Scorecard

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI v Bishop's Stortford II on Sat 29 Jun 2013 at 1pm
Berkhamsted Cricket Club Lost By 17 runs

Match report Having not lost a league fixture at home this season we were glad to be back on the familiar territory of Kitchener's field hoping to make up for last week. The players that turned up early were treated to the first half of the Lions game and one of Darren's bacon butties. With the Lions looking comfortable in the first half it was time to leave the rugby and get on with the pre-match rituals. Unfortunately we still only had half a team. They came in drips and drabs with no hint of an apology apart from James who blamed Joycey for making him late. Apparently Joycey had bet him his match fee on a game of FIFA 13 on the PS3. Understandably 5 mins before meet time is an ideal time to start a game of computerised football.

The skipper had no hesitation inserting the opposition despite the Bishop's Stortford captain generally looking shocked by the decision. With moisture in the wicket and fine weather forecast all day the skipper had already won the initial mind games, out thinking their captain on the state of the Berko wicket and how it would be tricky to start with and improve through the day. As luck would have it, I was completely wrong and the pitch was pretty much like my hairstyle. Flat and lifeless.

Nevertheless Josh and Seb opened the bowling well and kept the run rate down to a minimum. The pressure built and we had both their openers caught top edging pull shots. Wickets steadily flowed but it did take some luck or a moment of stupidity to snag their captain. No doubt he hadn't read Graham Gooch's or Michael Vaughn's autobiographies otherwise he might have realised that he could have used his bat, pad, foot, helmet etc to stop the ball rolling onto his stumps. However he used his hand. An appeal went up and by the letter of the law he was given out handled the ball. Amusing to experience something new on a cricket field. Even more so that the ball probably didn't have enough pace on it to dislodge the bails. Oh well. We weren't complaining.

In the end one of their young tail enders batted sensibly to push their total onto 156 before we bowled them out. More than we would have wanted but very get able on a decent batting wicket. Congratulations must goes to Riaz on bowling a fine spell of off-spin, picking up 5 wickets. Being the World's best teammates no one obviously noticed this feat until Sarah pointed it out over tea.

The atmosphere over tea was relaxed. So relaxed that the two opening batsman were still finishing off their cakes when the umpires strolled out to the middle and still padding up as the bowler was marking his run up. Unfortunately that was probably the highlight of a very disappointing innings. Against some rather average bowling we managed to grab defeat from the jaws of victory. The canny opposition had clearly done their homework and their bowlers stuck to the strategy incredible well to bowl a consistent number of long hops and full tosses. This completely confused our batsman who proceeded to give their fielders some catching practice. Despite Larry and Seb’s efforts at the end we came up 17 runs short with 10 overs remaining. The skipper wasn't best pleased. We reconvened to the dressing room where discussion will stay private but let's just say I'm running out of four letter words to describe our batting.

After a great display in the field it was a shame no one was willing to put the hard yards in with the bat. Man of the match goes to Riaz for his Michelle. Interestingly no batsman has won MoM yet.

Bishop's Stortford II Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3w 6b  
for 10 wickets
9
156 (52.3 overs)		     
D Lloyd ct  L Eaton b J Roberts 8
J Smith ct  J O'Neill b S Smith 16
W Parker ct  R Richards b J Roberts 42
T Makin lbw  J Atkins 4
S Kightly ct  J O'Neill b R Richards 6
A Wasey Handled Ball  18
D Hardcastle b  R Richards 2
S McCrone ct  S Smith b R Richards 40
A O'Donovan b  R Richards 9
D Draper ct  J Lewis b R Richards 0
J Lyle Not Out  2

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joshua Roberts9.0325212.502.78
Sebastian Smith7.0121121.003.00
Joseph Atkins6.0223123.003.83
William Steed9.032100.002.33
Riaz Richards13.323957.802.89
James Wyatt8.032100.002.63

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
2w 5b 9lb 
for 10 wickets
16
139		        
Andrew Joyce ct  b LLoyd 5 8 12 41.67
Jamie Lewis ct  b Wasey 1 38 33 3.03 1
Jez O'Neill ct  b Lloyd 31 40 37 7 83.78 2
James Wyatt b  b Makin 16 29 14 3 114.29
William Steed ct  b Makin 20 42 29 2 68.97
David Smith ct  b Makin 2 7 10 20.0
Riaz Richards ct  b Smith 0 3 3 0 1
Larry Eaton ct  b Smith 27 51 48 3 1 56.25 1
Sebastian Smith ct  B Makin 16 25 23 2 69.57 1
Joseph Atkins lbw  b Smith 4 8 11 36.36
Joshua Roberts Not Out  1 3 2 50.0

Bishop's Stortford II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

  • Umpire :
    Mickey
  • Scorer :
    Sarah and Ben