Saturday 1st July 2006
Saturday 8th July 2006
Saturday 15th July 2006
Saturday 22nd July 2006
Saturday 29th July 2006

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1st XI vs. Old Actonians

Report by: David Smith

Another baking hot day greeted our visitors from Old Actonians. The E-Unit were looking to bounce back from a disastrous performance the week before away to Osterley with a much needed 30 point win.

Playing their first games for the 1st XI were Wally Khan and Jilesh after speeding their registration through. The two should bring some variation to the side in terms of extra pace to the bowling line up and a talented left hander in the middle order to complement our array of right handed batsmen.

Needing a win the toss was very important and thankfully Adam was successful and inserted the opposition giving us a chance to chase later in the day.

A good opening spell from Wally and Danny Hare in the absence of Mark Varley provided pace and control. Unluckily only 1 wicket was to fall to Wally in a very good opening spell which produced deliveries beating the bat on numerous occasions. Old Actonians were looking to get themselves of the bottom of the league and their batting display suggested they will not be there for long as the opener and number 3 made hay in the sunshine scoring 120+ and 90 odd. A very good spell from Prabhu helped keep the total from escalating and Edmonton were offered a very sporting declaration of 263 with 5 overs of the Old A's innings still to bat.

The Edmonton innings could not have got of to a worse start losing David Hinnigan without troubling the scorers. However this brought Danny Hare to the crease who was in magnificent form pulling, driving and clipping anything lose from the Old A's bowling attack on his way to 56. Dave Smith at the other end started to join the party with a few shots of his own in a partnership of over 100. At 115 for 1 and plenty of overs to go Edmonton were firm favourites when a poor run led to Danny Hare being run out and sparking a major collapse. Jilesh went for 0 on debut, Dave Smith followed for 47 and Adam Herron for 0. Much now rested on Alan Barnard who unfortunately fell for 4 to one that kept low. From 115-1 we were suddenly 120-6 and trying to save the game. Wally and Prabhu were brought to the crease and batted very well in pushing our total above 200 and gaining us our batting points.

There were many positives to take out of the game but unfortunately not the 30 points we desperately needed. Lets make sure we get the win we need next week against British Airways

2nd XI vs. Southgate

Report by: Danny Muschamp

Seeing that Southgate had moved to top of the league above the mighty Edmonton, this was a big game for both sides. Things didn't look to bright for us when we realised that we were to be fielding first, with only 8 players!!

Although we had a shortage of players in the field, Thomas and Bennet restricted Southgate to 27-o off the first 9 overs, bowling very straight and full. Hazell turned up shortly followed by Baker, so we now could approach the game in the way we felt we had to. The openers moved the score on to 80, before 1 wicket brought 2, and at 90-2, the game was evenly balanced. Southgate progressed to 165 off 35 overs, but some tight bowling by Daz, Archer and Muschamp had brought about Southgate to lose 6 wickets.

It was then that the Southgate decided to attack the bowling, scoring very quickly and freely, and a big 7th partnership of 80 left Southgate in a very promising position, at 250 odd for 7. Southgate moved the score on to 269-9 off 48 overs, a big total, although on a good wicket, it wasn't totally out of reach!

We were disappointed not to have restricted Southgate for under 250, but we had to raise our game and to saty at the top keep pressure on Southgate at the top of the league, at least bat out the 52 overs!!

The worst start we could have hoped for occured when Muschamp nicked a good delivery behind in the 3rd over, and things never seemed to improve from there. Rai played some nice cricket shots for 18, but wickets fell regularly, and although James Hazell did his best to ensure Edmonton achieved a point from the game, it wasn't enough and Edmonton were dismissed for a very poor 113.

Seeing that the team wasn't at full strength, and that we later realised we still kept our place of 2nd in the league, we looked foward to next game with hope, against another tough opposition in Barnes, who currently lie in level on points with us.

With a good team and a good performance i'm sure we can achieve a positive result against Barnes and push further foward to promtion!!

