Dear all,
Another successful weekend for the club and there are some pretty lengthy match reports – so let’s get on with it…
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Food available after the game on Saturday
Karen Goodchild will be cooking some more delicious food after the game. On the menu this week:
- Beef/Fish/Veggie Burgers and Chips (for £3)
- Chilli con carne with rice and garlic bread (for £5)
Devon Tour Update – (Message from Robin Hobbs)
Numbers are increasing for the Devon Tour. A reminder that deposits of £30 should be paid to me in order to confirm your commitment and hold your spot. I have had a number of queries around how much the tour is likely to cost. It depends on where you want to stay, but based on £40 a night for a single room in a B&B it will be £200 for 5 nights (note double/twin rooms are £50 per night so you can make a significant saving if you’re sharing).
In terms of transport, the plan is to arrange a minibus to travel down in, in which case costs should be approximately £40-50 per person including hire and fuel, assuming a full bus. So overall you’re looking at around £250 plus whatever you spend on food/drink/activities. In order to help even further with costs, we will be running a raffle over the next few weeks at the club to raise funds (see below).
Also a number of people have asked if they can come for part of the tour rather than the full 5 nights. That’s absolutely fine – note that the 3 fixtures are on August 13, 14 and 15.
Raffle – (Message from Robin Hobbs)
We will be holding a raffle every Saturday over the next few weeks at the club in order to raise funds for the tour. Contributions and donations of prizes are most welcome! Contact me on rdh199@hotmail.com / 07886 893134 or Barty for further details and to make donations.
Kit
If anyone has got some kit which doesn’t fit and they want me to advertise it on here, let me know. Initially, Armani Sharif has the following items for sale / exchange:
- White Training Top XL
- Black Condivo Training Top XL
- Black Hoody XL
- White Polo Shirt XL
http://www.allroundercricket.com/teamwear/cricket-teamwear/streatham-and-marlborough-cc
There are still some of last season’s Surridge club shirts behind the bar for £20 – please contact me if you want one.
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Last weekend’s results:
Saturday
1st XI vs Woking & Horsell
The day began with every skippers nightmare phone call with less than an hour to the start – “I’ve got 3 players in the car and we’re more than an hour away…”. I’d better win the toss… Fortunately, tails never fails and we elected to bat. The openers were able to hang around long enough to allow the remaining players to arrive but SMCC soon found themselves in trouble at 46-4. Fuller and Thomas played with some caution to take us to drinks without further loss of wickets. They began to push the field around with some intelligent running and found the boundary to increase the run rate. A wobble saw Fuller, Little and McGill lose their wickets in quick succession. Thomas took this as a sign to increase the onslaught on the Woking bowlers as he managed to thread the ball past the 4 boundary riders who were positioned in the ”V”. He found an ally in Sharad Patel who also played some lovely shots in a quick fire partnership. A couple of flat batted sixes off the opening bowler showed the confidence of Thomas and the clean hitting was a pleasure to watch. Patel lost his wicket with Thomas on 79 and he was unable to get to a deserved ton as Mortimore and Carr lost their wickets, finishing on 93*.
SMCC were a bit sloppy in the field as a couple of chances went down early on and allowed the openers to get Woking off to a good start. The first wicket fell in comical fashion as the ball dropped on the leg side and nobody made much of an effort to retrieve it. Having turned down the single, the batsmen had second and third thoughts about it before meeting in the middle for a more in depth discussion before McGill rolled the ball to Patel to complete the run out. Mortimore and Carr replaced the opening bowlers and squeezed the runs in the middle, the scoring rate slowed and 48-0 had become 90-5. Woking did show some fight as the middle order took the score to 131 before JC made another breakthrough to leave him on 499 league wickets for the club before the skipper asked him to take a blow. The order of the day soon became blocking for the draw and McGill was brought back to counter. A few balls later and had found the outside edge of the batsmen (who was running to square leg) and the ball cannoned into the stumps. A couple of balls later he found the outside edge and SMCC had 5 overs to take the final wicket. The number 11 took an interesting approach and hit his first ball over the top, he repeated this the second ball and holed out to deep mid-off. Good to get back to back wins but we will need to up our game for pacesetters Chipstead. (D Ellis)
1st XI League position – 4th / 10
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2nd XI vs Oxted & Limpsfield
