Saturday 26th june 2004
Saturday 19th june 2004
Saturday 12th june 2004
Saturday 5th june 2004

Any views expressed in these reports are the views of the author, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Edmonton Cricket Club, its committee or its members. If you find anything offensive or inaccurate in the content of these reports, or if you have any queries reagrding the reports, please contact us via email, stating the report you're referring to and the date so that we can take any action deemed necessary.

Saturday 26th june 2004

1st XI vs. Polytechnic

Report by: Alan Barnard

Polytechnic away was the fixture, and a brief glance at the league table showed that they're a side capable of winning games, even though they struggled against league leaders Turnham Green the weekend before. We came into the game boasting one of only two unbeaten records in the division, and looking to maintain it. With rain threatening all day, and a very poor weather forecast it seemed unlikely that we'd gat any kind of result other than 10 points each.

When we arrived at the ground, the wicket seemed in pretty good condition, in that it was probably the only bit of turf in West London that wasn't soaking wet (not sure how this was the case), and Wills, as is so often the case lost the toss. Poly decided to bat first, and we started up with Doddsey and Wills both bowling well, despite the odd lose delivery. Poly's opener played his usual attacking style, and raced on to 47 in no time, he was aided by some slack fielding from the E-Unit, and our concentration early on has to improve if we're going to do well this season.

Varley returned to the field after dislocating, his finger, trying to catch like a girl at mid-wicket, and replaced Ciaran from the pavilion end. A real mixed bag of a spell led to three wickets, 30-odd runs, and a load of extras, but it was the wicket count that was important. Poly's batting line up seemed to be under strength compared to previous seasons, and we were looking to exploit this, as we got into the middle order. Rajesh came on from the bottom end, and as usual began to turn the screw with his slow left arm bowling. It was fair to say that he was doing far too much with the ball at times, and really restricted things, despite not taking wickets until his last couple of overs.

From the other end, Danny Hare had come on, with instructions to do the same job as he did last week against Ruislip Manor, and he followed them to the letter, cutting his pace, and dropping the ball on a good length, with Adam Herron standing up behind the stumps, restricting the Poly batsmen to singles, and the odd extra at best. From racing along at over 4 an over at the start of their innings, their run-rate dropped right down to around three as the E-Units game plan started to work. Wills replaced the Rabbit, and carried on from where he left off, as Rajesh look the last couple of wickets with a sharp stumping from Herring, and a smart catch in the deep from Barney.

When we took tea, we were reasonably happy with restricting them to 174, but well aware that conceding 44 extras was not good enough, and with the threat of impending rain still present, it wasn't going to be plain sailing by any means. This was underlined by the fact that we were 1 wicket down after the first few overs, when Simon Roche played an ill advised stroke off the back foot, only to see his off stump uprooted. This brought the form Batsman Dave Hinnigan to the crease to join free-scoring opener Tim Beeden who had been promoted from the Second XI.

The next twenty overs were a blur, as Dave, and especially Tim played some fantastic strokes to race the score along past the hundred mark and beyond. By this stage, the only thing threatening the outcome was possible rain, and with 45 runs required, it began to spit, and threaten to get heavier. The E-Unit in the pavilion were becoming increasingly concerned by this, but Tim and Dodgy were unperturbed and continued to bat with confidence.

As the weather cleared a bit, our mood lifted, and Polys slowing tactics were dropped, as they were resigned to another defeat. The only blip was was Tim being given out for LBW for a superb 87, despite being about 6 yards out of his crease. A couple of the Poly players were heard to say that it was the worst decision they've seen for quite some time, but it was not enough to spoil the party, as Dave Hinnigan eased past 50 and we returned back to Hydeside with 30 in the bag, and a selection crisis in the pipeline for next weekend.

Willett, S Roche, Beeden, D Hinnigan, D Hare, Barnard, A Bilimoria, Herron, Rajesh, C Dodds, Varley

2nd XI vs. Twickenham

Report by: Pat Carr

AROUND HYDESIDE IN 70 OVERS!!!

