Dear all,
Will keep this intro short – Roddie and Sagar got wins – so expect the normal essay. Funny how their reports are always shorter when they don’t get a result… Also, two reports from the V’s for the same match – extraordinary…
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Presidents Day – Sunday 3rd June
The Annual Presidents Day will be on the Sunday of the Jubilee weekend. This year, the President (Peter Edwards) has challenged the Chairman (John Greenwood) to a 50 over match starting at 11.30am. This is an event for members, friends and family so please do pass on the word and encourage people to attend. The bar will be open from 12 noon. Also, please come and support the Ladies 1st X1, who we hope will be taking on Caterham at 10am.
Development Kit
We are still missing a number of Dulwich Tandoori sponsored green Development X1 shirts, which were kindly donated to the club last year – if you have one in your kitbag from last year, please return it to Kasheef Hassan ASAP so we have a full set for our league campaign.
Scorer – 1st X1
This just won’t go away….! The 1st X1 still require a scorer to avoid being fined by the league – the most pressing dates are 2 June, 9 June & 23 June – if anyone is available to assist, please get in touch with me asap. The club is willing to offer a small payment to the right person.
Lassana Dias
Yesterday, we finally received confirmation that Lassana Dias has been cleared by the UK High Commission in Sri Lanka, having been granted a visa by the UK Border Authority a few weeks ago. He is due to arrive into Heathrow at 7pm tomorrow to play in this weekends games!
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Last weekends results:
Saturday
Another week goes by without league cricket for the 1’s. As the Metropolitan Police are unable to commit a side to the league campaign due to the Olympics, they have been given special dispensation to play friendly cricket until mid July. Unfortunately, they couldn’t manage the trip to South East London and so Surrey Lankians filled in as opposition, late on Friday. SMCC easily beat the Sri Lankan side with Shareef Hassan the stand out player, 4 wickets and a sumpteous 60 odd to see us home. (D Ellis)
1st X1 League position – 6th / 9
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A comprehensive win against Cobham made it 3 from 3 for the 2’s. A massive 170 run opening stand laid the foundation for a substantial 316-7 from 50overs. KdR with an entertaining 123 and Greenwood 51 being the highlights. A splendid tea was just the right preparation for another good performance from the 2nd team bowlers. Bowling out the beleaguered Cobham side in 26 overs for a total of 58. Ilbery the pick with 4-12 from 7 overs. Corns taking 3-20 and one a piece for sags and sharad. The opposition this weekend will definitely be stronger, but a confident 2’s side will be looking to making it four in a row. (P Corns)
2nd X1 League position – 1st / 10
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After an endless trawl through Saturday traffic to Staines & Laleham, the skipper duly lost the toss and we were sent in. After a typically aggressive start by Thompson (32), the batting disappointingly fell away. Only Sowton (33) and Showr (9) got their heads down. Too many wickets were lost to cavalier shots, and as a result we were all out for 87 in just 34.3 overs. Players have to learn that 50 overs is a long time to bat, and there is no need for all-out aggression so early in the innings. The second innings began well, with Thomas (3-25) and Safi (1-31) bowling well and reducing the oppo to 32-4. However, the dream was not to be as Staines ended up winning by 6 wickets. Verdict: bowling and fielding good but batting very poor. Lessons need to be learnt, and fast. (C Sowton)
3rd X1 League position – 9th / 18
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The 4th XI hosted Cheam in their first home match in the Premier Division. The visiting captain rudely won the toss and then to be polite chose to bat as this was what home skipper Henderson wanted to happen anyway. Clowes opened the bowling from the golf course end and struggled a touch with his line, the skipper doing well to stop the wides total (Which ended up at 32) from being even higher. The tall Old Etonian was replaced by Dampier who bowled well before injuring his ankle. From the other end, Hardy was his usual steady self. Finding more control of the swinging ball as his spell reached its end he eventually bowled out three of the top 4 in a lovely spot of bowling. Highlight was an extremely harsh wide being given followed by a batsman being castled off the seventh ball which should not have taken place. Always nice when that happens. Shortly after the first drinks break Gladstone came on and exerted control. He removed the remaining opener before a lovely bit of trickery saw him take his second wicket. It went a little something like this.
Step 1. Gladstone moves fielder away from ‘round the corner on the legside’ ‘stopping 1 on the 45’ position.
Step 2. Batsman decides that walking across his stumps is a good idea because then he can just flick it down to the recently vacated empty spot for easy runs.
Step 3. Less than a second later batsman has missed and leg stump has been struck.
Step 4. Gladstone laughs loudly.
