Scorecard

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI v Rayleigh 2nd XI on Sat 24 Jun 2017 at 1pm
Great Waltham Cricket Club Won by 9 wickets

Match report I mused on the bench on Saturday night that the team facing Rayleigh this year wasn’t too dissimilar from the team that got beaten badly away last year in what many remember as being an insipid performance. Si confirmed this; 9 of the team were the same. I’m not sure there could be more polar opposites in performance from that day to this day, the bowling performance dangerous, the fielding lively and the batting took care of itself. Rayleigh were 3 players short according to their captain but we can only beat what is put in front of us, something we’ve been doing week in week out.

Our transformation from last season can be summed up by the innings of Lynch. He was the scourge of our bowling last year, scoring 96 and almost single handedly winning the game for Rayleigh. This time he ended up with 0, a nice looking 0 as Gary noted but 0 nevertheless. His duck came off 24 balls which is a testament to how well we bowled at him. We didn’t waver in our plans when things weren’t quite going our way and eventually we got our rewards. Rayleigh had scored 5 runs in 5 overs before frustration took over and Krise lobbed one to point off Tucks. Next to go was Lynch, feathering one behind off Fitz followed shortly by Gimbey; an absolute brute of a delivery by Tucks. Rayleigh were reeling and 18-3 off the first 10. That was probably the best opening 10 (bowling) we’ve had all year.

Frost and Baird looked to rebuild the Rayleigh innings in contrasting styles. Baird looked unconvincing for his 15, holing out after trying one big shot too many off an irritated Dugs. I wouldn’t call it a send off but the term bloody idiot may have been thrown about. Next to fall was Frost, nicking behind to Gary off Mike; again this was down to persistence. This was the last major wicket that we required to break through the Rayleigh ranks. As a sidenote, all of the Rayleigh batsmen walked, without prompting, something we’ve seen all year. Well, apart from me. The Rayeligh batting line-up never really got going, only 4 players getting into double figures and a top score of 17. The wickets were shared around again: 1 for josh, 4 for Tucks, 3 for Dugs and 2 for Chappy. A fairly complete performance.

107 runs were required to win on a pitch which didn’t have too many demons in. Dave and Si opened up, Si looking for some love after his much underappreciated strike rate of 92.11 in the last game against Havering. We made the chase look exceptionally easy, when it could have been potentially tricky. Abley, all 6 foot 5+ of him, looked like he wanted to have some fun on a hard, bouncy pitch, digging it in short J Fitz style. Si neutralised him. It wasn’t particularly pretty and the stats won’t look great but it was exactly what was required. Down the other end Dave had all the fun as he took a liking to the other opening bowler. He missed out on a fifty by just 1 run, disappointingly. Si and I were able to finish the game quickly as many of the Rayleigh players’ heads dropped, much like ours did last year. This give us 7 wins from 8 with just 1 no result. We need to keep our motivation and wits about us when we travel to Chadwell Heath next week to keep this good start to the season going.

Its that time again:
1. I only needed 4 bowlers and didn’t even contemplate a 5th, no disrespect to JT or Ollie. The other 4 just bowled so well I didn’t feel the need to change it. 18-3 off 10 and 46-4 off 20, wicket taking and economical, you can’t ask for much more as a captain
2. Batting unit did what was required of them. Dave was Dave and Si gritted out the opening spell from Abley which could have been potentially dangerous.
3. No dropped catches, and a lively fielding performance contributed to the excellent result.

VIVO perfect catch of the match: Si’s cobra at gulley deserves a mention. As does the family Bloom, 5 catches between them for the second game running.

YES BANK Maximum sixes: Dave and I both hit 1. Dave’s might have gone further, we’ll give it to him.

FBB stylish player of the day: 49 off 38 balls. DC.

MOTM: The whole bowling department bowled well as a team but I’m going to give this to Josh Fitz. 9 overs 6 maidens, yes 6, 6 runs and 1 wicket. 2 of those runs came via JT’s crafty right peg. I haven’t mentioned thus far how well I thought he bowled Saturday and how mature his bowling performance was. He didn’t get the rewards his bowling deserved in terms of wickets but he set the tone from ball 1 and was vital in the victory. It was an economy Chappy would have been proud of.

Rayleigh 2nd XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 13w 7b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
26
107 (37.5 overs)		     
S. Lynch ct  G. Bloom b J. Fitzwater 0
A. Krise ct  D. Bloom b L. Tucker 4
C. Gimbey ct  G. Bloom b L. Tucker 8
C. Frost ct  G. Bloom b M. Chapman 17
C. Baird ct  S. Harris b M. Duggan 15
K. Patel Not Out  7
C. Mayor ct  D. Bloom b M. Duggan 0
S. Verrinder ct  S. Harris b M. Chapman 14
R. Noloe ct  S. Richardson b M. Duggan 3
R. Abley ct  & bowled L. Tucker 12
T. Nunn lbw  L. Tucker 0

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joshua Fitzwater9.06616.000.67
Lewis Tucker8.5149412.255.55
Matt Duggan10.042538.332.50
Mark Chapman10.051728.501.70

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1w 10b 2lb 
for 1 wickets
13
110		        
Simon Richardson Not Out  12 50 2 24.00 1
David Clout ct  C. Mayor b R. Abley 49 38 10 1 128.95
Samuel Harris Not Out  36 24 6 1 150.0 2
Daniel Bloom   2
Ollie Fitzwater  
Gary Bloom   3
Matt Duggan  
Lewis Tucker  
Mark Chapman  
Joshua Fitzwater  
James Taylor  

Rayleigh 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
R. Abley7.0321121.003.00
S. Verrinder3.003400.0011.33
R. Noloe6.033100.005.17
C. Frost3.001200.004.00