What a difference a week makes. A new surface at Torry Hill, no overnight rain and the cover firmly in place and as the coin landed, Free Foresters skipper Askew had no hesitation in reaching for the long wave radio and sending his noble side into bat.
BB took to the field with Hulbert & Meredith bowling the kind of lines only Cornish fisherman can be proud of. The catching practice that commenced for those in the slip cordon went from the sublime from Regan in the gully to the ridiculous as five chances went down in the first half hour. Hulbert forced to take total ownership, knocking out Kings off-stump for 50 after four catches had been put down.
Enter The Hon Cornwallis & Brother Regan stage left. The BB were clinical in the afternoon session, reducing the Free Foresters to 201 all out, having been sitting pretty at 116-4 at the break. Excellent bowling, fielding and catching capped off by a diving Wilkes-Green in the deep. It was an awesome display.
Boucher, fresh from a resignation and a long awaited return to the Kentish Countryside, was a delight to watch as he pieced together surely what was to be a match winning knock against a strong new ball duo from the Foresters. But a middle order collapse left the BB 135 for 6 with 12 overs left to play in the evening session.
Words, let alone text, cannot begin to describe what happened next. Peter Hale, only 24 hours from his call up, strode out to face a spin attack that had put paid to the middle order. 22 balls later and the match was over. Clinical, one day striking that made Torry Hill look like the village green, Hale left the scene of the crime with 54 to his name and the BB winning by 3 wickets.
As Devers said, all things are possible for those who believe.
Hale believed.
The dream is alive.
