Forgot password?
Register
Login

Great Waltham Cricket Club

Scorecard

Great Totham 1st XI v Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI on Sat 01 Sep 2018 at 1pm
Great Waltham Cricket Club Won by 63 runs

Match report The end of the season was upon us and with one final game away to the almost promoted Great Totham, the end of the season was in sight. Totham were keen to pick up the one point they needed to gain promotion and were practicing as most of us were turning up 15 minutes late. With promotion on their mind, Totham chose to bowl first knowing that 2 wickets would see them up.

We made them wait until the 37th over for promotion. Si went early to an exceptional reaction catch at 1st slip after making an encouraging start. Dan and I put on 142 in just over 33 overs to make the Totham boys sweat. We had joked about finishing 100-1 but realistically we’re all far too attacking/not test match enough for that. It would be nice to say that Dan and I cruised along making batting look easy but in truth it was mostly a battle for us both. The pitch, whilst hard, had a lot of inconsistent bounce which made stroke-making tough (well at least for Dan and I). Mays bowled exceptionally well, 3 maidens in his first 4 overs and just conceding 15 runs in his 10 overs.

I’m struggling to write anything about the middle period of play. We kept the score ticking over, put the bad ball away and generally batted within ourselves to set up the last 10 overs. Totham is a tiny ground and with some big hitters down the order we knew anything was possible. The real game didn’t really begin until I got out in the 37th over and then Dave was out off the first ball of the 39th (note to Dave: you can stop listening to me now). Cue Ollie ‘Dre-Russ’ Fitz. The gun show was in full force as he destroyed a bowling attack that had looked so competent earlier in the day. A 22 ball fifty, five 4s and eight 6s, three 6s off the last three balls as Ollie eventually finished 81* off just 31 balls. Those are some Brian Lara International cricket 2007 numbers. In partnership with Dan he hit 55 of the 67 runs in their partnership and then 28 of the 32 in the partnership with Lewis who was more than content to give him back the strike. It was probably the most fun I’ve had on the sideline this season for 7 or so overs. I’m sure Ollie will be the first to tell you that not all of those balls hit the middle of the bat but that his time down the gym finally paid off. Also manoeuvring of the field and launch angle and all of that.

I was hoping for 230, despite the small ground I knew the pitch wasn’t the best and if we bowled properly then we could defend it. Thanks to Ollie’s stick cricket masterclass I was given another 30 runs to play with. We started with zero purpose, despite the position we had got ourselves into. Totham raced to 39 off of 5 overs with very little trouble. We were slack in the field and the bowlers bowled too full, too straight or too wide to the Totham openers who seemed exceptionally keen to cash in. Josh finally took advantage of a flat footed shot from Cooper who edged behind to an equally flat footed Blooma. Fortunately his hands more than made up for his feet.

Ollie had Pook caught behind a short while after and once Josh uprooted the other opener’s off stump with a booming inswinger we had wrestled control back into our grasp. 73-1 after 10 became 91-3 after 15 became 98-5 after 20 after Joe got in on the wicket taking. Marks batted solidly but there was no support for him coming from the other end. It soon became obvious that the game was won and the only question remained was who was going to win the bowling trophy. Going into the final day JT was 1 wicket ahead of Ollie and 2 ahead of Josh. Both Fitzs’ had taken two wickets apiece early in the day and when Josh couldn’t pick another up in his 2nd spell, JT knew that 1 wicket would earn him a tied bowling cup and 2 wickets would win it for him. Struggling up the hill, into the wind JT was able to prize out numbers 9 and 10 with number 11 unable to bat due to an injury earlier in the day. He has Si to thank mind you, as he rolled back the years with a superb, leaping catch centimetres from the boundary.

So the 2018 season comes to a close and I think we can look back on what turned out to be a decent season, consolidating our position in division 1. We managed to beat every team except eventual winners Stock and lose to every team except Springfield and Great Totham who finished in 2nd. I think that sums up our consistency this year, especially on the road where most our losses occurred. If we’d been able to beat Rayleigh, Writtle and Bentley (the bottom 3 teams) twice then maybe our season may have gone a bit differently but it wasn’t to be. There’s always next year.

VIVO Perfect Catch of the Match – Si’s catch on the boundary was one of the catches of the year
TATA Nexon Super Striker of the Match – Ollie Fitz for his Dre-Russ esque performance
FBB Stylish Player of the Match – Going against the name of the award, Dan’s oft gritty batting displayed moments of stylishness
Man of the Match – O Fitz for that devastating batting display and also a cheeky twofer

Catches of the season –
1. Mike at Stock – Completely unexpected and brilliant all at the same times
2. Mike at home to Bentley – Plucked off the floor, one handed, by a sprawling van Chapman
3. Si at Totham – Technically a difficult catch pulled off the boundary ropes well above his head.

Bowling displays of the season –
1. Fitzes at Springfield – Joint award for winning us a game we had no right to win. Some absolute beauties in there.
2. Ollie at Bentley – Yeah we lost but for such a long time we were back in a game we had no right to win thanks to Ollie.
3. Chappy at home to Bentley – In addition to his catch he also got 5 wickets in the most Chappy way possible. For no runs whatsoever

Batting displays of the season –
1. Dan Bloom at Great Baddow – Carried his bat for a hundred in hot conditions against a good bowling attack, on an uneven pitch whilst almost chasing down 290 odd. Special.
2. Ollie at Stock – Someone saved their best for the last game of the season producing some silly numbers.
3. Dave Clout at home to Tillingham – Deserved a hundred yet was denied by his thigh pad and the game was won inside 20 overs chasing 220 odd.

Skip out

P.s. I forgot to thank Nat for cake she brought with her last week

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI Batting

Player Name		Runs	B	4s	6s	SR	Ct
extras TOTAL :	4nb 10w 8b for 4 wickets	22 261
Simon Richardson	ct Bowen b Smoker	7	11	1		63.64	1
Daniel Bloom	b Cheeseman	83	114	15		72.81	2
Samuel Harris	ct ? b Cooper	67	77	9	1	87.01
David Clout	b Cooper	1	4			25.00
Ollie Fitzwater	Not Out	81	31	5	8	261.29
Lewis Chapman	Not Out	2	3			66.67	1
Joshua De'ath
Joshua Fitzwater
Jamie Carroll							1
Joe Reed
James Taylor

Great Totham 1st XI Bowling

Player name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
Smoker	4.0	0	29	1	29.00	7.25
Bowen	3.4	0	14	0	0.00	3.82
Pook	8.5	0	55	0	0.00	6.23
Mays	10.0	3	15	0	0.00	1.50
Simpson	4.0	0	35	0	0.00	8.75
Cheeseman	9.3	1	54	1	54.00	5.68
Cooper	5.0	0	51	2	25.50	10.20

Great Totham 1st XI Batting

Player name		R
extras TOTAL :	7nb 14w 4b for 9 wickets	25 198 (34.0 overs)
Cooper	ct D. Bloom b J. Fitzwater	45
Hawkridge	b J. Fitzwater	24
Pook	ct D> Bloom b O. Fitzwater	6
Marks	Not Out	72
Mays	b J. Reed	4
R. Mutton	ct J. Carroll b O. Fitzwater	5
Whiting	b J. Reed	4
Smoker	b J. Reed	4
Bowen	ct L. Chapman b J. Taylor	8
Simpson	ct S. Richardson b J. Taylor	6
Cheeseman