Bell bowled reasonably up in the hill in tandem with Gladstone before being allowed to return for a second spell down the hill. Unused to being spoilt in this manner, he served up some tripe. Debutant Hayward bowled some aesthetically pleasing legspin (It didn’t pitch all that often but it was his first game in a while and you’ll hear more about him later) (And he held a catch off my bowling, so I think he is a gentleman). The skipper decided that it was too nice a day to not have a bowl and brought himself on and in the penultimate over of the innings he removed Fenwick, the Cheam youngster having batted beautifully until this point. The captain removed Bell as his ninth over had been mild dross and gone for 14. De Ruyter (G) bowled the final over. He upped the ante and bowled complete dross. It went for 3. And he took a wicket (Splendid catch by Paul ‘Reg’ Henly). Life’s not fair. Tea was taken, shade was embraced and the openers (Dampier and Moss) headed out aiming to hit the 181 runs needed for victory. Moss sorted out the 1 before edging to slip off the beefy opener Axell. This brought the skipper to the crease and he wouldn’t leave until the game was won. He started off by taking the back seat as first Dampier and then Deruyter (G) kept us well up with the rate with the aggressive and fearless shotmaking that only the young seem capable of. After their inevitable departure, quickly followed by that of Shukla, Hendo and Reg steadied the ship before young Fenwick came on and removed Henly’s off bail. 105-5. The Skipper took over and sensibly (Except for one attempted reverse sweep which sparked more bad language from Gladstone and Bell (padded up at 8 and 9) than a sailor with tourette’s stubbing his toe) cut and smacked us towards our target. He was given support from Hayward whose attitude to the bowling started off watchful and ended up being dismissive. Hendo ended unbeaten on 73 and Rhys on 27 in an excellent unbroken stand of 76. A great result after the previous week and all is well with the world once more. (R Bell)
4th X1 League Position – 7th / 10
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A boiling hot day and the 5’s assemble early to put up gazebos, put out flags, assemble tables and chairs, unrope the square, carry the tea in and then get ready for the game. It is our first game at Mayow and there are no changing facilities. The skipper loses the toss and so we have to bat. There is a large crowd in and we are all interested to find out how the newly laid track will play. The verdict is that it is a lot better than Belair. Playing on a corrugated iron roof would be better than Belair. The odd one keeps low but that is about it. It is a pleasant enough setting and so the game begins. After two embarrassing low scores we are determined to post a total and eventually we do. We progress to 50 for just the loss of Curtis Knott caught and bowled when in 2 balls we are rocked by the skipper (12) being run out from a direct hit from long off and then the same fielder, Haroon Qadas catching an unbelievable one handed catch next ball to dismiss Kirk Smith (25). Often enough that has led to 70 all out or so but today Adam Goodyer(5) and Jim Roebuck (13) steadied the ship allowing Mike Nicholas (shot of the day – one step down the track and boom over the ropes straight) (6), Barringon Wilks (19) and Allingon Jackson (24) to put bat to ball and we finish on 145 in the 46th over. That redoubtable campaigner Andy Pye taking 4 wickets with his left-armers – all bowled. The chase begins frenetically with Haroon Qadas looking to smash the ball to all parts. The young man succeeds with 5 boundaries, plays and misses 20 times and is beautifully caught by Curtis Knott behind off a lifter from Barrington Wilks. Allington bowls two colts quickly and we are right in it at 30 odd for 3. Rory Massingham O’Connor then played well for his 26, punishing our increasingly ragged bowling as we began to wilt in the heat. We were still in it when Jackson struck again to bowl O’Connor but with wides and byes, full pitches and long hops Old Colfeians got to the target with plenty of overs to spare. 54 extras tells its own story and we have to get better if we want to compete in this league. (L. Johnston)
A hot day in a tranquil Mayow park setting – what more could one ask for? A pavilion – well, yes; a win – would have been nice; but a bevy of half-naked strangers and a vociferous local as spectators – priceless. Batting first, a total of 146 for S&M saw good contributions from Allington (24) and Barrington Wilkes (19) lower in the order and looked competitive on an unproven pitch. The total could have been larger, were it not for a remarkable over in which Laurie Johnston (12) was run out by a direct hit from the boundary, and next ball Kirk Smith (25) was dismissed by a diving, behind-the-head catch, on the same boundary, by the same fielder. In reply, Old Colfeians’ at times “Boom Boom” approach was gutsy, if frustrating for S&M’s bowlers, with third man becoming a catching position. Wilkes and Allington followed up their batting with some spirited bowling, and Curtis Knott kept wicket bravely, mostly with his gloves, as the ball darted around on lively strip, but ultimately the total posted was too small and the opposition got home comfortably. (M Nicholas)
5th X1 League position – 5th / 10
Sunday
For the first time this year I won the toss and to the delight of the team elected to bat on a belter of a track. The openers were Dan “half sri lankan” Langan and Neil “panther” Shah who set us up with a good opening partnership. They started off relatively cautiously, and once they were in, started playing proper cricket shots to all parts of the ground. They put on an opening stand of 112 before Dan chipped one to mid-off. In came Shareef who was looking really good again, before confusion led to him being run out. Un-deterred by running out Shareef, and the early loss of Kasheef, Neil put on solid partnerships with Alexis and Kirk De Ruyter at a rapid rate, which helped us post a mammoth 290 (with full boundaries) off our 40, and ending on 131 not out (his maiden century for the club). After the previous Sunday league game where we could not defend 312, this time around the team learnt from their mistakes and we held onto catches, fielded brilliantly and bowled economically. The ever aggressive and talented Afghan sayif got 4 wickets with a few send offs, the birthday boy Janaum “Billy Elliott” Rao got 3 wickets, and the Hassan lads got a wicket a piece to wrap up the opposition’s innings. A top effort and look forward to maximum points again next week! If we continue to play how we did on Sunday, we should be near the top come the end of the season, but I’m sure there are tougher teams to face. (S Mehta)
http://stmcc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/results.asp
This weekends games:
Saturday 1st X1 away to Egham
2nd X1 home to Egham
3rd X1 away to Addiscombe
4th X1 home to Sunbury
5th X1 TBC
6th X1 TBC
Sunday
Presidents X1 vs Chairmans X1 (Home)
1st X1 away to Ali
Ladies 1st X1 home to TBC (Caterham have conceded – hoping to arrange another fixture)
Development X1 away to Spencer
Wednesday
6th June Midweek X1 vs someone (not got my fixture card with me!)
http://stmcc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/fixtures.asp
Best of luck to all the sides.
Dan