Saturday 30th April 2007

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Saturday 28th April 2007

1st XI vs. Highgate

Report by: Alan Barnard

The first game of the season paired us up against Highgate from Division 3 of the Middlesex County league in a friendly fixture, which both teams were looking to win, to set off in the right mindset for the season. Despite not having the best start to the day, with severe traffic in North London caused by the North Circular being closed, 9 of us managed to get to Highgate by 1pm, and set about getting ready for the game.

The toss was taken, and skipper Kevin Lawrence was happy to be in the field to start the game. Highgate kindly let us have their keeper and one of their fielders until the absent Jilesh Pattni and Dave Rai made it through the traffic the ground. It was a fine early summer's day, and we knew that we'd have our work cut out to restrict the opposition on a ground with 3 short boundaries, and a lightning fast outfield.

Mark Varley had other ideas though, as he struck with the very first ball of the game, with Gavin Mardell taking a catch that appeared to surprise him greatly at mid off as the ball seemed to stop and loop up of the openers bat. Despite this stroke of luck, Mark went on to be very unlucky, with Jilesh Pattni and Alan Barnard both putting down chances they should have held. At the other end, Danny Hare, elevated to the opening bowling slot was performing well with the ball, and was starting to make the ball swing.

New recruit Julian Fletcher replaced Varley from the tennis courts end, and soon settled into a nice rhythm with his quick-ish off breaks getting some grip and turn off the pitch. Meanwhile, Hare at the other end was taking wickets aplenty, the highlight of which was a very sharp leg-side stumping from Dave Rai, who had made it to the ground by this stage. Dan continued to probe and swing, shortening his run up in order to prolong his spell, and deservedly finished up with his first 1st XI 5-for. When he was replaced by Chat Gallage, we were well on top of things, and despite a couple of late partnerships, which were broken by Chat, and the returning Varley, things went our way.

Tea was a fantastic affair and there was plenty of it too… I think it's fair to say that tasty hot food at cricket on a Saturday goes a long way to making this hungry team's weekend a good one! I personally didn't need to eat until my 3am kebab (chicken shish of course for the health conscious). It was also pleasing to restrict county league opposition to 180 on a small ground, and it was also pleasing to see how well we bowled, with Julian Fletcher also unlucky not to have picked up more than just the one victim. That said, it was clearly not the easiest pitch to bat on, and 180 would be a testing score for our long batting order. With tea not ready by this stage, we returned to the field, with Dave Hinnigan and Adeel Saeed opening up, but Dave Slipped up to a delivery that left him late off the pitch, and was caught in the slips early on. Gavin Mardell joined Adeel, and the pair saw us through until tea without too many scares.

It was an indication of how good the wicket was that Highgate opened with a spinner, and there were a couple of near misses and Gav and Adeel looked to ease the score on. Adeel fell for 32, bringing in Jilesh, who was perhaps a little unluckily given out LBW by an umpire who was reluctant to give any decisions in favour of the fielding side all game. Dave Rai hit a quick fire 27, Julian Fletcher got given LBW, and Gavin Mardell followed shortly after for a patient 27 leaving us wanting 70 to win, with just 4 wickets in hand, and in a bit of bother.

Luckily, the plan of bolstering the batting line up aid dividends, and with Danny Hare at 7, and Alan Barnard at 8, last season's regular 3 and 4 gave us a robust look to the tail. Wheras Dan batted like a number 3, Barney batted more like a number 8, scratching around for 10 runs on a pitch that was turning more by the ball. Dan on the other hand powered his way to a sublime 55 not out, with some dashing stroke play and big hits aplenty. With the game won by 4 wickets, it was good to reflect on what had been an excellent performance by all 11 players. It was also pleasing to see that the 2nd XI had picked up a win as well, as we returned to the club and enjoyed a few beers and the world-cup final debacle.

Lawrence, D Hinnigan, A Saeed, Mardell, Pattni, Rai, Fletcher, D Hare, Barnard, Gallage, Varley

2nd XI vs. Highgate

Report by: Tim Beeden

The first friendly match of the season saw us at home to Highgate. When the eventually arrived due to major traffic problems on the North Circular Road, it was decided by the captains that Highgate would bat.

John Street opened the bowling from his usual bottom end and immediately found his line and length. New boy Atif Butt opened from the top end with his left armers, bowling a mixture of good balls and a few wayward ones.

We picked up a couple of wickets as the score went on to 80-3, we then took control of the game as spinner Daz Sivathasan and skipper Stavros Elia picked up regular wickets, and the score became 135-8. Stav then decided to give Danny Muschamp and Dave Baker a work out, and some good hitting by Highgate's lower order saw them finish on 190.

Edmonton's reply didn't start too well as we lost opener Naveed Saeed in the 2nd over. The rest of the top 6 all got in without going on, all scoring in the late teens or early twenties. With the game looking like it was heading for a predictable draw, no. 8 Atif Butt came to the wicket and decided to change that, smashing the ball to all parts of the ground. He scored 78 from about 30 balls, and we ended up winning the game by 2 wickets with an over to spare.

All in all this game was a good workout, with spinners Stav and Daz looking in complete control when bowling, and most of the batsmen getting time at the wicket.

Elia, N Saeed, Muschamp, Beeden, D Sivathasan, Hazell, D Baker, Goddard, A Butt, A Coxall, Street