Scorecard

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI v Chadwell Heath 1st XI on Sat 02 Sep 2017 at 1pm
Great Waltham Cricket Club Won by 93 runs

Match report I am aware of the tardiness of this report and so must make an apology for those of you who wait with baited breath for the weekly report, which enriches your cricketing week. Bear in mind you won’t be receiving any of these over the winter. So savour it, drink it up before winter (finally) comes.

Someone at the top of the scorebook has written Main Road Fortress as the venue. Do we have a better name for our home ground? Recommendations directed to twitter please. I digress, the name is fairly apt considering our home performances this season, only Goresbrook have beaten us and we’ve looked comfortable, if not dominant, in any other game. Alas there was no team photo as availability was reduced and the 2s had an important relegation battle to do with. As such, Chappy’s poor performance with the bat against Rayleigh meant he had to be dropped to the 2s. In true dictatorial fashion I had noticed how the team had reacted to the victory over Havering and Dan’s leadership. Acting quickly before I had a coup on my hands Dan was sharply axed.

After losing the toss we were unexpectedly put into bat. The conditions called for some proper cricket, some Haseeb Hameed grit and luckily we had just the man for the conditions: step forward Atul Patel. In favourable conditions the Chadwell Heath bowlers bowled very well, Reynolds in particular, going 10 straight with only the Waltham Wall denying him a chance at wickets. Down the other end Dave wasn’t buying into Atul’s proper cricket malarkey and set out to play some IPL rubbish. This was the equivalent of the 4-4-2 little and large. The Peter Crouch and Michael Owen.
It didn’t come as a surprise then when Dave was out, probably slogging, maybe trying to pull the spinner to the longest part of the ground. 69 off 61. David Warner who? Atul “Nick Compton” Patel soldiered on down the other end determined to teach his mantra to the new boy L. Tanner. Miles and Mushy settled into their spells hoping to increase the pressure on our batsman. Luke, promoted up the order, came and went and we left the task of guiding us to a reasonable target to 1st XI debutant Cam Brown and Mr. Proper Cricket.
A solid partnership of 36 in 8 overs followed before both fell in quick succession which left Si and I scrambling for our pads fresh from supping our becksweisers. This was entirely unnecessary as Duggers and our resident no. 11, Josh Fitz, somehow promoted to 6, belted us towards 200. Not really in the spirit of the innings. And so we finished our batting for the year on 194-4 after 45 overs. Not quite at our explosive best but the conditions never allowed us to play our shots.

After a Dave Clout tea, we took to the field expecting to see a heavyweight battle between Anthony Joshua Fitzwater and Sonny Bill Duggan. Credit to the opening batsman of Chadwell Heath who had absolutely no intention of letting that play out or for their division 2 status to go out with a whimper, they came to fight. They were 42 without loss after 5 overs and continued their relentless onslaught against Duggers and Fitzy. Didn’t help that I dropped Finch twice in Duggan’s first over with balls jumping off a length.

Suddenly J Fitz finally clicked into gear inducing an edge from Finch straight to the solitary slip for the first wicket. This was the start of a golden period for us as Chadwell Heath suffered an England esque collapse. 62-0 became 80-8 as none of their batsmen could quite get to grip with conditions or stop poking the ball to Dave at slip. Even Si decided it was best that Dave catch the ball as one catch fell to Dave via Simon’s left nipple. Now you’re probably wondering who caused all this carnage, you’re probably assuming it was Morne and whilst he did end up with 4, Albie was the main destroyer. At one stage he had 4 wickets for 1 run and really should have had 5-1 as the ball looped to backward point only to be put down. Can’t remember who by. Ollie compared it to test match level bowling. No one else did but it speaks volumes about the confidence he had after that spell. I had the pleasure of watching his 5-7 8 years ago and I’m assuming this was better, mainly because I can’t remember the 5-7 so it can’t have been all that great. All joking aside it was a damn fine spell, I haven’t seen (m)any better and here’s hoping he does it next year in a game which actually means something.
Overall that innings was a microcosm of our bowling performances this season. We were poor for the first 10 and then we came storming back and upped our game to a level the opposition could not stand. Now we look forward to division 1 next year, off season fitness sessions are mandatory and for those wishing to keep up their cricketing activities, we will have an indoor team led by the fearless J Fitz.
Thanks must go to Max Harman for playing 45 overs fine leg to fine leg for the opposition as they were a player short. Excellent effort. And the final awards of the season.
Yes Bank Maximum Sixes: DC. Is anyone actually counting these, has Dave lost one?

Vivo IPL Catch of the Match: Dave got 4 catches, so for longevity Dave again.

FBB Stylish Player of the Day: Dave. Proper cricket disagrees but in this 20Twenty era attack trumps defence. Sorry Atul.

MOTM: Ollie Fitz a match defining 6-19 and on 5-1 with just Max Harman coming in until the drop…

BSW Marquees Muppet of the Day: The drop at backward point. Ollie was displeased to say the least.


“The Greek word for "return" is nostos. Algos means "suffering." So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.”
― Milan Kundera, Ignorance
I’ll be waiting for the cricket season. Will you?

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2w 5b 4lb 
for 4 wickets
11
194		        
Atul Patel ct ? b Hurrell 41 115 5 35.65
David Clout ct ? b Miles 69 61 7 5 113.11 4
Luke Tanner ct ? b Mushy 10 23 1 43.48
Cameron Brown ct ? b Hurrell 24 37 2 64.86
Matt Duggan Not Out  16 15 1 106.67
Joshua Fitzwater Not Out  23 16 2 143.75
Simon Richardson  
Sam Harman  
Dean Harman  
Ollie Fitzwater   1
Samuel Harris   1

Chadwell Heath 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Reynolds10.043400.003.40
Hurrell10.0135217.503.50
Lugg10.014900.004.90
Miles7.0223123.003.29
Mushy4.0012112.003.00
Falkingham3.002200.007.33
Harman1.001000.0010.00

Chadwell Heath 1st XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 2w 6b  
for 10 wickets
10
101 (20.3 overs)		     
Finch ct D. Clout b J. Fitzwater 21
Chapman ct D. Clout b O. Fitzwater 36
Poonawalla ct S. Harris b J. Fitzwater 0
Falkingham b J. Fitzwater 1
Lampon b J. Fitzwater 14
Reynolds ct & bowled O. Fitzwater 1
Lugg b O. Fitzwater 16
Hurrell ct D. Clout b O. Fitzwater 0
Miles lbw O. Fitzwater 0
Keenan Not Out  0
Harman b O. Fitzwater 3

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joshua Fitzwater10.0055413.755.50
Matt Duggan4.002400.006.00
Ollie Fitzwater6.031963.173.17