Dear all,
Straight on to the news…
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News
Nets
Kasheef Hassan (1st XI player and qualified coach) will be conducting free 1:1 training sessions in the nets using the club bowling machine. If you would like to take this opportunity to develop your batting skills, please sign up using the following link: http://tinyurl.com/7ydmrg8. The first time you use this service you will need to create an account (which is free and takes less than a minute). The club is grateful to Kash for offering his services, and we hope that members will start to see the benefits soon on the pitch.
SMCC Fantasy Cricket
Sagar Mehta has a clear lead in the fantasy cricket, with last season’s champion (Chris Sowton) in second. The MVP for the season so far is Neil Shah, but there is still plenty of time to go. Follow the stats at http://smcc.easyfantasycricket.com/
Outdoor furniture
As I’m sure you are aware, we are chronically short of garden furniture to use whilst watching the home games. As a result, the green chairs are being brought out and are often broken as they are pulled from the ground. If anyone has any benches at home, or are aware of anywhere we can get a job lot of plastic garden chairs, please contact me asap!
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Last weekend’s results:
Saturday
The 1s extended their winning streak to 4 matches against Old Rutlishians with a 78 run victory. OR won the toss and elected to field, taking a couple of early wickets with the new ball. However, runs were coming at a steady rate and Ellis and De Ruyter were able to take the score up to 85 before KDR lost his wicket in the last ball before drinks. The OR spin pair made scoring difficult and Ellis went soon after drinks for 47. Dias was dismissed soon after to leave SMCC in a little trouble. Hassan and Fuller dug in and ground out the runs in an attritional period but, crucially, kept wickets in hand to allow a final assault. Hassan was run out with 9 overs to spare, but he was replaced by McGill who hit a quick fire 46, whilst Fuller (50*) turned more aggressive to put 80 runs on in the last 10 overs. 218-7 from 55 overs. The SMCC fielding display was uncharacteristically sloppy as a few chances were put down, but Dias and Shareef Hassan made early breakthroughs with the old ball. The new ball was taken to try and blast through the middle order, but OR were equal to the task and began to score more quickly. Sharad Patel took two wickets in a 7 over spell into a strong wind, but SMCC needed some impetus to get through the OR batting order. That impetus came in the shape of Sayif Sarwar. 3 wickets in 3 overs changed the complexion of the game and changed the OR mind set from potentially winning the game, to survival. They almost achieved this goal, but Lassana Dias had other ideas as he took 3 late wickets to clean up the tail. SMCC bowling OR out for 140 with an over to spare. (D Ellis)
1st X1 League position – 3rd / 9
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Another toss was lost and the 2’s bat first against Pyrford on what looked a decent track at Dulwich Common. Langan and Craigo shared a decent 2nd wicket partnership, that looked like setting a good target for the oppo placed 2nd in the league. After both were dismissed, the score had been moved to 72. An awful middle order display then left S&M reeling on 92-7. Cue a match-saving partnership between Blob and Ben Walker, with new player Ben proving his tenacity with the bat will be an asset to the 2’s. Blob building an exceptional 81. The 2’s finishing on 201 all out in the final over of the 55. Pyrford’s openers saw off the new ball and it took the introduction another new 2’s player Ben Bradley to grab 2 quick wickets in an excellent spell (7-2-18-2). Ilbers was unlucky not to add to his 2 wickets with the team again missing a host of chances in the field. If we had of taken some we may well have left with all 13 point. but a 4 point winning draw was a decent effort from the position we were in. further good displays from new players alongside improved fielding will ensure a rapid return to winning ways. Sinjuns up next.(P Corns)
2nd X1 League position – 6th / 10
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The 3s got their promotion campaign back on track this week with a very convincing win against Merstham. A solid bowling and fielding performance set the tone, with the ever-improving Thomas getting another 4-fer, Safi taking 3 and Sowton 2. In response, it was business as usual for Thompson as he smacked a boundary laden 20 before nicking off. The heavy-footed but elastic-wristed Cameron Ritchie struck am increasingly confident 53 to drive home the early advantage. With good contributions from Bartolo, Henderson and Hughes in the middle order, it was left to Safi to bring matters to a conclusion with a brisk 16*. A good, solid performance with contributions throughout the side. (C Sowton)
3rd X1 League position – 4th / 18
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Another premier league game, another match finished by 5 o’clock! But this was no ordinary early finish for the fourth eleven! Delayed by the crazy Wimbledon traffic, we turned up after receiving reports from an on time Showbiz about the village setup to find every young side facing us, but a side none the less who had beaten some of the biggest sides in the league. Winning the toss was a great way to start, being told that Malden Wanderers’ best player had begged off as he was still drunk and they only had 10 was a nice bonus. Haynes and skipper Henderson opened the bowling with pace (from one end at least) and accuracy, wickets fell regularly, a comedy run out and two of the best slip catches from the debutant Sachdev (who apparently can bowl some very attractive legspin as his 3 wickets would suggest) and the oppo were all out for 104 in 27 overs. Tea hadn’t shown up so a quick turnaround was in order. Despite the early loss of Moss, the S&M batsmen set about the target on a lightning outfield that made run scoring a joy, Bell particularly enjoying his promotion up the order, his partnership with the Chairman all but seeing the side home. He finished up 45 not out and a great win for the fourth eleven that could be the catalyst for a good run in and survival in the premier league.(A Henderson)
