Scorecard

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI v Broxbourne II on Sat 17 Aug 2013 at 1pm
Berkhamsted Cricket Club Won By 72 runs

Match report Whoop much needed 30 points!

The skipper was cursing his luck all week that the weather forecast might scupper Saturday's game in the all-important relegation battle ahead. Points were needed but rain was on its way. Some might say that sharing 10 points for an abandoned game would be an improvement on the previous Saturday. While technically correct we needed more points to ease the gap away from the dreaded relegation zone. As it turned out Saturday proved to be a glorious day. Not the weather, it was cold and wet most of the day, but Berkhamsted ended their draught with an emphatic win.

The usual pre-match warm up was delayed somewhat by certain issues with the boundary rope. In other words we struggled to put it out given the tangled mess the Sunday team had left it in for us. After much pulling, pushing and cursing we were still 20m short of a good sized boundary. As time wandered on the only solution was to shorten the boundary. Which we did. As a captain one always relishes these little hiccups to sort out pre-match....

Anyway the skipper won the toss and decided to bat. As is custom this season we lost our first wicket fairly early with Jez lobbing a catch up to point. This brought together Ollie and Joycey for the first time since the previous Saturday night's drunken escapades in "The Crown" where the two would be superheroes took on a Romanian pick pocket gang. But this time it was the Berko batsman pick pocketing the Broxbourne attack. Both were batting with fluency and pushed the score to almost our 2nd hundred run partnership of the season. Sitting pretty at 100/1 we did what we always do and lost a flurry of wickets to get the captain on edge. As is always the case, Joycey batting brilliantly for 60 before wilting like a salted snail at the sight of a spinner.

With the skipper providing the fulcrum, Berkhamsted produced a number of mini partnerships towards the end of the innings firstly with Jonny and then Tinkerbell to set the base for the final attack. Riaz came in and hit some lusty blows much to the dismay of the opposition keeper whole critiqued the size of the boundary. The skipper also got in on the six hitting competition to despatch one via the top edge over square leg and one, which can only be described as beautiful, straight six. Even the polite bowler admitted it was the short of the season.

So our highest score of the season of 213 was set. After one of Darren’s finest teas Berkhamsted set forth to try and take all 30 points. We had immediate success with Ben producing his two card trick. Pitch his first ball on the adjacent stripe to give the batsman a false sense of security before following this up with a beauty to hit the top of off. Will bowled well at the other end and was unlucky not to take a wicket. In fact it was the quickest spell of bowling I’ve seen this year from any team. However the opposition were playing patiently and coping with our bowling and produced a good 2nd wicket partnership between Smith the young O’Sullivan. It was time for a change. Riaz opened up with 3 straight maidens drying up the runs. This inevitably led to a build-up in pressure on the Broxbourne batsman and Riaz got his just reward snagging their opener.

With the run rate creeping up above 6 an over, the opposition’s young batsman tried to play their aggressive shots too early. Having read Sigmund Freud’s biography recently, Riaz applied some of the psychological techniques to get inside the batsman’s head to exert more tension and pressure. It worked as we suddenly had then 7 down. With the prospect of the opposition “shutting up shop” the skipper took the brave decision to continue to dangle the carrot and brought on Jamie’s (very) flighty off spin. Much to the dismay of Joycey who couldn’t believe Jamie was getting a bowl before him. It was an impressive tactical move in the face of resistance from some of the fielders but it had the desired effect with Jamie taking the last 2 wickets. To be fair to the opposition it was good they continued to play their shots.

A great win to end our run of defeats. In a good team effort it is hard to pick a man of the match. Candidates include Joycey for his 60, the skipper for his 39, two catches, fabulous straight six and tactical nous. However Riaz wins the award for his cameo with the bat and great figures of 16 overs 29/5 despite having a “fairly defensive” field.

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 5b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
10
213		        
Andrew Joyce st G Ferguson b L Robinson 60 107 9 56.07 1
Jez O'Neill ct S Miller b T Rhodes 4 10 1 40.0
Ollie Chinneck lbw T Rhodes 35 68 5 51.47 1
Douglas Foster lbw T Rhodes 4 5 1 80.0
Jonathan Harvey ct M Fox b L Robinson 16 29 1 55.17 1
David Smith b T Rhodes 39 46 4 2 84.78 2
Jamie Lewis lbw D Brooker 16 32 2 50.0
Riaz Richards lbw L Robinson 27 15 1 3 180.0 1 1
William Steed b L Robinson 0 2 0
Ben Beard Not Out  2 5 40.0
Romit Patel b L Robinson 0 1 0

Broxbourne II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Matt Fox4.002100.005.25
Tony Rhodes21.0663415.753.00
Sammy Miller3.001700.005.67
Liam Robinson19.5262512.403.13
Darren Brooker2.001700.008.50
Charlie Willis3.0026126.008.67

Broxbourne II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 4w 8b 5lb 
for 10 wickets
19
141 (42.2 overs)		     
Dan Smith ct R Richards b R Richards 53 91 9 58.24
Stuart Fryer b B Beard 0 3 0
Alex O'Sullivan lbw R Patel 28 69 6 40.58
Gavin Ferguson ct J Harvey b R Richards 0 5 0
Charlie Willis lbw R Richards 20 33 1 2 60.61
Liam Robinson ct D Smith b R Richards 4 13 1 30.77
Josh Fox run out  (R Richards) 1 9 11.11
Darren Brooker ct D Smith b J Lewis 3 13 23.08
Sammy Miller ct A Joyce b R Richards 5 14 1 35.71
Tony Rhodes Not Out  8 4 2 200
Matt Fox ct O Chinneck b J Lewis 0 2 0

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
William Steed7.001800.002.57
Ben Beard5.0028128.005.60
Riaz Richards16.062955.801.81
Douglas Foster3.001400.004.67
Romit Patel8.0223123.002.88
Jamie Lewis3.201628.004.80

  • Umpire :
    Richard
  • Scorer :
    Sarah and Ben