Scorecard

Hertford II v Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI on Sat 18 May 2013 at 1pm
Match was Drawn

Match report It wasn't the greatest of preparation for the game. The coach and Mr Perfect were late after their training session with the Berko Ladies overran. The skipper was also late and was sans car. This led to him sitting in the back of Sam's Ford Focus. Last time I was in the back seat of a 19 year olds Ford Focus I was canoodling with a young lady but that story is for another time. In any case we made haste to Hertford so much so that Sam managed to stall in the middle of the magic roundabout.

Hertford has always been a pleasant ground with a good pitch and this year nothing had changed. With a quick warm up, the captain tossed up and elected to bat. The new look opening partnership of Jamie and Larry strode out to take on the opposition's snarling and aggressive opening bowler. One thing is to be aggressive when your quick another is when you are only a medium pacer wearing what can only be described as a white polo shirt. Untucked.

Despite a decent start, a change in bowlers saw the run rate dry up. Hertford put the ball in good areas with a field that left fewer opportunities to score than a drugs rehabilitation clinic. Jamie got a start before being trapped LBW while Larry painfully edged into the 20s. Finding it difficult for runs on his first game of the season, he took his frustrations out on poor Ollie who had looked very comfortable. So comfortable in fact that Larry ran him out. The runs then completely stopped and we became bogged down with frequent wickets leaving us 80/6. The opposition were cock-a-hoot. A quick finish and early beers they thought. Little did they realise the captain had a tactical ace up his sleeve. Sending in his pinch hitter, Khan at number 7 the momentum suddenly swung in our favour. A few lusty blows had the score board moving and the opposition flapping. The skipper also chipped in with some fine stroke play and was unlucky to be given out LBW to a ball that hit him on the thigh pad (and was missing leg stump………on the next wicket). You can always tell a bad decision by the reaction of the fielders. Heads sheepishly down and comments like “Unlucky bat, that was a shocker” confirmed my suspicions. To make matters worse the umpire in question (The oppositions rather than ours - the latter being a regular reader and fine umpire) came up to me at tea to tell me I was plum.

Seb, who presumably had all his cricket kit confiscated by American customs given the amount of stuff he had to borrow (trousers, shirt, spikes, pads), continued where Khan left off. All the shots came out the closet, back foot cover drive, reverse sweep, leg side hoick. Seb finished on 35 at faster than a run a ball and Berkhamsted set a decent total of 197.

We took the field knowing that a couple of early wickets with the new ball on a placid wicket would give us the further momentum to win the match. Unfortunately wickets were hard to come by. We tried building pressure but slipped in too many “4” balls to let the opposition total tick over. Seb bowled a good spell considering he was wearing the skipper’s old spikes he had literally fished out the bin the night before and was unlucky not to pick up a wicket. Two dropped catches, one of which was followed by the opposition captain hitting him for consecutive sixes led to a few choice words, none of which are repeatable here. The opposition seemed to be cruising the run chase but steady wickets and a tight spell of overs from Riaz caused the run rate to creep up. In the end it would come down to which team could hold their nerve. Shah had their captain caught on the boundary and suddenly the opposition needed 10 from the last over. Riaz showed his South African metal and stepped up, conceded only 3 runs and taking 2 wickets in the final over.

The match was drawn but a close one. All that was left was to make the long trip back to Berko where the talk focused on UK corporate tax issues under the relaxing backing tracks of Radio 1s dance anthems. In a team effort it’s hard to pick out one player for Man of the Match but Seb just pips it with his cameo with the bat.

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3w 4b  
for 9 wickets
7
197		        
Jamie Lewis lbw A Cooper 28 53 3 52.83 1
Larry Eaton b S Kumar 24 73 4 32.88
Ollie Chinneck run out  () 4 6 1 66.67 1
Luke O'Dair lbw O Folland 19 54 2 35.19
Jez O'Neill ct  b A Brasil 5 18 1 27.78 1
Riaz Richards lbw A Brasil 0 2 0 1
Sajid Kan ct  b A Brasil 28 24 5 116.67
David Smith lbw O Folland 27 34 5 79.41
Sebastian Smith ct  b O Folland 35 34 5 102.94
Syed Shah Not Out  19 18 1 105.56 1
Sam Harlow Not Out  1 2 50.0

Hertford II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Simon Knott11.014900.004.45
Alex Cooper8.0323123.002.88
S Kumar9.0322122.002.44
Andy Brasil15.0347315.673.13
Oliver Folland10.0252317.335.20

Hertford II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2w 1lb 
for 7 wickets
3
190 (47.0 overs)		     
G Riddle ct O Chinneck b R Richards 34
A Lodge ct J Lewis b S Shah 14
J Frost ct J O'Neill b S Harlow 30
Rahul Sharma b L O'Dair 16
C Cavener ct R Richards b S Shah 71
Alec Short b R Richards 14
Oliver Folland Not Out  6
Alex Cooper ct S Shah b R Richards 0
S Kumar Not Out  2
Simon Knott  
Andy Brasil  

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Syed Shah13.0544222.003.38
Sebastian Smith10.015300.005.30
Sam Harlow7.0025125.003.57
Riaz Richards13.0340313.333.08
Luke O'Dair4.0027127.006.75

  • Umpire :
    Richard Wiggs
  • Scorer :
    Sarah