Rainham v Lashings World XI, August 2005
On a brilliant, sunny August afternoon at Berengrove Park, a crowd of about 400 were entertained by the Lashings World XI and the cricketers of Rainham. Appearing for Lashings were internationally famous names like Ritchie Richardson, Alvin Kalicharan and Rashid Latif while for Rainham were well known local names like Nick Plumridge, Jim Austin and Tom Waters.
If the match hadn’t been arranged at short notice a bigger crowd may have shown up but those who did come were entertained with a show of aggressive batting from well known top class cricketers which resulted in 102 fours and 25 sixes during the course of the afternoon.
Two 20 over matches were played with the first being between the Rainham Under 19s and the World XI with John Dangerfield, Aaron Hawkins and Dan Mason dismissing former Test players Stuart Williams, Ian Butler and Damien Fleming respectively. Lashings went on to hit 185-3 off their allotted 20 overs with Stuart Williams 53 and Ian Butler 31 laying the foundations before Damien Fleming hit 56 off 21 balls followed by a solid 35 from Mark Richardson. This enabled Lashings to set Rainham youngsters 186 to win. In reply Phil Mayes hit 33 off 19 balls and Kevin Taylor hit 37 off 15 balls. Rainham finished 40 runs short at 146-8 but had performed admirably against their experienced adversaries. It was now left to the senior Rainham players to even things up.
Batting first Lashings showed their class by smashing 224-2 off their allotted 20 overs hitting Jim Austin’s five overs for 61 runs, although he did dismiss Richie Richardson for 106. Richardson reached his century off only 55 deliveries. This was his second century against Rainham as he had hit 102 against them in the East Kent League in 1998. Tom Waters was hit for 57, Nick Plumridge for 57 but Paul Newton bowled more economically with 1-41 off five overs. New Zealand’s Ian Butler continued the run feast with 50 off 24 deliveries.
In reply Rainham started well until David Sherhod was brilliantly caught by Fleming for 13 off the bowling of Phil Tufnell who also demonstrated his dancing skills between overs. Rainham made a valiant attempt to chase down the total with Jim Austin hitting 39 off 20 deliveries and Nick Plumridge smashing 34 off 14 deliveries. This included two huge sixes off Mark Richardson in typical style until he was enticed down the wicket and stumped by former Pakistan wicket-keeper Rashid Latif. Against their more experienced opponents Rainham finished their innings on a creditable 179-8 to the applause of the sizeable crowd.
Although the result was predictable the crowd had a day to remember for only ₤5 entry fee with 558 runs in boundaries and an array of World class players to watch in action against the local Rainham heroes.
Dave Wood 2008
