Dear all, }
Generic intro fluff…
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NEWS
Damage to club property
Bit of a moan from me to start… the Executive Committee has spent a lot of time, effort and club funds in getting St Gabriel’s back to normal following the damage caused by a break in. It is very disappointing to already discover some damage to the home team changing room door. Please take more care over club property.
Pitch Markings
The league umpires have produced some average markings for the quality of the various pitches in the league. We don’t quite have the resources of the second oldest central bank in the world… but Roger has done a great job in coming second. We also compare very favourably throughout the rest of the leagues, sitting in fifth place out of 50. We could all do more to help, so please offer a hand in putting out / collecting flags, clearing up rubbish, stacking up chairs etc to give the old guy a hand on match days.
Battersea Net Sessions
Additional net sessions will start tomorrow until the end of the season at Battersea Park. These are ideal for any players who are based in central or SW London or simply unable to make Tuesday nets. Sessions start at 7pm. Unlike the Tuesday nets there will be a (very) small charge but the surfaces are a good quality and less than a couple of years old. For more information please contact Marcus Shukla: 07828 174296
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LAST WEEKEND’S RESULTS
Saturday
1st XI vs Churt
Won
Following three successive defeats, the visit of the leagues bottom placed side was very welcome! Another top wicket was produced by Roger and SMCC elected to bowl. Sarwavkhan and Carr bowled a miserly opening spell and made some key breakthroughs. The Churt overseas was the only thing that prevented them from being bowled out for double figures as he played a lone hand to make 75 out of 127. Sarwavkhan, Rostami and Mortimore all picked up three wickets. The chase passed with some minor alarms as Jack “Beavis” Thomas took the game by the scruff of the neck and bullied a quick 78* to get SMCC home in 26 overs. (D Ellis)
1st XI League position – 4th / 10
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2nd XI vs Thames Ditton
Winning Draw
2nd XI League position – 7th / 10
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3rd XI vs Kingstonian
Win
The thirds played host to Kingstonian on Saturday, hoping for a less eventful game than last year. On a slightly overcast day, their skipper called heads but tails never fails, so we put them in. To say we bowled dry is a bit of an understatement, Patel (4-38) and Sadhwani (1-27) went for about half a run an over and by the time we took drinks, they’d got to 29 runs. But as often happens, the sun came out, the ball lost its shine and runs started to flow, especially in the partnership between Sachi (64 no) and Taha (43). To say both innings were chanceless would be something of an exaggeration as the ball flew irritatingly into gaps, dropped short of the field and LBW appeals fell on stony ground. But Bartolo (2-32) made the breakthrough and despite a few lusty blows at the end, Kingstonian declared on 162-7 off 54.5 overs. Our reply got off to the worst start when a drive from Knapp was deflected onto the stumps, running Sowton out for one. But Bartolo (26) maintained his good form of recent weeks and Knapp (40) was batting beautifully, especially off his legs. When Patel (37) and Clark (0) fell in quick succession Kingstonian had a sniff but Thomas (27no) and Singh (15no) swiftly restored stability to our innings, Singh’s no nonsense style saw his first ball despatched for 4. We reached our target with a four from Thomas with 10 overs left. So three wins and a winning draw out of four and momentum seems to be with us. A home game against Merstham on Saturday awaits. (M Begg)
3rd XI League position – 7th / 16
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4th XI vs Malden Wanderers
Lost (A Henderson)
4th XI League Position – joint 3rd / 10
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5th XI vs Blue Star
Won
No sun until late in the afternoon, no Barrington – ain’t no sunshine when he’s gone? We take on our friends from Blue Star – a most sporting and engaging group of gentlemen who play the game as it should be played and manage to keep their book and ours immaculately. Mayow is dry and dusty and the track, unrolled will keep low all afternoon. I win the toss and elect to bowl. Mark Davis is strangely off-colour today but Brijesh Patel (6-2-18-2) bowls well wicket to wicket and bowls both openers with deliveries that keep low. This is a track to get well forward on. Young Josh Franklin (39) bats well for a long time, holding the innings together and playing some elegant shots through the off side. He is ably supported by Kugan (24) and for a while they threaten to build a big score. Roddie Bell (5-0-15-1) saves us from this fate by bowling Kugan. Vinay Patel (9.2-5-7-4) then came on to bowl a fine spell of his quick left arm spin to destroy the Blue Star innings. The youngster bowled very well and exploited the low bounce of the track ruthlessly. Paul Henly (5-0-29-2) wheeled away at the other end with his classical off-spin. Supported by decent catching – especially by Brijesh with a completely unnecessary slide – the Blue Star innings finished on 111 in 31.2 overs. Roddie convinced me that if I opened and tried to blunt the Blue Star attack then we would win. I took him at his word and so began the longest wait for a scoring run from an opening bat since Chris Tavare last flickered across our consciousness. At drinks Johnston was 0 not out. By then Newton Moss (13) and Justin Sbresni – you don’t see many people walk these days – especially not for LBW (10) and Mike Nicholas (0) had come and gone and we were 40 odd for 3. After drinks I deluded myself that I could play spin and got myself bowled on the back foot. Oh well. A. Brook (10) looked good until young Josh Franklin produced a snorter to bowl him. Mark Davis batted beautifully again to smash 32 (5 4’s, 2 6’s). The highlight of the day was the young lad Franklin enquiring as to whether Mark Davis believed himself to be Chris Gayle after the powerful all-rounder had straight driven him for six in to the upper branches of the majestic boundary oak. The feeling in the commentary box was that Davis may well be the wrong shape aside from anything else. When Mark contrived to get himself out Paul Henly (9*) and R. Bell (5*) took us home for a three wicket victory. A good game of cricket without last week’s drama and bad feeling. All as it should be. (L Johnston)
5th XI League position – 1st / 10
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5As XI vs Reigate Priory
Lost
Arriving deep in the heart of the Surrey commuter belt for our fixture against Reigate, things looked pretty ominous when the cohort contrived to leave a kit bag in the club car park. After much soul searching (and nicotine), the skipper lost the toss and was asked to field. Reigate made their intentions known in the first couple of overs with aggressive, front foot strokeplay. Their openers smashed the short and loose deliveries and posted 161 before the breakthrough was made; a smart stumping from Knott off the bowling of Rich Hunsley to remove Chay for 86. Hunsley is making a habit of taking breakthrough wickets and he produced an excellent spell to drastically reduce the run rate thereafter, finishing with figures of 2-36. Another star bowling performance was produced by Syed-Hussain who was got the ball to turn and outsmarted the Reigate batsman; the young man ended with excellent figures of 4-30 but more importantly, potentially saving what looked like a lost cause at 160-0. Khan (2-47) and Shukla (1-32) added to the haul before tea leaving us to ponder how to chase down their competitive 234. Matzen’s four off the first delivery was exactly the sort of response that was required however this was as good as it got for him, out LBW for 6 shortly after. This brought Pentycross to the crease; the youngster’s aggression helped him to a well deserved 45 the previous week and he followed it up with a classy 76 this time around. Knott (19) was supporting him ably before being given out to a highly debatable leg before decision and although we were coping with the run rate, wickets started to tumble. Once Pentycross’ innings came to an end the middle and lower order weren’t able to make any headway leaving us short on 173 all out. This was by no means a poor performance. The way the lads fought back in the field (after taking an early battering) shows the character in the side and we will give ourselves more of a chance with improved batting performances. (M Shukla)
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Ladies XI
So on another hot summer afternoon (we mustn’t complain!) at SMCC, we had the honour of facing our own U14 boys. It must be said an under-numbered U14 boys who fielded 9 vs a full team of Ladies. So winning the toss captain Hassan elected to bat. SMCC’s out of form No.1 followed her current form and went for a lean 7 to a very sharp catch for Master Bailey at silly mid-on (see I’m learning Rabbie) off the excellent bowling of Brendan Guest. Luckily the no.2 Verity Quade – henceforth known as VQ, was, in contrast to TM, in extremely good nick and her innings did much to anchor the side to a respectable 106 including a stunning late cut – probably the shot of the day. She was aided by Captain Hassan’s brisk 24 who also seems to be hitting her batting stride, which could come in mighty handy in the next stage of our Surrey League play-offs (we still await word on whether that will mean trophy or plate play-offs – the suspense continues!). The other notable innings came from Maria Macdonald who toyed her way to a fantastic 11 off 11! Her first double figures for S&M Ladies. Well done Maria – congratulations from all the team – we want and expect more! Also well done to Theresa – still learning the challenges of league games – for scoring a few – nice work! So yes, we fell short of captain’s Hassan’s 130 total target, but it was highly defendable. After starting a bit loosely, with the boys keeping with the run rate easily, we then began to strangle the U14s with wickets and some tight bowling combined. Dag has to be mentioned for her fantastic figures of 5-2-6-3. Fantastic! VQ also bowled well and her figures of 6-1-21-1 seemed to belie her ultra-controlled bowling. However a bit of loose bowling and a couple of