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Sat. 14th July 2007
1st XI (206/8) vs. Pinner (205) Won
(Away – 30pts)
Probably the most pleasant match I’ve played
in for some years. A good game of cricket played
in excellent atmosphere against a cracking oppo with
the best result possible.
We won the toss and elected to field with probably
the strongest side we’ve put out this season
(although still missing a couple). Nigel Bagley opened
with Kamran Khan and picked up an early wicket. They
put on 50-odd for the 2nd wkt before Anthony ‘Toine’ Shaw
struck in his first over with Nigel following with
his second. Again they consolidated and their No.
4 put away the bad ball with their No. 5 getting
a bit of luck when Toine bowled him with a no-ball.
Drinks brought a change of luck as Nigel picked up
two quick wickets as, by way of the change, the umpire
believed that he does bowl that straight on a consistent
basis. We continued to take regular wickets but their
No.4 batted well and continued to score heavily We
missed a couple of good chances to get him but he
finished with an excellent 117* from a total of 205
all out. Nigel ended with another 5 wicket haul whilst
Toine picked up 3. Excellent bowling all-round and
the fielding was generally pretty good with only
the odd slip. We do need to work on this however
and therefore early meet for all this week so we
can have a bit of practise.
We were confident in reply on an excellent batting
track. Pinner do have a strong opening attack and
the fiery Geordie, Gary, made life difficult from
the outset. He accounted for Jeremy Anderson early
doors but he was finding several parts of Ali’s
bat, with the ball normally ending flying for 4 on
the fast outfield. Derrick ‘JC’ Cordy
played steadily but Gary bowled a quick yorker (I’m
being generous JC) to bowl him. Skipper Tharic played
a couple of nice shots but then a not so nice one
to bring Kamran in for his long awaited return. Ali
continued to hit the ball cleanly to bring up his
50 before throwing it all away soon after, falling
for 58. Kamran took up the running, batting beautifully
and putting together a good partnership with new
boy Ruchiga Parreira. We seemed to be approaching
the target with ease but as always we like to make
things interesting and a run out followed by Kamran
falling for a superb 97 certainly did that. Robin
McKeown joined Chris Bennett for the 10th wicket
with 4 required and with a few nerves around the
place Chris played the shot of the season, a sublime
cut, to finish the game.
Cue some serious celebrations and a great night in
the Pinner bar followed by a serious BBQ back at
the club. Thanks also to a cracking oppo who made
the day most enjoyable.
AW
2nd XI (181/8) vs Pinner (214/9) Drawn
(Home)
Another toss won and time for a change in tack, so
it was to the field we took. Theo ‘Tourettes’ Bekker
(due to his extreme verbal outbursts at himself)
bowled what can only be described as the captain’s
dream opening spell. If only the bats were good enough
to hit more to the ever verbal Martin Egan behind
the stumps, but alas Theo only picked up the one,
very deserved wicket. At 86/1 the decision to field
wasn't looking the brightest: enter Babar Ali and
the evergreen Dave 'the Cat' Cattell to put a complete
strangle hold on the oppo with the assistance of
(and how happy am I to say this for the 1st time
this season) some exceptional fielding from every
member of our side. With this pressure came wickets
at a steady rate and at 101/7 we were completely
on top but, as they say, cricket is a funny game
and with some fortuitous cross bat shots and good
use of the short boundary they pushed on past 200
(214/9 to be precise).Cattell (4/41) and Ali (4/44)
were a pleasure to watch bow,l and mention again
goes to the fielding from all involved.
We had about 40 overs to chase the runs and after
the loss of both openers cheaply this still never
looked a daunting prospect. Colin Williams was joined
by Mark Campbell and they batted with the perfect
mix of patience and aggression, putting away the
bad ball and stealing quick singles when available.
