age 13 showed the opposition that if you are good enough you are old

enough by hitting multiple cover drives to the fence.

The Vine finished on 194-8 but was an excellent all round performance against an

experienced Holmesdale outfit. We welcome Tunbridge Wells to the Vine next Sunday in

our 3rd league game.