1000hrs Saturday morning - Beefy receives a call from the twick'n skipper to see if we are going to make them come all the way over to Edmonton to play - Considering the fact that it wasn't raining in Edmonton and we have covers, the answer was of course, YES - All together now aaaahhhh bless em for travelling all that way just to play a silly liddle league game - This attitude, especially from the T's skipper prevailed all day long.

Beefy won the toss and put them in.

Prabhu and Stav started us off from either end. Twickenham looked shaky from the start for some reason. Our spies told us that they were a decent outfit who could bat(wrong on both counts) A quick couple of wickets and they resorted to mid wicket conferences between overs from the 5th over onwards. This was met with slow hand clapping and verbal derision - very justified.

At drinks they had amassed a fantastic 47 runs from 25 overs. I rang my old quartermaster and asked him if i could borrow some camp beds for the boys to lie down on whilst fielding - Things were sloooooooooooow!

However, at the 50 over point they had raced to 135 - 3, a display to behold. Another wicket went down and then Twickenham decided to slow things down a little - Tea was taken at the 60 over point with the score on 150ish - 4/5. We had nearly lost the will to live at this stage.

Words were exchanged (use your imagination then times it by 10) The T's skipper was trying to justify his actions to anyone who would listen, including his own team, two of which apologised to us at the interval and concluded that they did not understand why instructions had been issued to play slowly!

Tea was demolished and we took to the field again - Some comedian suggested we may take the new ball in a few overs time!!!

Big up to Monster returning to us after a long lay off - Keep going son!

A few swings of the bat and ten overs later - Cilla popped her head in and 'surprise surprise' - the Twickenham skipper declared - Well knock me down with a pygmies penis - We were going to get a whole 38 overs to chase the 225 - With a bit of luck, we could still do it. If we had faced 70 overs on our perfect batting track we would have passed the 400++ mark easily - Then again we are proper cricketer's who can bat! Twick'n scored 75 runs in the last 10 overs - What the f**k were you playing at all day boys!!! You will not play on a better batting track anywhere in this league.

Thank god for their Kiwi and the young batsman otherwise we would have had to book into hotel accommodation for the night.

Dom and Asif opened up and pushed the ball around until Dom was caught from a leading edge. Mr B came and went which brought Khazi to the crease. I believe in a little mental pressure and had been delivering some to the oppo'. I fully expect to get some in return, which I did in abundance - No one called me a northern c**t until my 34th over at the crease - I did inform them all, mid over, that they were not very proficient at the art of sledging - even their Kiwi was out of touch. I got the impression that they did not like me a lot.

Asif and Khazi blocked out for 8/9 overs just to steady the ship and regroup after two big wickets. We needed to get 175 for our maximum batting points and we set about doing so.

Asif very unluckily played on with the score about 50ish - 3. James H joined Khazi and settled in despite the constant barrage of very poor quality sledging. A spinner was introduced and James despatched him for 20 runs from his first over. Khazi and James had a mid wicket conference and set about demolishing the bowling to achieve our required 175. James played an outstanding innings and thoroughly deserved his 79 very quick runs. James was out with the score on 178. His innings gave us a glimmer of hope! Stav joined Khazi - we needed 48 runs from 30 balls with the light fading fast. Runs continued to come and Stav was out with E's requiring 24 from 13 balls. Prabhu joined khazi and pushed the ball around for ones and two's - Khazi's petrol ran out and a misjudged second saw him run out for 81 with E's needing 13 off 7 balls. Danny Muschamp marched confidently out to the middle. Prab and Danny gave it their best shot to round off a magnificent E's performance but we fell just short by 6 runs - Fantastic effort boys.

Whilst at the crease - comments were made with regard to Twickenham deliberately playing the way they did to help Birkbeck climb above us in the table - I sincerely hope these comments were just misplaced attempts at sledging and there is no substance to them!

We are a very superior team to Twickenham. With all due deference to our 3rd team, they should go and play our away fixture because they would give them a very good run for their money.