The 2nd X1 entertained a very confident Oxted & Limpsfield. We lost the toss and were stuck in. A disastrous early session saw us reeling at 59-6. But a response of some magnitude saw us fight back and close the innings on 198-9 off 55 overs. We definitely do bat to no 11. Again another fine innings of 43 by Knotty ably assisted by an undefeated 10th wicket partnership of 67 by Walker 18no and Blackburn 38 no. Oxted’s heads had dropped even a chirpy keeper and first slip had nothing to say. It’s always tough trying to take 10 wickets in 45 overs but try we did. An even match saw Oxted 90 -3 with 25 overs left but some fine bowling by Corns Walker and Blackburn helped short fast spells by the enigmatic Saif take regular wickets and slow down the run rate to a virtual standstill. Oxted were glad to hang onto a losing draw point at 148-8 at the close. Apart from a sloppy 20 overs at the start maximum points would have been taken I’m sure. A great fight back and spirit that will help us at other points in the season. We look forward to the 50/50 return leg. (M Eldridge)
2nd XI League position – 3rd / 10
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3rd XI vs Staines & Laleham
The 3rd’s rollercoaster of a season continued against Staines & Laleham on Saturday but sadly after experiencing the exhilarating highs last week, it was a stomach churning dip this time round. Strictly speaking we didn’t lose the toss but we didn’t win it either and were put in to bat. Good tight bowling meant scoring was never easy and of the batters only Bartolo (39) got to grips with the bowling as we were skittled out for 97. We opened with spin on a dry pitch then took the new ball in an attempt to take wickets. We were denied a close run out and a fairly obvious stumping; their opener who survived both of the aformentioned decisions going on to make a 50. We did take three wickets and Staines batting didn’t look the strongest we’ve seen. Another 60 runs would have made a huge difference, it’s frustrating that we didn’t get them. Still, onwards and upwards. We’re looking forward to going to Chipstead, Coulsdon & Walcountians on Saturday to put things back on track. (M Begg)
3rd XI League position – Joint 11th / 16
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4th XI vs Old Wimbledonians
Summer had definitely arrived as the fours travelled away to Old Wimbledonians. The skipper wins the toss and into the field we go. Rory “Blackout” Thomas, fresh back from uni took the strange decision of choosing to bowl up the hill and into the wind, not your usual opening bowlers choice but then again maybe he knew something the rest of us didnt. He didn’t but little damage was done in the short spell. The debuting Mark Davis struck instantly amd along with Culley restricted scoring and the pressure built on the OW batsman. Virun Patel bowled well and is looking a great find. Angry Pete Adamson bowled with miserly accuracy, four maidens in his first five overs a testament to how much of an asset he is to the side. In the end the wickets were shared around, one each for Davis, Culley, Adamson and Henderson with Gladstone, who’s starting to rediscover the form of past seasons with the ball, taking two. A smart run out from Hobbs and blown hamstring from their number 5 and 171 for 7 in 47 overs on an absolute road never looked like enough.
Henderson and Hobbs, the 5th different opening partnership in as many games, started aggressively. The running between the wickets was excellent and OW looked resigned to defeat with plenty of gaps in the field from only having 10 players. A ran 5 and then two overs later a ran 4 proof of the openers good running and aggression. It was also proof of the Skipper’s lack of fitness and after nearly losing his lunch and a tired shot, 64 for 1 in just over 10 overs was the start needed to take the game away from the opposition. Then came one of the middle order’s collapses. 64 for 1 became 99 for 6 and OW where back in the hunt and believing they could win the game. Culley and De Ruyter came together, Culley blocking the full tosses at the start of his innings and De Ruyter trying to swing himself off his feet at his first three balls. Then something strange happened, for as much stick as the young man gets for not using his brain when batting, GDR batted with measured aggression and intelligence that he has obviously juat been hiding away for such an occasion. Culley turned the aggression on himself, his last 29 runs coming at a strike rate of 236. Culley 31 not out and GDR 42 not out and we were home.
A lot of positives from the game and if we can sort out the middle order form and the running between the wickets of certain players and this league could be ours for the taking. (A Henderson)
4th XI League Position – 3rd / 10
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5th XI vs Old Wilsonians
A dry and sunny Mayow Park, a lightning outfield and a track that Tejus says puts him in mind of Sri Lanka. The track will play well except for a couple that shoot. I win the toss and put OW’s in and open up with Shiraz Sheikh (10-7-9-1) and Brijesh Patel (6-1-35-1). Shiraz’s figures tell you what a fine piece of league bowling this was from a fine bowler. As ever Shiraz was unlucky not to earn more reward. Brijesh was a little wayward at times but did have one of the openers well caught by Tejus at gully.
Vinay Patel could not quite recapture the form of last week but troubled the batters regularly and bowled the dangerous Harry Cornish with one that shot along the ground. It was not Paul Henly’s day so we turned to Roddie Bell (7-0-30-3) and Tejus Dasandi (6-0-30-3) and they pulled us back in to the game. James, Pilgrim, Hazzard and Beckett had all scored quickly and heavily and were putting OW’s in a commanding . Bell and Dasandi took the wickets that earned us bonus points and slowed the scoring. For the first time we were not able to take all 10 wickets and OW’s finished on 182-9.
