Drayton v Quebec 31st May 2009

Quebec 202 Drayton 205-3

This game will be long remembered by those who witnessed it. Whilst there were fine performances in particular from Tim Woods, Tom Cooke, Ryan Pointer, Rob Raven and Rob Reeve, there was no question who Drayton's hero was - Warren "Reggie" Kedge.

Having assessed the pitch, Drayton left captain Jason Trett out of their team and so Tim Woods led the team into battle. It was clear from the start that Quebec would look to score runs quickly - and after 25 overs had reached 132-2. It was at this stage Kedge was thrown the ball and the next three overs are now in Drayton legend. The first was somewhat unremarkable 11 runs in total including 2 wides. The second saw the first ball struck for six, however Kedge induced a mistake from Chaplin - the ball apologetically knocking off a bail via a combination of bat and body (earlier in the afternoon debutant swing bowler Govind had forced Quebec opener Hubbard into the same mistake). From the final ball of that second over, which had also contained two wides, Ryan Pointer took an assured catch on the square leg boundary. The first ball of Kedge's third over saw Rob Raven take a catch on the long leg boundary - the less said about the next few balls the better, as a string of wides and no balls were produced - however the final ball of the over saw Raven take an outstanding catch running in and diving forward from his position on the long leg boundary.

Taking sympathy on the batsmen, Woods removed Kedge from the attack with the remarkable figures of 3-0-33-4 - doubling his career wicket tally! Some stubborn resistance from Dyker saw Quebec get past 200 before the innings concluded - there were also two wickets apiece for Reeve and Pointer.

Drayton split up the usual opening pair of Tim Woods and Philip Wright in order to beef up the middle order. The decision was vindicated as Woods shared partnership of 45 with Tom Radford (who made a gutsy 6), 41 with Tom Cooke (18) and 23 with Ant Trebble (8). Wright and Woods then added 96 in 11.2 overs to see Drayton to victory - Woods looking masterful in making 104 not out, albeit surviving two chances, the second of which was when he was in the 90s. This was an encouraging display by a young team with solid contributions from all 11 players.