Kempton Park have had a disappointing Eastern Premier League campaign by their high standards, however, this could be attributed to the fact that the majority of their top players have been plying their trade with the Easterns semi-professional set-up.
On Sunday, though, the Barnard Stadium-based club brought a powerhouse XI to Brakpan and their strength immediately shone through.
Grant Thomson, who recently made his debut in the Momentum One Day Cup with the Unlimited Titans, also featured in the Kempton side, meaning that skipper Justin Gamble and his young team were in for a tough day at the office.
Batting first, it was talented Easterns player Jurie Snyman who dominated with the willow.
His score of 129 not out steered the visitors to a score of 268/6 in their allotted 50-over innings.
The experienced Kempton skipper, Johan “Kierie” Fourie, was the next best batsman, with a score of 46.
Branden Grutter, Oswaldo De Sousa and Kevin Hinton all picked up a brace of wickets, but they could not do much to halt the Kempton run-train.
Grutter was the pick of the United bowling statistics, with figures of 2/30 in 10 overs.
On the batting front, it did not get easier for the home side.
Wickets fell regularly and not much resilience was offered by the United batsmen.
Kabelo Sekhukhune and De Sousa both scored 25 (the highest score of the United chase).
Titan Thomson claimed three United scalps for 19 runs in four overs, in an innings that ended in the 34th over, with a total of 132 runs.
United’s team manager, Des Gamble, commented: “Jurie taught us a lesson with the bat.
“It was never going to be easy out there with a full complement of Kempton players, and we definitely buckled under the pressure.
“We took some cracking catches in the field, but our bowlers are still giving away way too many extras.
“When you play a full-strength Kempton Park team it makes you realise that there is still a lot of work that we need to do, however, we are still building this team and this club and are still happy with our position and performances in the league.”
The loss means that Kempton leapfrog United into third place in the Eastern Premier League, by two points.
United will enjoy a bye this weekend, ahead of their remaining two Premier League clashes with KT Windies and Tembisa.