Newton Moss (11) and Roddie Bell (53) got us off to a solid start and when the Lion of Lothian was joined by Justin Sbresni (36) they began a partnership of 90 in good time that would put us right in the game. Their fine effort was characterised by intelligence, manipulation of the bowling and the fielding and some fine, fine shots behind square and in front of the wicket. What a jolt it was to lose both of them on 121 and then Tejus Dasandi (4) straight after soon followed by Mike Nicholas (0) and Adam Bailey. 121-1 to 131-6. The game had turned again. But Paul Henly (21) would turn it back our way again with Shiraz Sheikh (15) and Brijesh Patel (10). All of them played some fine shots and ran well between the wicket. The loss of each of them was met with groans. And so we went in to the last over needing 8 for victory. Shiraz creamed four from the first ball – a glorious shot through extra cover. Then he was out attempting a suicidal second run. Now just young Vinay Patel and the grizzled skipper left standing. Four balls left, four needed for victory. Three scampered singles and the last ball arrives. Vinay nudges it straight to short cover, the captain charges and makes his ground. The bails are taken off at the non-strikers end. Huge appeal and the umpire raises his finger. Run out. Scores level. Match tied (L Johnston)
5th XI League position – 1st / 10
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6th XI vs Burgh Heath
The Saturday 6XI travel to play Burgh Heath which proved to be quite a good day for our very different XI from previous weeks. We turn up with a full side and are greeted by a very green wicket which will later prove deadly for Burgh Heath’s batting line-up. The two captains head out to the middle for the toss which we lose, S&M are asked to field. We head out to see what is in store for our bowlers on the very green wicket. With Babar Khan taking first over it seemed from very early on that this was a bowling track. With Babar punishing the openers with every ball that came out of his hand. In the end only the 1 wicket but with a very tidy spell with bowling 5 overs-2 runs-1 wicket. At the other end is a new member Nakul Jambotkar who wasn’t confident opening the bowling but proved to be the right thing to do after taking two wickets in his first two overs. Final figures of 5 overs- 5 runs- 2 wickets.
With the score being 8 and with Burgh Heath being 3 down I chose to let the spinners take over with Ihsaan Syed-Hussain bowling 7 overs, conceding 17 runs and sending another 3 of Burgh Heaths batsmen back to the pav. With the score being 20-5 Christophe van Ashwegan comes onto bowl after taking two stunning catches in the covers a few overs previous and proves what he can do with the ball when he takes 1 wicket off 8 overs but keeping the score down by only conceding 14 runs. Andy Chowdury then comes on and takes 3 wickets off 5.2 overs and only 3 runs in his spell. Before we know it our fielders are walking in the same direction as Burgh Heaths batsmen after bowling them out for only 42 runs. A bowlers track alright!!
With Vishal Shah and Mark Matzen opening the batting we get off to a slow start with the score at 7 off 8 overs. Then we start to get a move on with only 5 overs later shaking hands with the opposition with Vishal Patel finishing not out on 33 along with Mark Matzen on 6. A very good day for S&M 6XI and a very good performance by everyone. Also a very big thanks to Savitri for taking her time to drive a few of us down to the game. We had our own little mascot. (C Knott)
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Ladies XI vs Reigate Priory
The ladies faced the league leaders, Reigate Priory, who were yet to lose. Things started off well, with skipper Rabz Hassan winning the toss and electing to bat. It was an interesting start to the match: 1st ball – 4 byes; 2nd ball – 1 bye; 3rd ball – 4 byes; 4th ball – Dag Selwyn-Kuczera clean bowled, deceived by the in-swinger. The skip then joined Tammy Mattinson at the crease and saw off the rest of the over. Both players then went on the offensive and played shots all round the park, scoring at a brisk rate of 8/9 runs per over. The league rules require that a batter retires on 35 and it did not take our opener long to reach that target with 7 boundaries to her name. The skip contributed 19 to the partnership before she was castled. Unfortunately her dismissal resulted in the run rate slowing right down, with the remaining batters struggling to find the gaps and only one further boundary being scored. However, with the extras given away by Reigate, we set the opposition a target of 131 off 25 overs.