After putting on 100 together Colin was caught going
for the runs, a team player considering his tally
stood at 47. The run rate was on or around 8 an over
so we continued to push on and in doing so lost wickets,
including Campbell, who went for a well compiled
54.The skip was rather nervous when 8 down and 6
overs remained, however Rohan Da Silva never looked
like going out and was still dispatching the bad
ball while at the other end ‘Tourettes’ Bekker
was trying bloody hard not to hit the living sh*te
out of the ball and earned a very impressive 0*.In
the end we were 20-odd short but on recent performances
this felt like a win in a lot of ways. Well batted
Colin, Mark and Rohan, and well bowled Dave, Babar
and Theo, and to everyone else bloody well fielded.
A complete team performance to be proud of and a
great start to the second half of our season and
as they say – onwards and upwards.
KH
3rd XI (224) vs Highgate (225/2) Lost
(Away – 11pts)
Going into the game with plenty of bowling I thought
we may be a little short of batting. As it turned
out we made a respectable total again though failing
to use up our overs. This is starting to cost us
dearly; we must occupy the crease for the full allocation:
for the second week running we bowled more overs
back in the second innings! Losing the toss we were
inserted and our two big scores came from the large
frames of Shezad Haji (68) and Munish ‘Mani’ Grover
(69). We needed one of them to stay for a further
5 overs and we would surely have been out of reach.
They both clubbed the ball a huge distance and also
got away with one or two. At one stage every ball
seemed to disappear for 4 or 6, it was great fun
to watch whilst it lasted. 224 all out might have
been enough if we bowled well but with the exception
of Grover we served up too many poor balls. They
got off to a flyer passing 50 in around 7 overs and
although Haji and Grover pegged them back a little,
Grover picking up the 2 wickets to fall, we didn’t
really put them under any great pressure. Zia bowled
well at the end without luck but in truth we were
well beaten on the day. We then enjoyed Highgate’s
hospitality, with plenty of jugs on offer at the
end of a game played in good spirit.
JF
4th XI (151) vs Southgate (153/2) Lost
(Home – 8pts)
Once again I won the toss, once again I elected to
bat and once again the AP batsmen put on a stout
batting display for too few runs on an anaemic pitch.
There was a top-order wobble and with barely 30 runs
on the board we were 3 wickets down. Dave Crank (33)
and myself (21) put on a 50-run partnership for the
4th wicket to salvage the innings, mixing watchful
defence with trademark scoring strokes (the ‘AP
slap’ and the cover-drive, respectively), but
we both fell within an over of each other, Crank
skying a top edge that was pouched by the ‘keeper
and myself mishitting a drive into the grateful hands
of mid-on. However, ex-4s skipper Amit Bose (43)
rode to the rescue, marshalling the tail well and
spanking some glorious shots to bring our total up
to a respectable 151 all out.
After a typically excellent AP tea (thanks Carol!)
we set about defending our total. Amit and myself
opened the bowling and though we both bowled reasonably
well, the experienced Southgate opening bats weren’t
giving anything away, just nurdling, nudging and
punishing the bad ball. It was, I think, a measure
of the pitch that none of our bowlers (the others
were Dave Kassam, Henry Freestone, Crank, Rob Lloyd
and Chris Ellis) could take a wicket and the Southgate
bats took as long to overhaul our total as we took
to compile it. Many thanks to Charles Tallamy for
his usual high standard of umpiring.
Conversely, the standard of cricket in Division
2 of the 1987 League isn’t really so good that
we should be making such heavy weather of scoring
runs and failing to put intimidating totals on the
board, especially as we have yet to experience a
nightmare bowling attack. I shan’t be around
much (if at all) for the rest of the season owing
to work-related and personal reasons, but I hope
that Dave Crank will be able to coax out of the 4s
the winning performances that I have been unable
to. However, I have really enjoyed skippering the
team and I hope the players aren’t too downhearted
by their experiences so far and wish everyone the
best for the rest of the season.
NW
Sun. 15th July 2007
AP 1st XI (77/6) vs West Harrow Abandoned
(Home)
No report received – not much to report, I
expect.
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