Bromley stayed in contention at the top of the Kent Premier division with what was in the end was a very comfortable six wicket win at Lordswood on Saturday. 

After the home side posted 204-7 from their fifty overs courtesy of a pair of 46’s from skipper Ed Taylor and wicket keeper Max Wood, Bromley slipped to 53-4 in the eighteenth over.

But a magnificent unbroken fifth wicket partnership of 155 between Ryan Cartwright and Ollie Streets saw Bromley home as the patiently took the game away from the home side to win with fifteen balls to spare. 

The home side won the toss and elected first use of the Peter Edmonds wicket, but it proved to be a battle throughout the Lordswood innings.

Bradley Goodsack and Owen Palmer put thirty on the board for the opening wicket until Cartwright struck with the ball as Sean Thompson held onto Palmer’s shot – he made sixteen – and it realistically set the tone for the innings where players got in but couldn’t go on!  

After stumbling to 63-3. Taylor and Aftab Hussain nearly doubled the score with Taylor hammering a huge six into the back wall of the Lordswood Leisure Centre – but after Hussain’s departure with the score at 123 (for 23), Taylor soon followed for 46 which started another mini collapse after some fine Bromley bowling late on, the home side slipped to 165-7 with less than five overs to go, Wood and Adyita Adloop managed some big hitting, with the keeper hitting three magnificent successive fours in the forty-eight over to see the score to over 200.

Bromley initially were on the back foot after a probing opening spell from Henry Dunlop and Adeel Hussain. The visitors struggled to get going and after Dunlop bowled Stan Greenleaf for five, the visitors had limped to 28-1 after ten overs. 

When both Adyita Kumar and Thompson departed with the score on 36 eight balls apart – bowled by Hugh Scott and Joe Gordon respectively – the visitors were in trouble – trouble that went to another level in the eighteenth over when Gordon bowled Oliver Butterfill for 12, it seemed that the home side had the advantage and would go on and record successive home wins for the first time this summer. 

But slowly and gradually Cartwright and Streets dug in and with intelligent score board management kept the board ticking over.

Both batsmen had escapes, but whatever Lordswood skipper Taylor tried, the Bromley pair were not to be parted although Cartwright was “dropped” by keeper Wood, but in truth it was a sensational “stop” from the man with the gloves that saved four runs. 

Not even a change of ball would disrupt the Cartwright-Streets partnership as Cartwright went to his fifty in the thirty-eighth over as both men were intent on seeing their side home – Cartwright blasting a massive six over the longest boundary on the day behind the football club stand and Streets playing some delightful cover drives as the score continued to tick over at a regular rate. 

The end arrived with fifteen balls left as Streets powered his sixth four to bring up his own fifty to seal the six wicket win with Cartwright “marooned” on 91 off just one hundred and four balls, short of the hundred that he surely merited, but Bromley didn’t care as they stay second just two points behind leaders – defending Champions Tunbridge Wells.  

For Lordswood, this was their fourth defeat in six games this season and leaves them just two points ahead of rock bottom Whitstable who the Medway side travel to face next weekend. 

Pictures supplied by Allen Hollands.