Scorecard

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI v Bentley 2nd XI on Sat 04 Aug 2018 at 1pm
Great Waltham Cricket Club Won by 69 runs

Match report If last week marked the return of Dan Bloom to form then this game marked the return of Lewis Tucker to Great Waltham CC. Village cricket was just a shade brighter for his return. Oh and De’ath got his first 1s game for a while too. I won the toss on a baking hot day and eagerly declared that we’d bat against what seemed to be a depleted Bentley XI. This game had eerie similarities to the Springfield game. So be prepared for a first half moan followed by a second half resurgence.

Bentley started tightly, allowing just 1 run (a wide) off the first 4 overs. Dave Clout could be heard grating his teeth in Cyprus. The next few overs were more productive as we eased our way to a solid 32 off the first 10. The pitch was not all that it seemed. One high, one low, one skipping through and one stopping. It wasn’t abundantly clear to those on the sidelines although those who batted on it were quickly aware of its inconsistent nature. The theme for the top 3 batsmen was not playing straight balls very well. First Dan: after looking so solid last week he played all around an innocuous straight one that left us all scratching our heads. Simon and I then embarked upon another solid partnership until Si played all around a straight one. In fact this was a replica dismissal of the fixture earlier in the season, LBW to Yorke. Next it was my turn to muck up a full straight ball as I thought I’d take on the notoriously accurate Hammond to my downfall. The ball ended up nestling in gulley’s diving hands.

The batting line up was looking slightly less experienced than usual but with former school opening batsman Chappy down at 10 I was confident we would get to decent score. Si wanted 180 and I wanted 200+, turns out Si was less wrong than I was. Lewis Chapman promoted up the order made a valuable contribution. Whilst Ollie was stuck down one end facing the wily Hammond, Lewis gratefully accepted the more erratic bowling coming down the hill. Still you can only put away what is in front of you and Lewis did just that, dispatching to Crispin to all parts. Poor old Ollie finally succumbed to pitch and bowler as Hammond got one to keep low and Ollie dragged on after what can only be described as a battle. 114-4 after 30 wasn’t a terrible score and if we could score at a good rate 200 was still on the cards, which would surely be a more than competitive score on a pitch quickly deteriorating.

Instead we lost our final 6 wickets for 42 runs. It wasn’t pretty. First Reedy managed to defend a ball to extra cover, the timing superb, the elevation and placement less so. De’ath on his first 1st XI appearance in a little while, keen to impress, showed off his survival skills and durability for the next few overs. It all got a little tedious however and captain’s orders were sent out to speed it up a little*. This worked for a short while until Lewis skied one playing his favourite shot. In true top 3 aspiring fashion both Josh’s played around straight balls. Tucks played on to a ball that never reached him. Rumour has it he was walking off before the ball hit the stumps. Suddenly we were reliant on Chappy and JT to get us up to a respectable score. JT, the man with the same amount of runs as innings. Luckily Mike was keen to farm the strike in a Kohliesque fashion. The idea was there, unfortunately Mike isn’t Virat. After a beautiful four cut over backward point, Chappy was clean bowled leaving us on an underwhelming 156 and thanking extras that we finished so highly. I was not happy and if anything Si was unhappier than I, citing a lackadaisical attitude.

So we went into the 2nd innings, knowing that once again we’d have to pull off a small miracle to win this game. The pitch was getting worse but it definitely was not a 150 pitch. Fortunately, having been there and done it, the bowlers were able to take their confidence in defending a low score at Springfield into this game. Despite the plethora of no balls, irritating the team no end, we started well**. Josh was delighted to see a left hander stride to the crease and soon sent him packing via a smart catch from Chappy at first slip. Josh then had Hammond dropped by Chappy by a ball that flew even quicker to first slip. The lack of pace in the pitch made it difficult to know where to stand and Chappy did well to cling on to 1 of those chances. Josh got his revenge soon after however, as an absolute ripping inswinger did for Hammond, knocking back the off stump. He got Crispin soon after with a classic inswinging delivery, this time hitting the base of leg stump. It’s funny what targeting the stumps can do instead of the head.

