Scorecard

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI v Ampthill Town II on Sat 07 Sep 2013 at 12.30pm
Match was Drawn

Match report September comes for another year and as the nights draw in and the trees start to shed their leaves, the keen cricketer finds out his wife left him in May. The final chapter before the cricket season closed shut for another year was a home fixture against Ampthill Town 2nd XI. Although the sun was shining there was a slight chill in the air as if to signal the end of summer as the Autumn wind blew in.

The pressures of another long season must have got to the skipper as he suddenly ran off the field in the pre-match football warm-up to make a mad dash home. Why you may ask? He had forgotten the match balls. Useful things to have in a cricket match. Unfortunately without his dominate midfield presence and deft touch, the oldies capitulated to defeat to the youngsters.

The line-up was slightly changed from the previous weeks victorious team with the returning Mr Perfect slotting in post arriving from his rights of passage in the old US of A. No doubt the Delaware soccer moms were shedding a tear of the loss of their favourite toy boy. However their loss was our gain and I had confidence that despite touching down at 7am in the morning and not holding a cricket bat for 3 months he would rise the challenge.

The skipper won the toss and elected to bat on the usual good looking Berkhamsted deck. In another change to the opening partnership, Joycey and Larry stepped out. Larry left his first ball only to see his middle stump upended. Joycey, not learning from what he had just seen, left another ball that swung back onto his pads. Huge appeal. Not out. A close one though. The hostile opener was bowling at a good pace and on a bouncy track made life difficult for the Berko batsman. Ollie took one on the toe, received a couple of bouncers and after calling for his helmet had his stumps dismantled. To save face from his brief innings he decided a trip to A&E was in order to check his toe.

With Ampthill Town needing a good result to stay in the division there were suspicions that Sharpe, who was clearly too sharp for us at the beginning, was in fact a 1st team player masquerading as a 2nd teamer. After a quick check on the Ampthill Town CC website (the wonders of modern smart phone technology) showed us our accusations were unfounded. Any excuse to justify our terrible start. With the oppo cock-a-hoot Joycey picked out the tallest man on the pitch while Jez was caught leg before leaving us struggling at 67/4. With Luke admitting through his bloodshot eyes that he was jet lagged the skipper knew he had to play an important innings. The Ampthill Town bowlers were still bowling well and things weren't easy but the pitch was good and the Berko batsman knew if they could get a solid partnership together, a decent score was in the offering. Up stepped Tinkerbell. Or what we all thought was him. It looked like him but something had changed, no longer was he the gritty Northerner who likes nothing more than seeing out maiden after maiden. No this was the new swoosh buckling Jamie who played his shots from ball one. The Skipper meanwhile was going about his business quietly and accumulating runs but deep down he was panicking Jamie was going to outscore him with a better strike rate.

However Jamie fell just short of a very well deserved fifty but the damage had been done. The pair had put on a 98 run partnership to lay the foundation for the acceleration. The score was 197/6 with the captain not out on 56. With the pitch still playing true and the outfield quick, 250 felt like par. What happened next will go down in Berkhamsted CC folk law. The skipper freed the shackles and played some fantastic shots. It didn't matter where the bowlers bowled the ball he managed to despatch it to the boundary. In the end he reached the magical three figures scoring 44 runs in a 59 run partnership with Riaz. It was a relief hitting the final two runs given it had been 18 long years since his last ton. Too many times he had come close in the interval period having previously been stumped on 98 and 99. This time he stayed in his crease and pumped a drive through mid-on which erupted the crowd.

So a daunting total was set for the third straight game. By tea we were back to the full 11 with the limping Ollie and his injured team mate and ambulance driver Larry. Both were fined later in the evening for missing the captains hundred.

As has blighted us all season we bowled 5 good balls an over in reply but the 6th generally was awful and rightfully got the treatment. The opposition skipper batted well at the start and prospered as we fed him his pull shot. The breakthrough finally came from a quick ball from Steedy that the opener could only top edge to Jez. Riaz was on at this point to give us some control and picked up the wicket of the oppo's skipper. Ampthill were still going along at 5 an over but another wicket slowed the scoring rate. The game was drifting for a boring draw as the Ampthill batsman seemed to be happy grinding out bonus points rather than going for the win.

Phone calls back and forth to Broxbourne confirmed Ampthill's safety in Div 4 so the batsman started to play some shots. Either this or they were taking a fancy to Jamie's full tosses. A change of bowling brought about a flurry of wickets and suddenly Ampthill were 8 down having lost 4 wickets for 9 runs.

In the end though we couldn't get the final 2 wickets and Berko finished the season with the better end of the draw. Riaz picked up 4 wickets to end his first year in the blue and yellow of Berko with 42 for the season. However the day belong to Smithy the captain. After his fine knock he took a catch and ran out one of their batsman. He also filled in for 6 overs for the Sunday 1st XI, got a bowl and took 2 wickets. A well-deserved recipient of the man of match.

All was left was get dressed up, have a few beers, chew the fat and dish out some awards. Riaz won player of the season while Josh took home the best colt in adult cricket award for the second successive season. Both have made considerable impact in the first XI this year, Riaz as coach and Josh as our opening bowler.

So the season is finally over. After a promising start our shocking performance in the middle of the season cost us but a strong finish gives me confidence for next year. Now we can all sit back and watch our bruised hands heal from Riaz's ridiculously high catches he constantly makes us practice.

DWS

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 3w 16b 7lb 
for 6 wickets
30
256		        
Andrew Joyce ct J Casley b J Potter 25 27 4 92.59
Larry Eaton b E Sharpe 0 1 0
Ollie Chinneck b E Sharpe 0 8 0 3
Jez O'Neill lbw J Potter 14 58 2 24.14 1
Luke O'Dair lbw J Degnan 24 52 3 46.15 1
David Smith Not Out  100 106 15 1 94.34 1 1
Jamie Lewis ct D Draycott b D Morgan 48 51 7 94.12
Riaz Richards Not Out  15 14 3 107.14 1
William Steed  
Joshua Roberts  
Ben Beard  

Ampthill Town II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Edward Sharpe10.0225212.502.50
James Potter18.0088244.004.89
Jeremy Degnan10.0328128.002.80
Jamie Casley8.004900.006.12
David Morgan6.0143143.007.17

Ampthill Town II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 4w 12b 7lb 
for 8 wickets
25
195 (48.0 overs)		     
Gordon Farley ct J O'Neill b W Steed 16 39 2 41.03
Gavin Howson ct R Richards b R Richards 45 64 10 70.31
Andy Passman ct O Chinneck b R Richards 42 51 9 82.35
Jeremy Degnan ct O Chinneck b L O'Dair 10 19 2 52.63
Colin Ruddick ct L O'Dair b R Richards 21 44 3 47.73
Richard Haxell ct D Smith b W Steed 15 33 1 45.45
David Morgan ct O Chinneck b R Richards 4 7 1 57.14
Daniel Draycott run out  (D Smith) 2 11 18.18
James Potter Not Out  12 9 2 133.33
Jamie Casley Not Out  3 13 23.08
Edward Sharpe  

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joshua Roberts8.023900.004.88
William Steed11.0224212.002.18
Riaz Richards17.0348412.002.82
Ben Beard3.002500.008.33
Luke O'Dair6.0221121.003.50
Jamie Lewis3.001900.006.33

  • Umpire :
    Richard
  • Scorer :
    Ben and Sarah