Sidcup sent out two teams on Wednesday night.

The first team travelled to Catford Cricket Ground for a Harvey Cup match against Lewisham’s fifth team, whilst the fourth team entertained Gravesend’s sixth team again at the Hurst Community Centre in the Intro Cup. Down at Catford, Captain Ian McAllan made himself 12th man and sent a balanced side into bat. That policy paid off when Ken Smith, making a welcome return after several years’ absence, had a crushing early win, and Dennis Halton and Dave Helps turned around bad openings to win handily. Lewisham then staged a recovery when Keith Thompson dropped a piece and David Gilbert’s opponent made an excellent exchange sacrifice, but Gary Sharp secured the match win 3.5 - 2.5 by accepting a draw offer when he had the better of it.

Meanwhile Peter Houching’s Intro Cup side were enjoying a comfortable 3.5 - 0.5 win over Gravesend. The Captain believes you shouldn’t change a winning team and stuck with the same players who had beaten the same opponents six days earlier. The strategy was rewarded with wins from Leon Hopkins, Lee Brockwell and Ken Grist, whilst John Morris drew. That’s two wins out of two and a great start for the fourth team.

David Gilbert