Saturday 8th July 2006

1st XI vs. British Airways

Report by: Alan Barnard

After falling at the final hurdle last weekend against a strong looking Old Actonians side, the 1st XI entertained British Airways at Hydeside in the second game out of a run of 3 consecutive home games. Airways who have been in this division for some years now have been struggling a bit this season, and find themselves down the bottom of the table, a couple of places below us. With this as a backdrop, it was important that we at least took as many points as they did, but ideally posted a win to boost our own league position.

Skipper Herron won the toss and decided to insert Airways on what looked like another road of a Hydeside track, and with the customary short boundary as short as ever, it was fair to say that we were going to be in for something of a run fest. The Airways openers looked to be as positive as ever, and played some cracking shots, mostly off the bowling Mark Varley, who was opening up from the bottom end. It was Mark however who managed to make the first to breakthroughs, bowling the opener round his pads, and then snapping up the number 3 caught behind.

While this was going on, Wali Khan was bowling with his usual aggression, pace and control from the top end, and it was only a matter of time until he got in on the act of wicket taking too. His first deserves special mention, as it came from a fantastic catch at first slip from Dave Smith, who took the ball low and to his left to send the team into raptures. With Airways 4 down for about 40, things were looking very promising for the E-Unit, but as is often the case, a good partnership ensued, as the BA skipper, and the opener built the score steadily up to about 115-4.

By this time, Prabhu was bowling from the top end, with his usual control, and despite going for 12 from his first over settled in to a great rhythm to stem the scoring rate. Danny Hare was on from the bottom end, doing a similar job, and in spite of the 70 run partnership, we were looking in a strong position. Some good fielding led to more pressure on the batsmen, and eventually we inflicted a few quick breakthroughs, to turn the screw further, the highlight of which was a sharp stumping by Herron.

Wills replaced the Rabbit from the bottom end, and bowled very tidily for his 6 overs, picking up a dead cert lbw. During this spell, he combined with Barney to pick up a run-out, and BA were staring down the barrel at about 150-7. A few big hits later, and Airways were on 175-8, but Prabhu, bowling unchanged from the top end stuck to his lines and lengths, as the number 9 tried one big hit too many, and was caught well by Wali running round from a deep-ish mid-on. The last wicket was something of a farce, as the number 11 chipped up what looked like a catch, only for it to land just out of reach of the backpedaling Prabhu, but the Indian had the presence of mind to turn and throw to the strikers end to secure a second run out.

176 all out was an excellent start, but only half a job done, as we went in to tea on a high. Credit must go to the BA opener who played some cracking shots in his 71, but it was the pressure of tight bowling and committed fielding that led to his and the rest of his teams downfall. Tea was taken, which included some of the more surreal treats seen at Hydeside with tortilla with mayonnaise, ham and gherkin! Sounds rank, but was in fact, rather nice - well I thought so anyway, so I stuffed myself with them, as not many other people seemed to like them. Anyway, after a cuppa and a more conventional choc-ice, we moved on to the second innings with the two Daves - Smith and Hinnigan - opening up the innings as usual.

After a few nice shots, Smithy inside edged one via his pad onto the stumps trying to drive, which brought in Danny Hare, who looked comfortable, but hit a firm clip off his legs straight to square leg, who took an excellent catch at the second attempt. This brought in Barney, who looked to do a bit of re-building work with Dodgy, and the scoring rate slowed as a result.

This was not much of an issue, as Airways had only taken 45.4 overs for their 176. Once the new ball was fully seen off, both batsmen gained in confidence, and started to play more expansively. It seemed that BA were resigned to defeat a little early, but the medium pacers weren't getting much change from two form batsmen on a good wicket, and it was a little surprising that it took until the score was about 125 for BA to introduce two good slow bowlers who caused a little more in the way of problems.

Despite this, there weren't many scares along the way, and Dodgy (81*) clipped the winning runs through the leg side to wrap up an 8 wicket win with 19 overs to go. Barney was unbeaten on 71 at the other end, to complete a good day at the office for the E-Unit. All that can be said is that this was a good performance with bat, ball and in the field by a well motivated team that knew what was required of them. Let's hope that we see plenty more such performances this season.

