Dear all,
Another mixed week for the club in terms of results so let’s get straight on to the news…
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News & Events
Lashings All Stars – Friday 12th September
The famous Lashings Cricket Club will be playing a game at the club against the 1st XI later this summer. This forms part of the new pavilion fundraising appeal so book the day off, come down and start thinking about who you could target to buy a table in the marquee. Lashings boast an amazing roster of players with recently retired Graeme Swann and Herschelle Gibbs joining players like Courtney Walsh, Gordon Greenidge, Inzamam Ul Haq and that great blonde leg spinner… yes… you guessed it… Chris Schofield.
We are still working on finalising the packages for a table in the Marquee (which include a 3 course meal) but prices are likely to range from £500 to £2,000 per table of 10. If you think you could get a table together, let me know and I’ll direct you to the correct people.
Ground Work
I put out a plea last week and received a muted response. If anyone has any time to spare time and would like to help out, please could they contact Roger directly on 07949 025 789 or speak to me. In the meantime, could we all make an effort to assist Roger on a match day as much as possible with boundary flags / rope, covers, stumps, discs, scoreboard, chairs etc both before and after the game.
Dates for the diary
14th June – England v Italy World Cup Football on the TV’s with pizza / pasta
5th July – Mid-season party
13th July – Summer Fun-day
27th July – Colts v Parents end of season match
8th August – Pool Tournament Final
6th September – End of season party with BBQ and live music
12th September – Lashings Fixture
18th October – End of season Dinner & Dance
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Last weekend’s results:
Seniors – Saturday
1st XI
Last Saturday saw the 1st XI host newly promoted Old Rutlishians. After winning the toss, skipper S Hassan elected to bowl on a soft and wet pitch but the bowlers couldn’t apply any pressure due to ‘four balls’ being bowled from each over, along with a few dropped catches. With the target at 232, a solid platform was needed at the top to build an innings and win the game. However, the first wicket fell in the 5th over and a quick flurry of wickets found S&M 50 all out, only Ellis (23) making it into double figures before being undone by the lack of bounce. This week the 1s travel to Addiscombe as they look to get their season back to winning ways. (S Hassan)
1st XI League position – 6th / 10
2nd XI
A long trip to a scenic Dorking ground was the order of the day for the 2s, the second task on the list was to win the toss and bowl on a patchy, damp track; one out of two wasn’t bad. Having to bat first was always going to be challenging; a mixture of grubbers, poppers, bad luck and a lack of ability to keep the scoreboard moving when scoring was difficult, placed us firmly in the mire at 40-4. Macdonald tried to counter attack and top scored with 30, however, the total of 105 was never enough.
Despite tight bowling spells from Blackburn and Haughton, the 2s missed a couple of chances early on and the game went quickly out of reach. Dorking cruising in with 6 wickets spare. All together a poor day at the office. However, with the return of 100 overs cricket this week, and with 2 home games forthcoming, comes an opportunity to rectify the slow start, an opportunity we can’t pass up. Starting with a visit from league leaders Esher this weekend. (P Corns)
2nd XI League position – Joint 6th / 10
3rd XI
The first and hopefully last loss of the season suffered at home. We won the toss and inserted the oppo, on a damp wicket. Kept them to 199 for 7 after 50 overs with stand-out bowling from youngster Will Bailey and Hendo. Our fielding and catching really let us down and cost us 30 odd runs which probably made the difference. Batting was tough second innings but there was no excuse as to why we didn’t chase down the target. Ed Lawrence and Barty put on a solid partnership and we couldn’t capitalise losing too many wickets at regular intervals, giving away wickets as opposed to good bowling. Let’s use this result as a wake-up call for the rest of the season! (S Mehta)
3rd XI League position – 4th / 10
4th XI
The 4s traipsed to another budget away ground in Merton, this time to face the always chatty Old Ruts team armed with another new look team and 13 foot of ginger*. Skipper Jack last the toss again and the 4s were inserted on a pitch that looked decidedly low-scoring. However, at 33 for 6 even the wildest optimist had the team dead and buried, with the top order blown away by a mix of miss-fortune, a wildly erratic pitch and utter brain implosion. Only Stuart seemed to be offering any resistance to the frightening slow medium dross that had so deceived others, and finally along with Bell, becoming ever more a spitting image of Robert Baratheon/Brian Blessed/Karl Marx depending on your cultural reference, some resistance was seen with a fighting stand of 53. But with Bell for 13, Krinesh and Stuart finally falling for a stoic 44 with a new bump on his head from a particularly jumpy ball, it was time for the Falconer/Hazzledine show as, blinded by the amount of strawberry blonde on show, the oppo could not find the killer ball and with a bit of swinging and appalling running put on a vital 32 to leave the 4s on 130 after 47 overs of toil.
