SVCC Men's 1st XI v Dartford 1st XI (H) - 18.05.24

The Vine hosted Dartford CC in gameweek 2 of the league this Saturday.

Dartford won the toss and elected to field on a slightly gloomy day at the Vine. Losing Chris Vernon early on Vice Captain Ben Price and Luke Schlemmer took the score past 50 in the powerplay. Price fell for a quick fire (31) followed by Schlemmer and Hope in quick succession. Bekker and Houllion battled the moving ball but the latter lost his wicket following some good swing bowling from the Dartford seamers up the hill. Dartford captain Scott McKechnie with some brilliant work behind the stumps. In strode Will House (63*), the experienced left hander showed his class in batting with the tail. Attacking at pivotal points he powered his way to a half century the Vine finished 158 all out.

The bowling innings started slowly with the Dartford openers started well with overseas Australian Brad Hope and new signing Tommy Richards opening up for the home team. The first breakthrough coming from Chris Vernon (2-26) who displayed a good spell of swing bowling. Tommy Richard provided the second wicket which saw the introduction of Andrew Reid-Dick (4-22). The pressure from the two bowlers caused a collapse in the middle order for Dartford CC. With regular wickets falling a 9th wicket partnership of 61 put the pressure back on the Vine. The late introduction of quick bowler Henry Proctor (2-2) proved the catalyst as he struck twice in 5 balls to finish the match off. The Vine winning by 18 runs.