misfields allowed the boys to regain the momentum and they ended up inching over the required target in a highly tense finish with one ball to go – well done boys! Finally, mention must go to Karen’s ‘super-highlights’ electric stop behind the stumps. Really terrific reactions from a new budding wickie – beautiful work. So, thank you boys for the game, we really enjoyed it and learned a lot from your tidy bowling and skilled batting. Good luck next year. We hope you’ll indulge us in a re-match. Also a special thank you to Laura for her great fielding and coming to the rescue last minute – despite there being no promise of teas! We promise to have lashings of sandwiches for you next time should you wish to join us again – we hope you do – you clearly have some huge latent cricketing talent bursting to be set free! So in summary – a slightly frustrating day for the Ladies but ultimately, as our/Ellen Filor’s new Sandwich ‘positive, negative, positive’ principle goes, if there were errors and things to be learned, there was also Dag’s fantastic bowling and VQ’s lovely innings. Hopefully those (ahem) who didn’t have their best game can deliver next time and as a team we can cut out some of the errors in the North vs South friendly vs Hampstead this coming weekend. Till then. (T.Mattinson)
Ladies 1st XI League Position – joint 2nd / 8
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Trust XI vs Addiscombe
Won
Turning up and taking all the points was a must today if we are to win the league, so it was a good job that the captain had a strong team which consisted of 8 bowlers and batting all the way down the order. So when the toss was lost we were expecting to go out on the field which had very little grass that was green and watching the colts who played previously, we could tell it was going to be a lightening outfield, but to our surprise we were inserted by the oppo. Another Development game and another different opening partnership, but this time R Maru and Danny Dav got us off to a solid start of 55 without loss until Rajeev “angry bird” Maru edged behind. This brought the captain to the crease, who quickly put on 50 with Danny dispatching bad and some good balls to the boundary and running well between the wickets. The score was on 105 when Danny who very un-Broad like walked after edging one down leg side. With a big platform needed for our late order attack the Hassan boys cleverly scored quickly without taking too much risk and added a brisk 68 before Kash also edged one behind when looking set. This brought Kirk “I’m playing in the V” De Ruyter to the crease, and after a glorious lofted cover drive for four, it looked like a pitch suited for his expansive shots, before he got stumped a few balls later. Michael “Gunz” Goodwin joined Shareef and they ran well and re-built after a mini collapse and ensured we got past 200 before we started playing more aggressively. Shareef gave up a simple and deserved second hundred for the development team by trying to scoop a ball fine and missing it to get bowled. Sayif, Krish Maru and Goodwin played some shots and got us up to 265, which looked par with the wicket not doing much and a rapid outfield. Second half, we came out pumped knowing we had the bowling to restrict them, but had to field like demons to win this game! And the bowling and fielding was the difference in this game! Sayif as per usual got early break through after a good catch in the covers by Kash “Reza” Hassan. From the other end there was tall spin from K Maru, and was unlucky not to get a close LBW shout. But after the openers kept sweeping him, on came Tom “cobra” Barnard and J Rao who changed the game with some good bowling and some Graham Swann full toss type bowling. J Rao has their number 3 stumped, and Tom got rid of the dangerous captain and the number 4 batsman in succession. So 55 for 2 soon turned to 59 for 4. Then their youngster decided to take on Danny Dav’s arm and that did not end well with a direct hit from backward point. Once Cobra and J Rao who bowled well as a unit left Addiscombe on 84-7, it was time for the skipper and Sagar to come on and finish the job. Sagar bowled number 9 off his pads and no 10 missed a straight one to be adjudged LBW the following over. Fittingly the captain finished it off after number 8 tried to loft him into the tennis court and could only find Cobra at Long off. A fantastic all round effort where everyone contributed and there was strong signs of top team spirit! A big thanks to the Addiscombe skipper who helped play the game in top spirit and showed how cricket should be played! Next game against Spencer on August the 4th, if we win this game we finish top of the league for the first time, so please come down and show your support for the club’s youngsters! (S Hassan)
Trust XI League Position – 1st / 8
http://stmcc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/results.asp
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UPCOMING FIXTURES
Saturday
1st XI home to Epsom
2nd XI away to Old Whitgiftians
3rd XI home to Merstham
4th XI away to Cheam
5th XI away to Chislehurst & West Kent
5A XI away to Wimbledon Corinthians
Sunday
Ladies XI home to Hampstead
Friendly XI home to ?
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!