Adam '20/20' Herron, Dave 'Mark Taylor' Smith, 'Dodgy' Dave Hinnigan, Danny 'Rabbit' Hare, Alan 'Boring' Barnard, Jilesh 'Keeno' Pattni, Wali 'Ronaldo' Khan, Prabhu 'The Tash' Balachandaran, Tony 'Keeno' Willett, Ciaran 'Aggro' Dodds, Mark 'Hangover' Varley. Scorer: Ray 'Councilor' Dodds.

2nd XI vs.

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Saturday 15th July 2006

1st XI vs. Southall

Report by: Mark Varley

Beautiful sunny day at Hydeside once more, good to see that early summer rain gone now, and a chance for the E-unit to post another 30 points on the board after a very efficient performance the week previous. The opponents, Southall, always a good battle between us two, and today wasn't going to be any different.

The day began well as Southall were caught in the inevitable Saturday traffic on the North Circ. This enabled Adam to enforce the toss which he had no hesitation as to put the oppo in to bat. The opening two were going to be Varley and Whalli on what looked to be a quick flat track, (as usual) cheers Brent and Dave! The scoring was steady at around 4 an over with the two batsmen seeing off some aggressive short bowling from Whalli and some probing up and down lines from Varley. It took until the 18th over I believe with the score around 65 for Varley to get the break through thanks mostly to a very sharp catch from the Rabbit at short leg, reaching out to his right with an instinctive grab.

This initial wicket was one which brought along the typical style of batting we have come to be used to from Southall, a no holds barred style that has seen them amass some very imposing totals in the past. However a very economical spell as usual from Danny stemmed the flow of runs, and when his 7 over spell finished it brought about the Willett and Prahbu show. With both bowlers bowling some very tight lines, mixed in with the odd bad ball which can't be helped sometimes the Unit managed to pick up wickets on regular intervals not letting Southall build any substantial partnerships.

Also a very solid performance in the field was typified by a slightly comical run out which saw Danny chase a ball down on the boundary only just reaching it with an outstretched leg, the ball then popping straight into Barnard's hands, who in turn threw the ball to Adam at the strikers end who had to paddle the slightly high throw onto the stumps, the confused batsmen had no choice but to keep running to the changing rooms. Great work lads.

The Southall innings totalled 234, a total which was by no means out of our reach, and with another steady start from the two Daves, we looked in a solid position to go on and take the full 30. However the untimely wickets of Smithy closely followed by Danny saw the unit face some unwanted pressure from the Southall bowlers, who bowled extremely tight notably the left hander from the top end whom no-one could seem to get away.

Unfortunately even with the best efforts from Dodgy and Adeel, both scoring 50's, the Unit just couldn't build the ever crucial partnership due to wickets falling at the wrong times. Even some lusty blows at the end saw the boys finish 15 runs short with only two wickets in hand, not a bad effort as we received 10 overs fewer, but I'm afraid in this league a better run rate just isn't enough to secure a winning result and we finished with a disappointing 14 points.

Hopefully next week against Indian Gym we will find that partnership or take that crucial catch that can win us the game unfortunately it just evaded us this week!!

Team: Herron, Smith, D. Hinnigan, D. Hare, Barnard, Saeed, W. Khan, Balachandaran, Willett, C. Dodds, Varley

2nd XI vs. Ickenham

Report by: Gavin Mardell

Our 3rd away fixture in as many weeks saw the 2nd XI travel around the North Circ and down the A40 to Ickenham CC, in the 1st reverse fixture of the 2006 season. After the loss to Barnes the previous week, and some under par performances of late against teams in the top half of the table, we were looking to bounce back against a team in the bottom half.

We arrived at the ground nice and early for a change, and there was even time for some much needed fielding practice. Archer "the Duke" Cornwall was forced to skipper the side not fully fit after Vikram "the pole vaulter Sergei" Masih was forced to cry off earlier that morning, and sticking to his tag of being a useless tosser….. duly lost the toss and we were thrown into bat. In my opinion, winning the toss is vital in the County League to picking up maximum points, every team will always elect to field first and chase down a score as you instantly have more control over the outcome of the game, so to hear this was slightly frustrating for everyone.

