Dear all,
Straight on to the news…
30 Years at the club for Mark Eldridge
This weekend marks 30 years at Marlborough CC (latterly SMCC) as a colt and senior player. Mark, the current first X1 captain, joined the club in July 1981 and has remained a one club man ever since. His family are holding a small surprise party after the game at the weekend. Not sure what kind of format this will take, but please hang around after the game (there will be some food) and try to keep it a secret! All invited…
Last weekends results:
Saturday
SMCC were unlucky not to take all 13 points against the league leaders, Metropolitan Police. Having batted first, SMCC limped to 147, with lots of batsmen getting into double figures with no one going on to make a telling score. The pitch, which used to be one of the best in Surrey, made positive cricket tough. Met Police were soon put under pressure as the Cruttwell began to swing the ball. As the pressure built, the wickets began to fall, Cruttwell bowled throughout the innings to records figures of 25 overs, 8 maiden, 6 wickets for 49 runs. A mammoth effort. The other bowlers used also picked up a wicket apiece (except an injured McGill) and MP’s final batting pair survived the last 5 overs to secure a draw. (D Ellis)
1st X1 League position – 6th / 10
————————————————————-
2nd X1 League position – 4th / 10
————————————————————-
With five draws on the bounce, the 3s were determined to get a win in their column. We started well, with Breedy and Shizzle taking three wickets apiece, one of which an excellent one-handed catch by Beggs. However, not for the first time this season (but hopefully for the last), a dirty 8th wicket partnership threatened our control of the game. Some dropped catches (a recurring problem this season) allowed them to get to 172, which was not too bad on a patchy wicket. In response, Claw and Barney started well, taking us to 46, but then followed a mini collapse to 55-3 and then 84-5, with the accurate offspin of Malik doing most damage. Sowton then launched an aggressive counterattack, including 22 off one Shafi over, which edged S&M towards victory. When his partnership with Breed was curtailed, S&M were 132-9, still requiring 41 for victory and with only Tommy Ramsay (average 6.32) left for company. However, some big hitting, dropped catches and sloppy fielding allowed S&M to secure the win, with Ramsay executing the most glorious extra cover drive to bring up celebrations and delirious celebrations (including Bell ‘doing a Flintoff’ are flinging his shirt above his head). A good and enjoyable win, but it should not mask some below-par performances. Promotion is still a possibility, but we need to redouble our efforts. (C Sowton)
3rd X1 League position – 11th / 18
————————————————————-
4th X1 League Position – 2nd / 8
————————————————————-
Dagmara worked out the average age of our team as around 22. Take out the 47 years of the captain and that falls dramatically. Another difficult selection week left the V’s under strength and late drop outs sent us to meet the league leaders with only ten players – 2 under 14’s, 4 under 16’s amongst them. Orpington is a nice set up and the track was good. S&M won the toss and put Orpington in, mostly because I was worried about our batting strength. Orpington got off to a good start before Elliott and Stan were able to, briefly, bring us back in to the game by taking two wickets apiece. All of the victims were good bats removed by good bowling and a fabulous catch by Shindy in the covers – he had no choice really, catch it or wear it in the chops. Elliott produced the best ball of the day to nip back off the pitch on a perfect length and hit the top of off stump to get rid of the classy opener. The next ball kept low and sent Number Three back. Once Stan ‘Kevin’ Barrett-Johnston had woken from his teenage slumber/depression he started to bowl well and was rewarded with Shindy’s catch and bowling number 4. At drinks they were a hundred or so off 23 overs. After drinks we could not contain them. Aggressive batting and some wayward bowling saw Orpington a massive 284 off their 46 overs. All the young bowlers showed potential but Orpington were merciless to anything overpitched or short. I was pleased we stuck at it and fielded pretty well – Ryan Willmott was outstanding as was Elliott and Dagmara. Also pleasing t see the return of Shindy’s back of a length stuff after a long injury lay-off. Zia Khan looked a very good keeper and gave away only 1 bye. Orpington are a proper league team and they bowled like one. Nagging lengths and no filth saw the demise of our young batters. Only Ryan Wilmott (24) with his free-flowing shot making and Elliott Charles (15) got in to double figures as we limped to 78 all out off 36 overs. Young Cealladgh Sullivan lloked to ave potential at the top of the order and Viren batted sensibly at the end. Lewis fell t a great catch after looking in no trouble. Dagmara hit the ball well without getting past the field. The team were well and truly beaten but the experience will do them some good – just not an experience they should be exposed to too often. (L Johnston)
5th X1 League position – 10th / 10
Sunday
http://stmcc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/results.asp
This weekends games:
Saturday
1st X1 home to Alleyn & Honor Oak
2nd X1 away to Egham
3rd X1 home to Merstham
4th X1 away to Trinity Mid-Whitgiftians
5th X1 home to Blackheath
Sunday
1st X1 home to TBC
2nd X1 home to TBC
http://stmcc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/fixtures.asp
Best of luck to all the sides.
Dan