Team; Beefy, Khazi, Mr B, Asiiif, the Rock, Jil, Jimmy H, Danny Boy, Stavmeister, Trouble, The legend that is named 'Monster'

Saturday 19th june 2004

1st XI vs. Ruislip Manor

Report by: Alan Barnard

Lohana last week, MTSSC the week before, this week we travelled round to North West London to face the 3rd newly promoted team in three weeks off the back of two wins in a row, and still unbeaten. Ground was pretty much unchanged from the last time we were there (I even managed to find a bit of Rochies bat that I broke 7 years back), and the pavilion was still a nicely kept shoebox. Wills won the toss, and proceeded to bat, knowing this has served us well so far this season.

Gavin Mardell and Simon Roche opened up as usual, and looked more comfortable against the bowling from the bottom end, as the guy from the top was tall and quite nippy. The out of form Gav was the first to fall, bringing in Dave Hinnigan, but when Rochie slipped up soon after to a misjudged drive things were not looking particularly good. Billy came in and steadied the ship to an extent, but he struggled to find any real momentum on a slow, stopping wicket.

When Billy departed, Barney and Dave came together, and succeeded in capitalising on some tired and erratic bowling to bat well, and record their second 100 run partnership in two weeks. Barney fell first for 44, but Dave continued unfazed towards his first century for the Saturday 1st XI, ably supported by Adam Herron. When Dave fell for a fantastic 112, the score had motored onto almost 200, and with some late hitting and good running from Herring and Danny Hare we declared after 51 overs for 217.

Tea was a non-event, and we took the field with Matty Worton Opening up from the top end, and Ciaran Dodds from the bottom. Matty was unlucky only to get one wicket as he beat the bat so many times, and really looked the business. Far from me to be the one to allege that Manor are a one-man team, but they have to be pretty reliant on the batsman that came in next if they're going to survive in this league. He smashed Matty for consecutive fours, and really didn't slow down at all.

Rajesh was brought on to stem the flow of runs, but a combination of some good shots and some very risky looking shots in the air just wide of fielders meant that this had limited success. The opener was still in at this stage, and had not played an attacking stroke in all that time, slightly frustratingly, but the run rate was still rocketing along. With the rain clouds closing in rapidly, the game could have swung any way at this stage with a couple of wickets, or a few big overs for Manor.

Wills had a blast from the bottom end and bowled some peaches as well as some lose stuff, and when the inevitable rain came we were staring down the barrel, but knowing full well that getting the danger man meant that we could not lose. A short break in the pavilion, let us have a think about things, and the Rabbit was brought on from the bottom end. Bowling off just a couple of paces (we were pushed for time at this stage, and facing point deductions for slow over rate) he stemmed the flow of runs, and to mass celebrations managed to get the danger man for a lively 74.

A couple more wickets followed, but on a track offering very little for any bowlers (Raj was bowling with a bar of soap by this stage, thanks to the rain) we were going to struggle to get the remaining 5 wickets in the 9 overs we had. The Manor batsmen followed the openers lead (he was still in at this point), and shut up shop completely, effectively killing the game as a contest. I'm sure we may have done something similar if we were, say, 8 down, but it's frustrating to know that we had Tony Willett coming in at 8, Rajesh at 9, and we would have won the game if we were in their shoes, or at least given it a go.

When proceedings did end, their opener was 44 not out (43 of which came through the slips, I'm sure) from 195 minutes, which is a quite remarkable feat! This included a rain break, and I'm told that he is not normally a batsman, but come on fellas - show a little ambition, you could turn 12 points into 30 if you chanced your arm, that's the only way to get anywhere in this league. Oh well, lets think of this as 17 points gained, rather than 13 lost, especially as we moved up to second place in the league as other results went our way. Poly next week, which could prove to be a big one… watch this space.

Team:-Wills, Mini, Cocker, Dodgy, Billy, Barney, Double-R, Rabbit, King of Spain, The Rage, Mini Councillor.

