Scorecard

Hitchin II v Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI on Sat 09 Aug 2014 at 1pm
Berkhamsted Cricket Club Won by 94 runs

Match report 1st wicket partnership 152 runs
7 Hitchin wickets taken for 11 runs

After a disappointing washout last week, the Berko express was looking to continue its winning momentum away at Hitchin this Saturday. As the team congregated in the car park waiting for Ed to arrive conversation centred on Richard's bright orange Ford Focus ST. We tried to explain to Chad what a chav was but quickly realised taking the piss out of the umpire's car before the match probably wasn't the best idea given his well-known ability to hold a grudge.

Despite large amounts of rain overnight it was good to see Hitchin had covers and a decent if not slightly green wicket presented itself. In the prematch warmup the soon to be Primary School teacher Mr Prunty threw up a "Hell Mary" to entice Riaz to take a catch next to the sight screen. Whether it was a devious plan to injury our leading wicket taker so Rob could get more overs remains to be seen but a few held their breath as Riaz went arse over tit. Luckily no injury was sustained so Riaz couldn't use this as an excuse why the captain's team had a triumphant victory in the American style football warm-up with a nerf ball. There maybe a catchier name for it but nonetheless the skipper owned the show walking off with the MVP after 25 yards rushing and 2 touchdown completions. That unfortunately was the extent of his involvement in the day apart from winning the toss and choosing to bat.

After a last minute change to the starting line-up with Joycey rolling his ankle in an unfortunate incident during an all important RBS 5 aside football league match (either that or he had secured last minute tickets to Paul Oakenfold at Gatecrasher) saw Ed Parkes resume responsibilities with Gareth to open the innings. The new partnership started well with some loose opening bowling latched onto like a Mars bar at a kid's Fat Camp. In complete contrast from what you would expect from their demeanour, Gareth played the aggressor with Ed much more submissive. Ed made up for this by calling so loud that some of the 2nd XI were attempting singles back in Berkhamsted. It was great to watch especially the Dorothy Gareth hit straight down the ground. The pair put on 152 for the first wicket and completely demoralised the opposition. It was great for Ed to pick up his first proper score for the 1s but it was fantastic to see Gareth cash in. The hours of training Gareth puts in and the dedication he shows to the club, we were all delighted for him when he finally announced his arrival into the 1s. Shame he didn't go on to score what would have been a well-deserved ton but that will have to wait for another day.

The rest of the team chipped in post the loss of Gareth and Ed, building on the foundations they had laid, and the skipper was delighted to declare setting the opposition 240 to win in 49 overs.

Chad and Rob opened us up and kept it very tight. Rob snagged an early wicket but the flat pitch was making it hard for the seamers to make further inroads. It was time to turn to our spin twins. Now if Dighty has been compared to Scrooge before for his miserly bowling, he was Scrooge on a particularly mean day with his pockets sown up. Ed at slip was kindly counting the dot balls for the batsman and after 20 or so the pressure finally caused cracks to appear and we had another wicket. Riaz at the other end was using the strong headwind and the string attached to the ball to his advantage. It was a fine spell of bowling that tempted the batsman into playing shots when the ball wasn't quite there. He ended up with 6 wickets which is good enough to make the honours board when we get around to sorting one out.

With the opposition 85 for 8 and the clouds in the distance ominously grey and gloomy the skipper decided to phone in the cleaner to finish the tail off before rain could ruin our chance of victory. Unfortunately the captain must have called the Johnson Service Dry Cleaners in Berkhamsted as Chad wasn't able to finish off the opposition. Chad couldn't quite get his length right and bowled numerous low full tosses instead of yorkers. The young South African was getting ever more irate as the crowd were baying him and cheering every run as if it was the winning run. Clearly they had forgotten they were still 100 runs behind. In the end the skipper had to turn back to Ebenezer who duly ended the match three balls later. Game over. 30 points. 5 in a row. One wonders why he had been taken off in the first place. Others knew it was a ploy to boost the fines kitty.

A top performance all round with only the skipper not doing anything. Man of the match goes to Gareth for his batting. A true Berko man. Cut him and he bleeds blue and gold.

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 18b 11lb 
for 5 wickets
31
239		        
Ed Parkes lbw D Fair 56 123 9 45.53
Gareth Preedy ct J Gray b M Baker 83 94 11 3 88.30 1
Luke O'Dair ct J Gray b C Slack 29 37 2 78.38 1
James Wyatt ct J Gray b D Fair 12 26 2 46.15 2
Chad Fortune lbw D Fair 1 2 50.0 1
Luke Frey Not Out  12 16 1 75.00
Jez O'Neill Not Out  15 11 2 136.36
Stephen Dight  
David Smith  
Riaz Richards   1
Robert Prunty  

Hitchin II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Danny Fair15.0549316.333.27
Chris Slack3.0024124.008.00
Ben Hankin9.013500.003.89
Mike Baker11.0035135.003.18
Dan Watson13.006700.005.15

Hitchin II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
8nb 2w 4b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
16
145 (40.3 overs)		     
Sam Dibb lbw R Prunty 16 25 2 64.00
Tim Porter ct L O'Dair b R Richards 32 65 4 1 49.23
Jonny Gray ct G Preedy b S Dight 16 29 3 55.17
Fraser Williamson st  b R Richards 5 29 17.24
Dan Watson lbw R Richards 0 4 0
Danny Fair run out  (C Fortune) 6 15 1 40.0
Phil Britton ct R Richards b R Richards 19 27 3 70.37
Alex Stoner ct J Wyatt b R Richards 0 7 0
Ben Hankin b R Richards 0 1 0
Chris Slack ct J Wyatt b S Dight 21 36 4 58.33
Mike Baker Not Out  14 15 2 93.33

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Chad Fortune13.017000.005.38
Robert Prunty7.0227127.003.86
Riaz Richards13.023966.503.00
Stephen Dight7.35321.500.40

  • Umpire :
    Richard
  • Scorer :
    Sarah and Ben