Scorecard

Waltham X Rosedale III v Berkhamsted Cricket Club 3rd XI on Sat 05 Sep 2009 at 12:30
Berkhamsted Cricket Club Won by 7 wickets

Match report Oh for the fields of home…Sometimes we take for granted the idyllic setting we have at Kitcheners Field, the open fields surrounding us, the superbly kept outfield and excellent cricket wickets produced week after week. Sometimes we visit a place like Waltham X Rosedale and immediately realise just how spoilt we have become. The day was off to an inauspicious start as our multi billion pound satellite navigations technology was defeated by the Cheshunt council road planning department. After a 5 minute tour of the surrounding area we arrived at the ground bracing ourselves for what we already knew to be a plastic wicket.

We decamped to the dressing room where a quick headcount revealed we’d lost no one on the way. We ambled over to Walthams’ second pitch and the early signs were not good. A plastic wicket that had seen better days, a rough uneven outfield and an indeterminate boundary lowered the mood yet further. Both teams needed a win and, despite his teasing, skipper Hussey (absolutely no relation to the Aussie test player I can assure any outsiders reading this report) did not hesitate to insert the opposition. Despite the absence of Goughinder, we fielded an attack full of variation. Merrett and Ezard got us off to a good tight start with the opposition being tied down very well. We were treated to the sight of the opening batsman adjusting the field for us as he directed Charlie not to take a slip out as he “regularly gets out there”. A few overs later he duly obliged with a nick to Puddles at slip.

Suds came on and was uncharacteristically out of sorts sending down a collection of full tosses and long hops that were clouted into the thorny undergrowth at the boundary’s edge – maybe having no Gough at the other end was putting him off his stride. Michael Antonelli was thrown the ball to stop the onslaught and he duly delivered with some excellent tight bowling removing the dangerous looking slogging middle order. From then on wickets fell regularly as Sudbury joined the party from the other end and the hosts posted a total of 179. What had become apparent, over the course of 46 overs, was that we were playing on an artificial wicket thats’ bounce was about as reliable as a John Ezard forward defensive.

We returned to the battlefield…er…pitch chasing 180 to win the match and give ourselves an outside chance of winning the league. A surprise opening pair of Sudbury and Langley began the innings in a conservative tone. Sudbury managed a couple of sweet strikes before being removed by a rare straight delivery, he was soon followed by a furious looking Langley who clipped one to midwicket. This brought veteran Putman in to join Buckley at the crease. What followed was an exhibition of strokeplay and viscious hitting from ‘Puddles’ not seen for many years and belying his laid back character. The game was made to look remarkably easy as Puddles drove anything full, pulled and cut anything short and, in the second half of his innings, flicking for six anything on his pads. It was a tremendous innings and really deserved to bring up his ton just before the match was won by 7 wickets. The home team were gracious and shell shocked at the same time.

What left the Berkhamsted players more shell shocked was seeing Welwyn Garden City getting rolled for 30 odd in their match with Pirton. On another, more upbeat note, I just want to take this opportunity to thank Charlie for organising the team throughout the season – despite numerous tantrums and plenty of moaning he’s led a good team with great team spirit. Also to congratulate all the players who’ve played for us this season and contributed to our second successive promotion. Here’s to more of the same next year!


Waltham X Rosedale III Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
179 (0.0 overs)		     
Pearce ct  Putman b Ezard 8
Travers ct  Buckley b Merrett 0
Humphreys Run out  27
Dhabi ct  Langley b Antonelli 26
Panchal st  Langley b Antonelli 21
Lewis ct  Langley b Sudbery 43
Simons b  Sudbery 7
Barnes ct  Brennan b Merrett 19
Winter Not Out  7
Ilangovan ct  Antonelli b Ezard 5
Byatt b  Ezard 0

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ian Merrett10.0429214.502.90
Jon Ezard17.0536312.002.12
Ian Sudbery8.0050225.006.25
Michael Antonelli11.0055227.505.00

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 3 wickets
0
180		        
Ian Sudbery b  Barnes 17
Ben Langley ct  b Byatt 7 2 1
Tim Buckley b  Lewis 29 1
Ian Putman Not Out  104 1
Mark Burgess Not Out  9
Simon Brennan   1
Aaron Todd  
Charlie Hussey  
Ian Merrett  
Michael Antonelli   1
Jon Ezard  

Waltham X Rosedale III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.