2nd XI vs. Highgate

Report by: Pat Carr

HANG EM HIGH ------ GATE

Nice day but a bit cold. Forecast not great but should get a game in at our superb facility.

We win the toss and put the oppo’ in.

Northern makes his two’s seasonal debut and bowls a bit of a mixed bag. His best delivery sent the openers off stump cart wheeling. Prabhu bowled at the other end and apart from the odd bad ball, which were despatched, he bowled above averagely. Northern was replaced by older northern who got a wicket with his third ball – It was not a Carlsberg delivery by any standard. Khazi had their Kiwi batsmen in trouble but the All Black had more edges than pizza hut. With the score on 116 for 5 Beefy called for a big effort and not to let the oppo pass the 130 mark. A tough ask but we had a go. Prabhu bowled all the way through and Beefy replaced Khazi to finish the overs at the top end. Bad balls were dispatched, edges went for four and a few lusty blows added the maximum. 206 – 7 at the 55 over point.

Tea was taken at 4.35 – We were definitely going to have enough overs to chase the runs.

Asif and the Rock opened and put on 36 before Asif was dismissed. Khazi joined Dom and things were slow. Highgate bowled well and scoring opportunities were rare. The overs were being eaten into and we decided to attempt to step things up. Khazi dolly’d a catch to a close fielder and Barrat came to the crease. Mr B dominated the bowling from the start and soon racked up a great 50. Dom was out and Beedo joined Barrat – no quick singles here (Barrat couldn’t keep up!!!) The run rate was still around 5 an over. The boys kept a steady ship until Timbo, after smashing a huge over extra cover six, departed. Prabhu came and went. Stavmeister arrived in his usual watchful stylee – The first ball was launched for a massive six. From this point the match was pretty much won. James H hit the winning runs and another 30 points were gained.

Highgate were a good bunch of blokes who we underestimated. They do not deserve to be where they are in the league.

Team: K Lawrence, P Carr, D Harte, J Pattni, A Padhani, J Hazell, Prabhu, T Beeden, B Ganji, S Elia and Northern.

Saturday 12th june 2004

1st XI vs. Lohana

Report by: Alan Barnard

Another Saturday, another game, another new opponent for this season, this time in the form of Lohana, who were promoted from Division Three as champions, but have struggled to find their form this term. Playing at Mill Hill's old ground, it was nice to be playing on familiar turf, but such a shame that the ground has fallen into such a poor state of disrepair even since we played there last a few years back.

Comedy moment on the way to the ground has to go to Chris 'Premier Scorer' Barnard for his directional sense, as we followed him with Mini and Herron, and managed to lose them about 2 minutes from the ground. We had to turn round twice, and eventually ended up coming to the ground from the wrong direction, only to find that the man with the map had got even more lost, and took 10 minutes longer to get to the ground.

Skippy proves what a useless tosser he really is by losing out again to the oppo skipper, but then finds himself being told that we're batting which whilst not a massive surprise is probably what we would have done given the wicket and conditions. So, the recalled Simon Roche and Gavin Mardell were given the chance to open things up, and both batted positively, racing the score along to 30 in the first few overs. Rochie especially looked in good nick, smashing some lose bowling characteristically through the covers for 4 units.

Gavin slipped up to one that did a bit for 10, and when Simon appeared to be harshly adjudged LBW, we were on the back foot. Once again, it was Dodgy who saved the day, batting conservatively at first with Barney, but opening up as the bowlers tired and the ball softened. It was Barney who departed first, caught behind to a ball that spat nastily and indicated that any total over two hundred was likely to be a very big ask. This was a few balls after the hundred partnership has been reached, another solid milestone showing that our middle order has runs all the way through.

After a flurry of quick wickets, Danny Hare and Dave ticked things on, but both fell with the score at around 180, Dodgy for a superb 93. Rajesh and Matty moved the ball around well to bring us upto 200. Once again, Wills had the luxury of declaring well before he was required to, calculating that 203 was plenty on a wicket that offered something for the bowlers, coupled with the fact that our bowling was in top form.

