Scorecard

Sawbridgeworth II v Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI on Sat 22 Jun 2013 at 1pm
Berkhamsted Cricket Club Lost By 5 wickets

Match report Having been woken up in the middle of the night by a thundery downpour and with further rain still descending from the sky when I got up 5 hours later I did think the prospects of a game looked as bleak as the weather. However we were playing over in Sawbridgeworth which given the distance away for Berkhamsted there was a chance it had a different weather system.

After a long drive around the M25, a pleasant ground greeted us with the wicket protected from the elements by a tarpaulin and some empty paint pots. The local grounds man informed us that these were the best covers money could buy given their guarantee against any leakage. The puddle on a full length at one of the ends of the wicket may slightly take away from his argument. That and the fact that test match grounds spend millions of pounds on hovercraft style covers rather than going down B&Q for a £40 alternative. However despite the slight wetness the majority of the pitch looked dry and firm so the captain wasn't too disappointed when he lost the toss and was inserted.

Gareth and Jamie opened up cautiously against the Sawbridgeworth attack but still managed to get a solid foundation of 30 odd before we had to come off for rain. After losing a couple of overs, the covers were once again removed and the team went back out. At the pre-match team talk we focused on the need to keep our concentration if we were to come off for rain. If only we had listened. Either that or the rain had mysteriously changed their innocuous looking very gentle away swing opening bowler into Jimmy Anderson. More likely the former. To be fair he bowled a nagging line and length but instead of showing patience we wilted like some spinach on the hob.

James and the skipper tried to rebuild the innings but after more rain reduced our overs further, the captain was out trying to force their spinner. That’s when the real collapse began. We lost the last 6 wickets for 11 runs. The early 90s England team would have been happy with that type of collapse. So the tail didn’t wag and we had managed 122 off 39 overs. On a decent pitch it didn’t give us a hope.

Or did it? The skipper gave a brief synopsis of what he thought of the batting effort at the tea interval and highlighted that if we were going to get anything out of the game we needed to strike and strike early. Little did I realise what was about to happen. Josh opened up and was generally too quick for the batsman and bowled their opener in the first over. He followed this up with two further wickets in his second over. Too full, too straight, too quick. Boom. The team were ecstatic. Whoops and cheers as we all ran in to celebrate. The start couldn’t get any better than this? It could. We suddenly had their skipper caught in the gully and they were 11 for 4. Josh had only bowled 3 overs and had already claimed 4 victims. There was a slight pause in the tumbling of wickets as their number 6 calmed a few jangled nerves for the home side but a change of bowling and a snick behind and they were 35/5. Suddenly an improvable victory was starting to materialise.

Unfortunately the opposition had other ideas. With no scoreboard pressure and overs galore to get the runs the batsman showed good patience and waited for the bad ball to score their runs. In the end the opener who had witnessed the early carnage at the other end batted well for 63 and took the game away from us becoming more assured towards the end.

A poor batting display had cost us again. It was good to see us come back so well at the start of their innings but it was always going to be an uphill struggle.

Man of the match goes to Josh for an inspired opening spell that really lighted up what was on the whole a pretty dull and miserable day. Both weather and performance. The loss leaves us 9th in league. The season is long but we must get back to winning ways and close the gap, which currently stands at 46, on a promotion place.

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 9w 6b 9lb 
for 10 wickets
25
121		        
Jamie Lewis lbw P James 6 22 1 27.27
Gareth Preedy b P James 35 80 4 43.75
Jez O'Neill b P James 6 26 1 23.08 1
James Wyatt b P James 30 41 5 73.17 1
Lee Mason b P James 0 1 0
David Smith ct T Waring b K Morgan 11 28 2 39.29
Riaz Richards Not Out  4 13 30.77
William Steed ct P James b P James 0 2 0
Joshua Roberts lbw P James 4 7 1 57.14
Andy Blood b P James 0 1 0
Joseph Atkins lbw K Morgan 0 13 0

Sawbridgeworth II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Chris Howard9.022400.002.67
Paul James19.093784.631.95
Joe Rudkin5.003000.006.00
Kieran Morgan5.511527.502.57

Sawbridgeworth II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 4w 1lb 
for 5 wickets
6
122 (33.4 overs)		     
Simon Ellis Not Out  63
Joe Rudkin b J Roberts 0
Kieran Morgan b J Roberts 0
Dean Chisnell b J Roberts 0
James Runciman ct J Wyatt b J Roberts 4
Steve Ashma ct J O'Neill b J Atkins 16
Andrew Foster Not Out  33
Tom Waring  
Paul Billings  
Chris Howard  
Paul James  

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joshua Roberts9.012847.003.11
William Steed6.002500.004.17
Joseph Atkins7.0219119.002.71
Lee Mason3.011300.004.33
Riaz Richards7.003100.004.43
James Wyatt1.01000.000.00
Andy Blood0.40500.007.50

  • Umpire :
    Richard
  • Scorer :
    Sarah and Ben