Asif "get him on the wrongun's list" Padnani opened up with Danny "Shaun Pollock" Muschamp, and to start with both looked assured and patient against the opening pace attack. Dan started in typically correct fashion, playing a couple of lovely drives on the off-side in the process, and Asif was equally solid in defence whilst still playing for me the shot of the day - a rasping cover drive down on one knee. However, Asif was first to fall chasing a ball that left him and did a bit more off the wicket, and the keeper's gloves gratefully accepted the chance. Then Dan followed shortly afterwards, rather unfortunately caught in the backward point region correctly trying to put away a wide, loose half volley, and within minutes we had slumped to 26 for 2.

Omar "Roy Orbison" Hatmi and Tim "The Dog Lover" Breedon were soon together at the crease. Omar was looking very comfortable and played some quality shots during his innings, on a slowish wicket that was stopping now and again. The only person you could see getting him out was himself. Timothy down the other end, whilst not showing the same fluent form with the bat as the previous week, stuck to his task, grafted and did not throw his wicket away. The pair of them consolidated and went about rebuilding the innings, pushing us on to 69 without any further loss, although things were not to stay so positive for much longer. Beefy fell for 22 and the Big O for 46 (he looked set for a much bigger score!!), caught on the boundary at deep square leg trying to play just one slog sweep too many. Ickenham's off-spin and leg-spin combination from either end was working effectively for them in the middle part of our innings on a turning wicket. It was clear the oppo knew how the wicket played, with both the slow bowlers brought on far earlier than we anticipated. The game was evenly balanced with us 115 for 4.

What followed was the fall of 3 Edmonton wickets in quick succession (also known as a collapse!!), which left the home side very much on top with the score now 116 for 7. Gavin "Mr.Patel" Mardell, Pat "Northern B*stard" Carr, and then Chris "Mini-Rhino" Goddard all fell to the Ickenham slow bowling attack, and within a short space of time it seemed our chances of getting something from the game were slipping away. Daz "no longer a Wookie" Sivasathan was the only batsman within the middle order to put up any sort of resistance batting at No.5, and although having his fair share of luck in getting dropped on numerous occasions, stayed positive and aggressive in his innings of 43. A straight six over the sidescreen, and another that hit the roof of the pavillion never to be seen again, were much needed morale boosters for a side struggling to post a total that they would be happy with. Edmonton had reached 147 for 8 when the Dazzler's luck finally ran out, and many a batsman were left rueing failures with the willow.

Enter Stavros "Marcos Baghdatis" Elia and Martin "What's that coming over the hill?" Loveday, who set about building a 9th wicket partnership which was to be vital in getting us some sort of foothold in the game. It also showed again the strength in depth of our batting. Lovers mixed solid defence and technique with some effective nudging and nurdling, whilst Princess Elia played the more aggressive role in his innings of 42, which included many a lusty blow. When their resistance was finally broken after a partnership of 58 (Stav having been run out to what I must say was an optimistic call from him for a quick single), our score was looking slightly more respectable at 205-9.

All that was left was for Captain Kev, I mean Archer "Grenadan Fire" Cornwall to make a brief appearance at the crease. One top draw cover drive later from the skip, one even the great Vivian Richards himself would have been proud of, and Edmonton were all out for 213 after facing the best part of 54 overs.

This paragraph is dedicated to the best performance of the day…….that of the tea ladies', who put out one of the finest spreads (hehe) that I had ever seen. Egg and Bacon sarnies, Scones with Jam and Cream, the list would be endless. It was slightly reminiscent of a small Roman banquet with copious amounts of fresh fruit, all that was missing was a fine young maiden to feed me my grapes. Anyway, the bottom line was that I had too much food during the interval and movement in the field early doors was going to be somewhat of a hardship.