4th X1 League Position – 9th / 10
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After the highs of last week’s triumphant visit to lovely New Eltham we return to disappointing defeat. I had to concede the toss for lack of an umpire but probably would have bowled first anyway. On a track with a bit of variable bounce we perhaps should have bowled and fielded better – 180 was probably 40/50 too many on that track. To be fair Terry Phillips is a class bat and played that way to make 51 and C. Pooley made an important 46 to put a very useful total on the board. The young opening attack of Davorn (6-2-11-1)and Booth-Cole (6-0-26-1)is one that will serve this club well for years. Today it was not quite at its sharpest. Barrington Wilks (8-2-22-0) can be relied on to bowl well on any kind of deck and today he bowled beautifully in to the wind and up the hill against quality batting for no reward save a dropped catch. Mark Davies (8-0-33-0)earning his first cap for the V’s bowled with venom and skill was also unlucky with more dropped catches. Paul Henley was the star again bowling well (8.5-0-32-4) and Elliott Charles proved a good choice of death bowler with 4 overs two for 17. Adam Bailey was great behind the stumps conceding only 3 byes and taking a good stumping off Paul Henley. Stan Barrett-Johnston caught another good catch at cover and his dad dropped another one in the slips. Ho hum. Two run outs though, one from young Davorn! More of a sleepy tabby waking up than a panther but still job done. We lost Wayne Fitzharris (4), Adam Bailey (6) and Paul Henley (2) cheaply. Stan followed for 3 before a partnership of 40 odd between Mike Nicholas (19) and Mark Davies (19) gave us brief hope. Mike batted elegantly with one beautiful six over midwicket (cowish angle but the shot was all timing and grace) and Mark batted with his customary belligerence nearly corkscrewing himself in to the ground with the wind-up. When they were gone Tommy Booth-Cole (19) showed some classy ability with the bat and was aided by Elliott Charles (7 not out) to guide us to a couple of extra bonus points. Jamie Davorn showed us yet more reasons why he should stay at 11 and we finished well short. Never mind – next week we return to Mayow Park for the return against Dulwich. Let’s hope we bring our catching and batting this time. (L Johnston)
5th X1 League position – 9th / 10
Sunday
Another dreary Sunday saw the ladies XI travel out to Surrey to face Oxted and Limpsfield. The rotational captaincy policy we have instituted for the rest of this season meant our skipper for the day was the star of our last game, Rabiena Hassan. After play being delayed by an hour due to rain, the skipper won the toss and decided to bowl on what was a pretty damp wicket. SMCC Ladies got off to a good start, taking two wickets in the first few overs and managing to keep the run total fairly low. The bowling overall was consistent and impressive, with Leia Mazur again stealing the show with figures of 4-0-17-2 and a fantastic run out off her own bowling. However, as the innings went on, Oxted and Limpsfield managed to crank the runs up and finished with 122 off 20 overs. This was mainly due to the fact that we conceded 44 extras and that we were playing on a pitch that can described as nothing else than a hill. A small one, yes, but it seems our team was struck with some kind of delirium that made us determined to let every other ball go through our legs and cross the boundary. This coupled with the hill proved to be costly. Nevertheless, we knew it was not an impossible target. We just needed to bat sensibly and use the pitch to our advantage, as the opposition had done. Unfortunately, we again lost wickets too quickly which meant it was difficult to score runs with no real partnership being built. At the halfway point of 10 overs, we had only scored 37 runs at the cost of 4 wickets. Batsmen continued to come to the crease and quickly return to the pavilion, and it started to dawn on the team that unless one of us could stay in for at least 10 minutes, this could be embarrassing. Thankfully, mainly due to Faiza Zaidi and Dag Selwyn-Kuczera, with top scores of 16 and 15, we managed to salvage our innings and reach a respectable total of 108. The 59 extras that the opposition handed us helped as well, it must be said, but Faiza hit two fours so let’s focus on that. They were splendid shots. We fell short by 19 runs, so if we had not conceded so many in the outfield, the game would have been ours for the taking. That being said, R Hassan led by example with admirable skippering skills and kept us all in good spirits throughout the day, no matter what the score was. There are also many good points to take from the game, which was reflected when their captain told us that our bowling was the strongest their team has faced. So in conclusion, we’ve got the bowling down. All we need to do now is keep our wits about us when batting and perhaps all revise how to execute the long barrier. (E Johnston)
Ladies 1st X1 League position – 1st / 6
http://stmcc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/results.asp
This weekend’s games:
Saturday
1st X1 away to Farncombe
2nd X1 home to SinjunGrammarians
3rd X1 home to Esher
4th X1 away to Normandy
5th X1 home to Dulwich
6th X1 TBC
Sunday
1st X1 home to Grenfell
2nd X1 TBC
http://stmcc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/fixtures.asp
Best of luck to all the sides.
Dan