Bohemia Village Voice

Sri Lankan batsman Aravinda de Silva waiting his turn at the crease. Aravinda has played in 93 tests, scored 6,361 runs.

Bohemia welcomed the Lashings World XI squad to Horntye Park on Thursday this week for a one afternoon match of 40 overs against Hastings Priory. Hasting Priory’s Ian Gillespie said “It was a fantastic match, even though we lost by about 70 runs. We got about 250 as against their 330. Lashings’ De Silva (see picture, above) was absolutely brilliant – really out of the top drawer. And Chris Cairns shot a sixer out of the grounds – heading towards Lidls, I think. And of course, Chris Lewis got a century – first class international stuff.” And Hastings Priory? “Jason Finch scored a great 42,” said Ian. The World XI are well named, having four members from the West Indies, two from Sri Lanka, three from England, two from New Zealand, and one each from Zimbabwe, South Africa and Pakistan. A heavy shower of rain in the morning looked like it might spoil the fun, but fortunately the weather cleared by the afternoon. This was the fifth consecutive year that Lashings have visited Bohemia to play Hastings Priory – and we even beat them once, in 2004.

White cricket balls were used for the match, with black sight-screens and dark-coloured stumps.

The Lashings World XI squad consisted of Richie Richardson, Widen Cricketer of the year 1996 Aravinda de Silva (pictured below), Alvin Kallicharran, Clare Connor, Chris Cairns, Chris Lewis, Phil de Freitas, Chris Harris, Vasbert Drakes, Tatenda Taibu, Phil Simmons, Nantie Hayward, Rashid Latif and Russell Arnold.

The Hastings Priory squad comprised John Morgan, 29, (captain), Tim van Noort, 32, (vice-captain), Jason Finch, 36, James Beeny, 20, Bradley Smith, 36, Tim Eldridge, 42, Will Hantam, 22, George Campbell, 26, John Hancock, 19, Max Finzel, 17, Alex Collier, 20 and Michael Glazer, 40.

Aravinda de Silva said " I’ve never been to Hastings before, although I used to play for Kent. I reckon we’ll score 300 today."

A good sized crowd turn out to watch Hastings Priory try to beat Lashings.

Commentators Scott The Voice Charlton,left, & Lashings Roger Dakin, centre, keeping an eye on the match - and the trophy - at Horntye Park.