Archer "the Duchess of" Cornwall and Martin "the Monster" Loveday opened up the bowling against the right hand/cack hand combination, and fortunes in the first few overs were mixed. The Duke was bowling tidily for someone not fully fit and over the hill, whilst Loveday would admit himself that he was struggling to find his line and length. The righty opener looked a class act and clearly plays in a higher team on most Saturdays, so when Tim "the Pest" Beedon leapt like a salmon at 2nd slip to snaffle a chance to dismiss him off the bowling of Archer man, with the score only on 12, it felt like a vital wicket.

However, a 2nd wicket partnership of 55 and 3rd wicket partnership of 50 seemed to have taken the game away from us, and with the home side on 117 for 2 we knew we had to take wickets quickly. We had seen from earlier on in the game that it was a wicket which favoured the slow bowlers, so the skip decided to turn to Stavros "the Bubble" Elia and Daz "Quick Single" Sivasathan to work some magic. Stav broke the 3rd wicket partnership, dismissing the remaining opener for a gutsy (but cack handed) 53, and it was clear both were getting some major turnage. 117 for 3 turned into 148 for 6, with both the Cypriot and the Sri Lankan having now taken 2 wickets a piece. For the first time we felt very much back in the game, and matters were now evenly poised.

Unfortunately what was to follow was a very frustrating period of the game, in which a valiant partnership of 66 between the Ickenham skipper and their No.6 bat, gave them the close fought victory with 1 over to spare. There could be no faulting our efforts in the field (with the exception of the Big O on one occasion, tut tut!!), and a lot of positives could be taken on the whole from our bowling performance which single handedly got us back into the match. In truth we just never posted enough runs on the board, particularly with the outfield so fast and 2 very short straight boundaries to contend with. For the 2nd week in a row the batsmen were at fault for not taking enough responsibility abd falling short of a sufficient total, and we will all need to bounce back next week against Wycombe House with an improved performance in what will be only our 1st home fixture in 4 weeks.

Joint Men of the Match: Stavros Elia and Daz Sivasathan.

Team In Batting Order: Asif "Walter" Padnani, Danny "Son of Mary" Muschamp, Omar "Monty Panesar" Hatmi, Tim "Turns Like a Ship" Beedon, Daz "Doris' Lover" Sivasathan, Gavin "Hi Hun" Mardell, Pat "Not So Hetrosexual" Carr, Chris "Got One In The Face Whilst Keeping" Goddard, Stavros "Princess" Elia, Martin "Victim of an Awful Bobble" Loveday, Archer "Tieing the Knot Soon" Cornwall (the Duke has found his Duchess!!).

2nd XI vs. Wycombe House

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Saturday 29th July 2006

1st XI vs. Twickenham

Report by: Mark Varley

Before the season started and the fixtures were out we knew this Saturday was going to be a hard one no matter who we were playing, due to the annual club BBQ the Friday before hand. This year did not disappoint as a good night was had by all. Just to make things worse this season we were hosting Twickenham CC arguably the strongest team in the league on current form and in past encounters!

This did not deter the E-Unit though as we love a good challenge to go with our hangovers. And with the resident skipper Adam Herron always on hand at the club with fellow first teamers Ciaran Dodds and Danny Hare all sharing a tent the night before (obviously resting after hours of netting up at the club the day before, or call it what you like), we were prompt in winning the toss and putting ourselves in to bat. It was the first time the skip has batted first at home knowing that the best chance of winning was setting the T's a tempting target, which could be anything on our home track, and hopefully picking up the wickets knowing from previous meetings that the T's are always very aggressive with their batting, which can bring enough chances to bowl them out.