Tea did not feature any tea, causing much grumbling, and so out to field with the inspiring words of skipper Jack resonating, and some team members floating off thanks to Patel’s Apothecary. With a combination of swooshes, ‘BOY!’s and general feeling of game in the bag the oppo got to 29 with little trouble. At this stage, Hughes decides to take himself off next over, and proceeds to finish off with 2 wickets in 2 balls and 2 drops from his next 5 balls. Scent of a wobble? Returning for another weary over, another wicket falls and from the other end Falconer rips one out. Surely not? Gladstone replaced Hughes, and with some painful twirl that he bore stoically with little complaint considering the terrible extent of his surely mortal wounds managed to wave off another 3. Bell, crafty and lithe as he is, judged the pace of the pitch by bowling very very slowly and knocked over another 2 for a measly 8 runs. 56 for 9 and the game was done and dusted. The tail enders had a swing but with the result never in doubt they were finally removed from the field of play for 98, and an excellent fielding performance from all results in the 4’s going top of the table! A truly D20 moment for everyone involved.
The team has a genuine chance of winning this league and gaining promotion this year, and with some stability in key areas can do very well in this league. Some harder games to come, but looking forward to playing on a covered pitch this week. (D Gladstone)
(*This joke used with kind permission from S. Stuart)
4th XI League position – 1st / 8
5th XI
A narrow victory for the V’s on an overcast day at Mayow Park saw us return to winning ways on a slow and difficult track. Our friends from Blue Star fought us all the way and made life very hard for us as we have come to expect from this fine bunch of gentlemen. The day started with the new but pleasing problem of taking possession of our new changing rooms and showers. Thank you Lewisham Council. The new facilities are clean and bright and the showers were very good. It does mean that the increasingly senile captain has to juggle two sets of keys now. Never mind. The track was not cut until Friday owing to the heavy rain of the week and had not been rolled. Given that it played surprisingly well – very slow and a little inconsistent bounce but aside from that fine. The outfield was soft and very slow with a lot of grass on it. This meant that shots that would have been four all the way at Dulwich Common turned in to singles.
After our woeful batting displays so far this season we finally got going with all the top order contributing. Justin Sbresni (50) played another of those vital innings of his batting two and a half hours for his half-century, holding the whole innings together and allowing us to get to 166 off our 46 overs with only 5 down. Justin played with skill and intelligence all afternoon on a track that was not easy to score on against tight league bowling. The wily Warren Bird finally bowled the opener in the 41st over. Andy Chowdhury (11) was dropped first ball and again soon after. The young tyro played some lovely shots off his legs and if he would just give himself a chance then he could be a major player for this club. Jim Hughes (29) was all delightful, languid power and grace – a truly class bat we are very pleased to have him back in our fold after a couple of seasons away. Andrew Brook (17) showed real signs of a return to his belligerent best before perishing in the run chase. What a pleasure to have Matt Begg (19 no) bat for us, a vital knock at the end. Mark Davis clubbed 30 in a few balls with four fours and a mighty six to put up a very respectable 166 off our 46 for only 5 down. Given that the bowling was tight and the track was hard to time on this was a competitive total.