Sadly the ground was not the only thing in decline from the Mill Hill days, as the plates of chips and pasta were just a distant memory as we were presented with a not insubstantial percentage of the EU cheese sandwich mountain. Where is Northern when you need him? (answer: pissed up in West London trying to work out where Acton play?!) Once we'd stuffed ourselves, and Dan had offended Chris by dunking a digestive in his cuppa, we returned to the field and awaited Skippy's team talk.

Matty took the new ball with Doddsey, and bowled impressively early on, dismissing one of their openers for a laborious 15 minute duck. Meanwhile, Doddsey was looking threatening from the other end, but undeservedly with little reward. Matty was swinging the ball around quite a bit, and just when things started to quieten down in the field, he produced an absolute pearler to dismiss a completely bemused Lohana batsman. The batsman (as well as this member of the slip cordon) was absolutely stunned as he left alone an inswinger which shouldn't have caused any trouble, but came back almost a foot to claim his off stump.

As is so often the case in these situations, a bit of pressure leads to wickets, and the opening bat, who had looked so assured up until this point lost the plot and had a wild swish at a decent ball from Matty, and gave up a sharp catch, which was very well held by Simon at mid off. Doddsey helped himself to a couple, in what was one of his best spells for the 1st XI, and Barney completed a nice run-out after pursuing a lost cause to the boundary, then whipping it in over the stumps.

At this point, Lohana's number 4 and number 8 started to build a partnership, and Rajesh was introduced to do some damage with his slow left arm stuff. Both batsmen were left handers, but Raj plugged away and eventually got the wicket his immaculate line and length deserved. He was starting to turn things square by this stage, and Herron behind the stumps was lucky he was wearing a lid, when one turned and spat at him, nearly taking his head off, and probably scaring the life out of the batsman. A few more partnerships followed, but it was only a matter of time when Raj had what appeared to be a sure-fire caught behind, but it was turned down to the amazement of the fielders.

Another batsman came and went, holing out first ball to a skier to Wills at mid on, after the skipper had performed some kind of bizarre dancing manoeuvre to get to the ball. The last two pairs were proving a difficult proposition to break up, but some relentless pressure, and controlled bowling meant that we were always in the hunt. A sharp low down catch by Mini at slip meant that there was one more needed, and when Raj ripped one from way outside off stump and took the 10th we were on cloud nine. It was especially sweet as it was the batsman that he'd already 'got out', and while I accept that a batsman is entitled to stand his ground when there is a panel umpire, it does leave a bad taste.

That bad taste was not there for long though, as it was replaced by the taste of beer as we returned to Hydeside victorious and happy with 30 well earned points in the bag. In fact, with my victory jug promise, I'm likely to be left a bit out of pocket this season, but who cares, so long as we continue to rack up the points. Team: Anthony 'Bush Kangaroo' Willett, Gavin 'Mini Smith' Mardell, Simon 'Cocker 2' Roche, 'Dodgy' David Hinnigan, Alan 'Purple Dinosaur' Barnard, Adam 'Billy' Bilimoria, Adam 'Splosh & Nosh' Herron, Daniel 'Rabbit' Hare, Rajesh 'King of Spain' Pahazzi, Matthew 'The Rage' Worton, Ciaran 'Mini Councillor' Dodds.

2nd XI vs. Osterley

Report by: Pat Carr

>‘Battle of the Bellies’ – A Brief Report.

Lovely day full of promise. We lose the toss and Osterley put us in.

Dom and Asif give us a very steady start. Osterley started noisily but soon quietened down with the score at 77 for 0. A misunderstanding between Asif and the Rock leads to the former being run out. Never mind a great foundation to build on. Yours truly was next and ‘cameo performance’ doesn’t do it justice. A thin edge onto my pad was given LBW – Whatever. Jilesh came and went and so did James H and Prabhu – Oh dear me! The Rock was dismissed with the score on 97 for 6. Most other teams would now capitulate. However, most other teams don’t have the two Beefy’s batting at 7 & 8. The boys had a look and started taking control. Over the ensuing overs the boys played superbly. Kev was dismissed with the score on 212, full batting points gained and a few overs left to hit out. We finished on 262 and Osterley were not best pleased. – Well done the BIG BOYS. Considering the Skipper has not had to bat under pressure for over a season, it shows His real quality.

