Tuesday 19th April 2005
Match drawn
Tonbridge Innings
| O | M | R | W | |||||
| Howeson | Not | Out | 64 | Walker | 7 | 2 | 32 | 0 |
| Durell | Stumped | Douglass | 13 | Tunnell | 8 | 2 | 43 | 0 |
| Shales | Not | Out | 129 | Dunnett | 7 | 0 | 43 | 0 |
| Extras | 17 | Douglass | 7 | 2 | 54 | 1 | ||
| Cox | 4 | 0 | 41 | 0 | ||||
| 223 for 1 Declared (33 Overs) |
Sevenoaks Innings
| Williams | Bowled | Howick | 12 | O | M | R | W | |
| Franklin | Ct.Middleton | Hammond | 5 | Howick | 13 | 5 | 30 | 2 |
| Cox | Bowled | Howick | 3 | Hammond | 10 | 4 | 11 | 2 |
| Sutton-Mattocks | Bowled | Hammond | 5 | Botting | 4 | 1 | 9 | 0 |
| Parker | Not | Out | 27 | Pierce | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Burden | LBW | Howeson | 7 | Howeson | 8 | 4 | 7 | 1 |
| Walker | Ct. & Bowled | McDonald | 3 | Durell | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Dunnett | Bowled | McDonald | 4 | McDonald | 6 | 0 | 26 | 2 |
| Tunnell | Not | Out | 11 | |||||
| Extras | 17 | |||||||
| 94 for 7 (47 Overs) |
The first game of the 2005 season, traditionally against Sevenoaks, saw the 5 colours from last year returning along with 6 new 1st XI players. New caps were Oliver Durell, Jonathan Middleton, Edward Hill, Ross McDonald, Chris Pierce and Alex Botting.
Tonbridge lost the toss and were put in to bat on a slow pitch on the edge of the square. Being a shortened declaration game, the pressure was always going to be on Tonbridge to score runs quickly allowing enough time for the bowlers to bowl out Sevenoaks.
The Tonbridge openers started cautiously against some tidy early bowling from Sevenoaks reaching 43 in the 14th over before Durell went, stumped when trying to force the pace. Shales took a few overs to adjust to the pace of the wicket before applying pressure on the Sevenoaks bowlers. He batted excellently, hitting the ball cleanly and making good use of the short boundary, to score 129 not out (his second fifty came in only 17 balls). Howeson also batted well and was undefeated when Tonbridge declared, making 64, and providing a useful partnership with Shales.
The bowlers now had not much more than 45 overs to bowl out Sevenoaks. Howick and Hammond started well taking 2 quick wickets each. This strengthened Seveonoaks resolve to play for the draw. Tonbridge managed to pick up three more wickets, two going to McDonald's leg spin. However the eighth wicket partnership frustrated Tonbridge and managed to play out 15 overs to achieve the draw. It was disappointing not to take the final three wickets and win the match that we had dominated for most of the afternoon. However, there was some excellent batting, bowling and fielding which promises much for the 2005 season.