It was gloomy after tea as we set about our task. Blue Star batted with intelligence, keeping out the good ball and punishing anything off-line. Shiraz Sheikh (12-5-19-0) bowled a fine spell of seam from the bottom end and the openers had to be at their watchful best to keep him out. Mark Davis (12-2-26-1) bowled a mixture of beautiful swing and seam and utter filth. Blue Star reached 41 before Mark managed to get one through M. Chenery’s (27) defence. Before doing something to his calf Brijesh Patel (5.3-2-30-2) bowled his usual bewildering repertoire of seam up taking two top order wickets and putting us in command. Andy Chowdhury’s (8.3-0-42-6) spell was astonishing. At least half of his wickets were filthy full-bungers or half trackers. The rest of the spell was well judged and intelligent spin bowling. Nevertheless Blue Star were up with the target and chasing us hard. Barrington Wilks (3.3-0-18-1) came on for the death and bowled an admirable spell when Blue Star were looking to get over the line. And that was the key really, as the game swung this way and that. There were points when it seemed that Blue Star would get there and then we would chip in with another wicket. It was gone 8pm when we took the last one with Andrew Brook clinging on to a good catch. Fielding was pretty good, catching reasonable and Matt Begg was great behind the timbers. So all in all, very pleasing to get back to winning ways and a very good game of cricket against a very good team who will more than hold their own this season. We must seek to do the same. (L Johnston)
5th XI League position – 5th / 10
6th XI
Won by 2 wickets
6th XI League position – 5th / 9
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Ladies
Sunday saw the ladies side travel to Stoke D’abernon to take on a young and talented bunch of girls from Stoke Molesey. No dodgy pitches or lack of wicket this week meant our disadvantage was self-inflicted as we only managed to field 9 players. We then lost the toss and of course had to field, meaning all in all the day had not gotten off to the best start. However, this was to be somewhat remedied by the excellent opening overs from Verity Quade (5-1-6-0) and Dag Selwyn-Kuczera (5-0-28-1). By bowling accurately with good line and length, the score was fairly restricted in the first 8 overs. A change of bowling saw Johnston (4-0-23-1) inevitably accelerate the run rate with a few wides but on the whole the bowling from the team was good. Skipper Hassan (5-0-31-2) and Keith (4-0-35-1) both bowled well and Tash Greenwood (2-0-17-0) showed much promise on debut. We were punished at times due to good batting, especially from the skipper Amy Page who retired on 35. On the whole we were good in the field with Rachel Hemsley and Verity Quade being especially impressive. Marta Merjava made several important stops behind the stumps. We reached the last ball having conceded slightly more than we would have hoped, and in truth I had already semi switched off and was now thinking of tea. The batsman at the non-striker’s end called out ‘run it’ meriting an inward response of ‘ha, you’re gonna get out’. The ball from Quade zipped over the stumps by about a centimetre and into the hands of our wicket keeper. Definitely out now I thought, as the young batsman set off running anyway, but then the ball missed the stumps at both ends and rolled away into the depths of the outfield… Somehow they ended up with three runs from that ball. An impressive effort on our behalf to enable that, it must be said.
We now had 25 overs to get 141. Keith (2) batted solidly, seeing off some good bowling before being given out LBW. Quade (23*) and Hassan (12) batted well together for the majority of the overs, but due to Stoke Molesey having a seemingly endless number of talented bowlers, we were not able to score as prolifically as we had hoped. We ended on 84- 3. To conclude, it was a day not set in our favour as we did not have a full team. Having said that, the players we had all put out impressive displays and the opposition could not have been a nicer bunch, helping to make it a thoroughly enjoyable day. We look forward to seeing Stoke in the return home match in a few weeks and hope to be able to give them more of a game then. (E Johnston)
Ladies League position – 5th / 5
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http://stmcc.play-cricket.com/subsite/web_pages/130967
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Upcoming games:
Thursday 5th June
1st XI away to Sutton (T20 Competition)
Saturday 7th June
1st XI away to Addiscombe
2nd XI home to Esher
3rd XI away to Kempton
4th XI home to Malden Wanderers
5th XI away to Dulwich
6th XI home to Dulwich
Sunday 8th June
U10’s home to Bank of England
U11’s away to Dulwich
U13’s away to Alleyn & Honor Oak
U15’s home to Felbridge & Sunnyside
Wednesday 11th June
Friendly XI home to Dartfordians
http://stmcc.play-cricket.com/subsite/web_pages/130966
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Best of luck to all the sides.
Dan
Streatham & Marlborough Club Captain