We were all very impressed with Danny Muschamp for His all round performance – a very good future prospect.

Tea!

Jilesh was struggling with an injury and could not field. A massive shout to Andy Cooper for fielding in his absence – a true club man.

Osterley set about the task with their usual big hitting tactics. This worked for sometime but once wickets started tumbling they could only bat out for a winning draw for the E’s.

We are still top of the league.

Team: K Lawrence, P Carr, D Harte, J Pattni, A Padhani, T Beeden, J Hazell, L Henry, Danny Muschamp, Prabhu, S Elia and Coops.

Saturday 5th june 2004

1st XI vs. MTSSC

Report by: Alan Barnard

Two draws and a win, has to be considered a solid start to the season, especially since we'd played a couple of the stronger sides in the division already, and managed to keep our unbeaten record intact. What we needed now was to kick on from this start against MTSCC to prove our credentials for moving up into Division 1 by securing a win, and making it 2 wins out of 2 at Hydeside.

The skipper attempted to enforce the toss by pointing out that the opposition were not there 15 minutes prior to the start time, but they argued that they were, and it was agreed that for the sake of sportsmanship we should toss up. First victory of the day was the moral victory of winning a toss that we should have been awarded anyway, and the decision was made to bat first with the aim of posting a competitive total on a good track.

Tim 'Twinkletoes' Beeden and Gavin 'Mini Smith' Mardell opened up the batting, and looked solid, although didn't score at a huge speed. They saw the new ball off -Tamils had one very tidy opening bowler, who was seaming it around and looking threatening - and despite them both falling in the twenties had given us a solid platform from which to build a competitive total from. That start was almost completely undermined by some very poor shot selection from Barney and Billy at 4 and 5 respectively, who threw away 80-2 to 80-4 and put a lot of pressure on the remainder of the batting.

Fortunately for us, the remainder of the batting was in the form of Dodgy 'Dave' Hinnigan and Danny 'Rabbit' Hare, who compiled an excellent 100 run partnership in double quick time to get us up towards a very competitive 200+ total. It was Danny's first 50 for the Saturday 1st XI, and was as attacking and fluent as we've come to expect from him in recent years. Dodgy's innings was more composed, and he saw the innings through with a superb unbeaten 89 after stands with the skipper and Rajesh. It really was a superb display of how to pace an innings, and it's clear for all to see that after his 50 last weekend, he's picked up the mantle from Venki as the premier batsman in the club.

Wills had the luxury to steal a slight psychological march on the opposition by declaring a couple of overs early on 217-6, certainly not expected at all, but making the bold statement that we were here to win the game, not to compile as big a total as possible and bowl for a draw from the start. We also had the knowledge that we have probably the best bowler in the division, if not the league in the form of Rajesh, who is capable of bowling tightly, as well as attacking batsmen and breaking partnerships.

As it transpired, it was Raj that proved to be the catalyst after Matty had opened up from the top end with very little luck. The game followed a very similar pattern to the previous home game against Birkbeck College, where the MTSSC openers looked to dominate early on against the opening pair. They had quite a substantial amount of success, as some wayward bowling, couple with a couple of very sharp chances going down saw the run rate rise well above the requirement.

Varley replaced Doddsey at the bottom end, but it proved to be the change at the top end that was to turn the game. Rajesh came on for Matt, and immediately kept things tight, and as is so often the case, a little pressure goes a long way. It's also quite handy when only two out of 11 opposition players have a clue how to play your main bowling threat. The Tamils opening bat, who had looked so assured against the quicks was now getting tied in knots, and it was no surprise when Raj had him trapped plumb in front.