With a score of 156, you’re never truly safe as one innings can spell the disaster. Sprules was the key wicket as he mixed aggressive aerial play with dead bat defence. Fortunately wickets kept falling around him. Bentley players seemed to get themselves in and then we’d find a way of getting them out. Snell was on the end of a perfectly executed alley oop run out by JT and I. Mid on to first slip then to the stumps as JT showed off his Özil vision, playing 4D chess with the batsmen. It was at this time that VC bloom remarked that we were bowling too fast for the inconsistent pitch to take effect and that Chappy should be given a go***. So despite picking up 3 wickets and looking the most dangerous of the bowlers, Josh was whipped off in lieu of the big man. Ollie responded to this backing of his bowling talents by picking up his first wicket. It was a sharp stumping chance for Reedy filling in for Gary. It’s never easy filling in for a keeper of Gary’s calibre but Reedy did an excellent job on Saturday. I’d suggest that it’s the best I’ve seen him keep.

Anyway, back to Chappy. First he induced a slow loopy edge to Si to get rid of Yorke, Bentley’s saviour and our nemesis from the first game of the season. Next he picked up the key wicket of Sprules, another edge but this time to Matty, taking a smart catch standing up. The tail took one look at Chappy and decided that it just wasn’t worth it. The snarling fast bowler had his mojo and whilst I can’t say the ball was flying down like yesteryear, every ball had intent and zip off the pitch. Mark cleaned the tail up, one bowled, one caught by Reedy and one LBW off the face off the bat. Apparently. Even the umpires wouldn’t argue with Chappy. He turned from what could have been a nervy ending into a comfortable 79 run victory.

If someone had given me a 69 run victory at the start of the day, I would have taken it without question. We were, however, saved mainly by the bowling department once again. It’s especially frustrating considering how well we batted last week against what I consider a more challenging bowling attack. If we could put both halves together then we’d be a danger to every team in the league. Something to work on for the rest of this season.

VIVO Perfect Catch of the Match – Once again, this goes to a stumping. Incredibly quick hands from Reedy.
TATA Nexon Super Striker of the Match – Promoted Lewis up the order and it came off. Good work skip
FBB Stylish Player of the Match – Josh Fitz taking the top 3 batsmen surely deserves a mention here. I’m sure he feels he was robbed of a 5fer.
Man of the Match – Chappy: 6.3-2-9-5. Classic Mike.

*In all seriousness we need to get better at rotating the strike. Pick your fielders, show intent and run the first one hard will get you many more runs than you think and increase your strike rate.

** Again in all seriousness this is costing us way too many runs a game. We bowled more no balls than wides on Saturday and these numbers don’t take into account how many runs were leaked off the 7th ball or 8th ball of the over. STOP BOWLING NO BALLS.

*** Dan actually mentioned this to me much earlier but for story telling purposes and using my artistic license it fits better here.

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 23w 1b 9lb 
for 10 wickets
34
156		        
Simon Richardson lbw Yorke 24 64 4 37.50 1
Daniel Bloom b Whelan 16 30 3 53.33
Samuel Harris ct ? b Hammond 25 30 5 83.33 1
Ollie Fitzwater b Hammond 5 36 1 13.89
Lewis Chapman ct ? b Alovaine 30 27 5 1 111.11
Matty Reed ct Hammond 1 4 25.00 3 1
Joshua De'ath lbw Hammond 11 28 1 39.29
Joshua Fitzwater b Hammond 2 6 33.33
Lewis Tucker b Alovaine 1 2 50.0
Mark Chapman b Whelan 8 17 1 47.06 1
James Taylor Not Out  0 6 0

Bentley 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Whelan6.241125.501.74
Smith10.033200.003.20
Yorke6.0026126.004.33
Crispin5.003700.007.40
Hammond10.042254.402.20
Alovaine6.0118118.003.00

Bentley 2nd XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
9nb 7w 5b 5lb 
for 10 wickets
26
87 (26.3 overs)		     
Gordon ct M. Chapman b J. Fitzwater 3
Crispin b J. Fiztwater 16
Hammond b J. Fitzwater 3
Sprules ct M. Reed b M. Chapman 25
Snell run out S. Harris 7
Whelan st M. Reed b O. Fitzwater 2
Yorke ct S. Richardson b M. Chapman 0
Binnell b M. Chapman 0
Windley Not Out  4
Smith ct M. Reed b M. Chapman 1
Alovaine lbw M. Chapman 0

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joshua Fitzwater8.002839.333.50
Ollie Fitzwater10.0231131.003.10
Mark Chapman6.32951.801.38
James Taylor3.00800.002.67