The game started slow for the Unit with the T's openers bowling very tight lines with good control and accuracy. However the two Dave's battled through the early pressure of the first fifteen overs without losing a wicket until Smithy finally succumbed after a bit of hostile short stuff which he didn't feel too comfy with, probably something to do with the night before. With the score around 50-1 Jilesh was sent to the crease. Unfortunately he couldn't pick up the scoring rate and his wicket was soon to follow. Adeel looked set at number four to try and build a decent partnership with Dodge who for once couldn't oblige. Danny H. was next to the crease and once again this season showed that he can build a decent well timed innings as he and Adeel amassed a very tidy 100 partnership with Danny being the more productive in the runs 60ish despatching any wayward bowling to the rope. Adeel fell with the score around 165-4 and Big Wills came and went, shortly followed by the Rabbit. Not to worry however as the scoreboard now read 165-6, and number 7 Whalli Khan and number 8 Prabhu "Kumar Killer" Balachandaran (I think that's how you spell it) decided to take the game by the scruff of the neck and proceeded to smash any bowling high far and wide over the boundary in a partnership of 120 notably Whalli going absolutely berserk smashing 91 off of what couldn't be more than 50 balls. This display totally turned the innings on its head with the Unit at one stage worrying about the 175 and eventually pilling on an impressive 286-9.

The teas came and went with an ever increasing improvement from the ladies, pizza always a nice touch, keep trying girls!

Now then, with enough runs on the board and the T's not bowling their overs all that quickly, so not many overs to play with, it was up to the bowlers to try and do their bit in quick time. The Unit knew though that this total was far from impossible as I recall a couple of years ago we chased a similar score in a Sunday game of 45 overs. And so we began with Whalli "BOOM!" Khan from the top end and Mark "medium pace" Varley from the Streety end. Both bowlers were bowling decent lines but with the batsmen obviously attacking from the very beginning, a lot of half decent deliveries were made to look average, with some unorthodox stroke play from the T's openers putting the ball to the rope. After a quick fire fifty partnership Whalli got the breakthrough sneaking in a quick Yorker, shortly followed by an lbw. Varley was struggling to beat the batsmen and the skipper had him replaced by Danny "Murray Monkfish" Hare who started well with a wicket of his own, thanks to a very sharp leg side stumping from the skipper! The run rate was stemmed slightly by the wickets but the ever threatening batting line up of the T's was never going to give up the chase and a couple of decent sized partnerships started to mount against the Unit and with us needing another five wickets and still 100 odd runs to get in 10 overs the skipper tried mixing up the bowling with Willett only bowling a short spell followed by Whalli, back on at the bottom end and with Prabhu bowling very well flighting the ball to tempt the batsmen into loose strokes from the top end the Unit were trying to be aggressive and pick up the remaining wickets with fielders gathered around the bat. This aggression gave the T's enough space to find gaps in the outfield and they were looking at chasing down the runs for a short while but some well timed wickets from Prabhu put away any chance of Twickenham making an attempt in the last two overs with only three wickets in hand, they finished on a respectable 239-7 in their 41 overs.

All round a solid performance from The E-Unit against a strong T's side, and a well deserved 18 point to 15 winning draw. Man of the match has to go to Whalli Khan for turning the game around for the boys in the first innings and a top effort with the ball in the second. Just goes to show that no matter how iffy a situation looks all it takes is one of us to take the initiative and if we all put in 100% effort as Whalli showed on Saturday we can grind out positive results. On a better day with the ball we could have won the game, after a very solid score. There are a lot of positives to take out of the game as we were competing with arguably the top side in the league, and a bit of consistency could see us in the right half of the league table possibly contending!!!

Team: Dave "How's the Scab" Smith (ever ready to sacrifice the body in the field and at the crease good lad), Dodgy Dave "Nice new bat " Hinnigan (started really well could have made a big score today with the quick bowling unlucky son), Jilesh "Who wants what" Pattani (didn't really shine with the bat but his time will come top drawer in the field), Adeel "Pakistan footballer of the year" (great solid innings to hold the middle order together), Danny "Murray Monkfish" Hare (another quality knock lad keep up the good work Wrong-un), Tony "How's the neck?" Willett (not a big part in the game this week but always useful to have his knowledge on the park), Whalli "BOOM!" Khan (well what can I say?), Prabhu "Kumar Killer" Balachandaran? (quality as ever with the ball and shone a bit for the first time with the bat), Ciaran "Fresh Air" Dodds (fielded well), Adam "See my Stumping" Herron (quality behind the stumps, just ran out of overs to try anything to drastic with the bowling), Mark "Where's the Report" Varley (its all I'm good for really)!!! : )

2nd XI vs. Shepherds Bush

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