We didn’t start off too badly with Dag going some way to making up for her duck by trapping the oppo’s no 2 LBW for 2 and opening bowler, Leia Mazur, having their no 3 caught behind for 6. But then we allowed a partnership to develop with the bowlers struggling to find line and length. All 7 bowlers used were guilty of bowling complete filth and we were in danger of letting the extras lose the game for us. We finally thought we had broken the partnership when one of our fielders (who shall remain nameless to spare her blushes) had a great opportunity to run out the opener but for some inexplicable reason decided to throw the ball at the stumps from three inches away having only one stump to aim at and missed – by about 3 inches! Eventually the opener was run out by Dag for 26 – a direct hit from mid-on. The game was back on with four overs to go. Ellen Filor was given the ball and after being despatched for a boundary followed by a maximum, she came back well with two wickets in two balls, trapping the oppo’s star batter LBW for 34 – plumb – and then rearranging the stumps of the new batsman. The skip took the next wicket, a good catch by Leia running in from mid-off. This meant that 15 were needed off the last two overs, which proved a few too many and we won by 3 runs. Phew … (D Selwyn-Kuczera)
Ladies 1st XI League Position – joint 1st / 8
Trust XI vs East Grinstead
The Long Journey South! Not the best of starts to the game with main bowlers Kasheef “dodgy knees” Hassan and Sharad not being available for this vital game, the captain had no choice but to go with a spin dominated attack. The captain lost the toss and we were put into the field, and spirits were high after last week’s top fielding and bowling performance. Saif bowled with his usual aggression and cut out the extras from last week and bowled in tandem with Krish Maru’s tricky turn and bounce. EG started at 4 runs an over, but after the 9th over started putting their foot down. The start wasn’t helped when their eventual top scorer was dropped on 20 with his edge going between the keeper and first slip off Sagar’s first over. After his economical spell Sagar’s line and length bowling was hit out of the attack by the aggressive opening pair. This prompted the skipper to bring on the pair of young spinners Tom Barnard and J Rao. Tom got the instant breakthrough with a filthy ball which their opener dragged onto his stumps, but at this stage we would take anything. EG scored quickly and were quick to put the bad balls away and the lightening outfield helped them post 252. This score would have been higher had it not been for Saif’s quick spell at the end picking up 3 wickets with another catch from the ever reliable Sagar Mehta. The bowling credit goes to J Rao, Tom for giving the batsman a chance with their economical bowling and key wickets of the openers.
After tea and talk of us batting better than the week before, the openers of Krish and in form Jack Thomas gave us a solid opening partnership of 38 before Krish dragged onto his stumps. JT continued on his merry way playing aggressively to a 50. The captain flicked one to short midwicket, and after reaching his fifty JT tried to pull a ball and once he missed it saw his off stump go. Rajeev Maru steadied the ship with an intelligent 28 as wickets were falling around him of Vishal (2) and Eileen who made a duck. Rajeev and Michael “Gunz” Goodwin steadied the ship once again taking us to 110, before Rajeev trying to rightly up the run rate got caught by the tallest player on their team at mid-off. At 117 for 6 we were staring down the barrel and thoughts of last week’s collapse was at the fore front of the captains mind. But as everyone at the club knows Saif on his day can win a game from most positions. Saif and Gunz put on 105 of which Saif batted with his brain and made 70 off 45 balls. Michael was clever to rotate the strike and the pair ran very well before Saif skied one up in the air to make the away team nervous. We needed 31 off 5 overs when J Rao and Gunz put on a run a ball 19 before a comical run out left Gunz stranded shortly after getting his 50. This brought Sagar “his best shot is the leave” Mehta to the crease with 12 needed off 10. After receiving chirp from the home side about not having a helmet and getting some chin music, the first ball faced was a short ball which quickly disappeared to the square leg boundary to the surprise of both teams. The last over needed 6 and after an over throw and some quick singles we won with a ball to spare!
Great game, all we need to do now is to have the bowling and fielding from the first game, the batting of the second game and we are in danger of producing an all-round performance! Next week is Sutton away bring it on! Thanks to Eddie for umpiring once again! (S Hassan / S Mehta)
Trust XI League Position – joint 2nd / 8
http://stmcc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/results.asp
This weekend’s games:
Saturday
1st XI home to Chipstead, Coulsdon & Walcountians
2nd XI away to Egham
3rd XI away to Chipstead, Coulsdon & Walcountians
4th XI home to Wimbledon
5th XI away to Bexley
Sunday
Ladies 1st XI home to Stoke D’Abernon
Trust XI away to Sutton
Wednesday 19th
Midweek XI home to Newington
http://stmcc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/fixtures.asp
Best of luck to all the sides.
Dan
ps. Keep up to date with news from the club on Twitter feed (@SMCricketClub) or via our Facebook page (Streatham & Marlborough Cricket Club)
pps. Our local restaurant sponsors (Dulwich Tandoori & Mirash Tandoori) are very important to us and provide valuable financial assistance. Please make an effort to visit them and, if you do, mention that you are a member of SMCC and are grateful to them for their support!