Pressure built, and more wickets fell, a sharp catch at point by Barney off Varley being the pick, as the Batsman looked as surprised as the fielder that the catch had stuck. Rajesh was in full flow by now, and deservedly made it his second 5 for in consecutive games as the 9th wicket fell - it's a very rare sight to see three close catchers around the bat, but his bowling really justified this.

The icing on the cake came when Doddsey came back on from the bottom end looking to make up for his dropped catch earlier on, which was the easiest 1st XI miss since Matty cost us a win against Hanwell 3 years earlier (sorry Matty, but you brought it up yourself!). This time, Mini Smith made no mistake at first slip, and for the 2nd time in 3 weeks, wild celebrations ensued (this time without f**king the skippers ankle over).

Things are looking up at the club now, with Simon Roche and Adam Herron available next weekend, selection is hotting up - people have to be playing well to justify their place in the side. Great performance boys, and lets make sure this fella doesn't hurt his spinning fingers - you never know, this might be our year!

Willett, Mardell, Beeden, D Hinnigan, Barnard, A Bilimoria, D Hare, Rajesh, Worton, C Dodds, Varley.

2nd XI vs. Alexandra Park

Report by: Pat Carr

Ally Pally – Don’t Dilly Dally

Skipper sends ‘lucky Khazi’ out to toss up – Now called ‘unlucky Khazi’

AP win toss and decide to bat first – this is the second time this has happened to us – I think that teams must just want to get the batting points in the bag, or fancy setting a target and chasing the runs!!!

Lloyd opens up from the top end with some really good aggressive deliveries – Tactical decision brings Stavmeister on from the bottom end. This tactic worked very well for various reasons, a) the track was very unpredictable, b) the over rate was phenomenal c) the batsmen had to play full blooded shots against the slow pace d) Stavmeister bowled well.

The two openers batted as well as they could on a tack that you can never be in on. We bowled well and wickets started to fall at regular intervals. Lloyd took a couple and Stav opened his account. The AP keeper came to the crease and stuck around for a while for a well deserved 40ish. His support at the other end was sadly lacking and wickets kept tumbling. Khazi replaced Lloyd and bowled averagely. Stav was still in full swing at the other end. He attempted to swallow a full bloodied straight drive but fortunately managed to parry it into his chin – It could have been very nasty indeed – Stitches were required afterwards(awaiting official confirmation)….Stav soldiered on and ended with figures of 25/10/6/47 – top stuff indeed. Asif missed a very sharp chance at very short third man and our fielding in general was above average. Big up to Barrat who kept very well and all the boys for keeping switched on and motivated throughout.

AP notched up 142 all out, told us they had a good bowling line up, and were up for the fight.

Tea happened!!!

The rock and Asif opened up – because of Stavmeister bowling all the way through – we had oodles of time left. We reckoned on at least 45 overs. The rock was struggling by his usual high standards and was out with the score on 11. Khazi joined Asif and soon realised how difficult batting was on this track and how 142 was actually not too shabby a score. Asif holed out, 23 for 2, game on. Jilesh walked out and both he and khazi, who was struggling to get anything on the ball, knuckled down. AP were really up for the fight now and could sense an upset. We had different ideas. Jilesh batted superbly and Khazi supported him all the way. No further wickets were lost before a superb victory was achieved with 13 overs to spare. Jilesh played one of the finest innings I have seen for quite sometime. His unbeaten 75 was easily worth a century – well done son.

AP congratulated us and genuinely praised us for showing them how to apply yourself to batting on a difficult track – Thank god we do not play on any worse tracks that that one!!!

We performed well as a unit and look forward to the next three home games – These three games will really shape our season so lets dig deep and not let our standards slip.

Thanks to big Ray for umpiring – Watched Big R play on Sunday – He is a god!

Team: K Lawrence, P Carr, D Harte, J Pattni, A Padhani, J Hazell, L Henry,D Smith, B Ganji, S Elia and J Bernadetti.