Saturday 3rd June 2006
Saturday 10th June 2006
Saturday 17th June 2006
Saturday 24th June 2006

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 3rd June 2006

1st XI vs. Harrow St Marys

Report by: Mark Varley

Well its about bloody time we got some decent weather!! Saturday 03/06/06 was a glorious sunny day which saw the E-Unit take on the always competitive Harrow St. Mary's. Hydeside was looking in its prime, with the wicket looking a bit green shall we say due to the excess rain; however it still looked flat as a pancake. The outfield looked even and short, with the boundary parallel to the third/fourth team pitch short as usual. We all know what a great batting wicket it is at home where teams can really take hold of a game in the first innings.

However due to some positive thinking from the majority of the Unit we put the opposition in to bat. The bowlers seeming very confident in their abilities, and the team looking keen to field. We know we've got a relatively weak bowling attack compared to previous seasons, but we do have bowlers who can tie batsmen down and limit the runs.

This was our plan going out on to the field and it worked well. Our fielding was near enough top drawer, limiting the singles wherever possible. It was clear the bowlers were trying to bowl outside the line of off stump with two slips and two gullies in for the most part of 20 overs. This tactic was a good one except the ball seemed to creep between the fielders, this was extremely frustrating for the team especially the bowlers who seemed to be on top of the batsmen. A change was made by the skip, and the two openers Dodds and Varley were relieved both disappointed at not taking advantage of some rash batting. The change brought a bit of a drought in runs and the run rate dropped. This pressure brought the first wicket, and the pressure was consistent through most of the innings with wickets falling steadily.

With 40 overs gone the score was looking very average and this seemed to bring a lapse in concentration from the team as catches were beginning to go down and there were a few miss-fields. This lapse let HSM off the hook a little and with just 5 overs to go and the score a modest 210-220 a strong flourish from the number 7 batsmen took the total to 256.

The Unit new this target was not impossible as we saw it surpassed many times last season. It was still a pretty average score I felt, but we were always going to struggle with the limited overs we were going to get back. Our chase didn't get off to the best start with Prabu falling cheaply, but this brought young wrong-un of the year Danny (the rabbit) Hare to the crease and he and Dodgy Dave Hinnigan started to tap the ball about the park and putting away the bad balls. Things were looking promising until Dodge tried pulling a short delivery out of the park only to see it head straight to mid-on's hands. With two wickets down and the score around the 30 mark Alan (did you see my six) Barnard took to the crease with Dan and they both looked solid punishing bad balls with severe authority, and also taking all available singles, doubles and the odd triple.

To be honest neither batsmen looked in any trouble against the lack of variety in the HSM attack. Both batsmen reached their half centuries in a superb 100 partnership and with 12-13 overs remaining the simple task of 10 an over looked possible with 8 wickets in hand and the two boys unleashed a deadly attack bringing a few lusty blows to entertain the masses. The task eventually became too much of an ask after a few tight overs from HSM. With the 175 reached and no chance of us losing the game the task became obvious that the two batsmen deserved their centuries. Keeping Chris very busy in the score board trying to keep everyone informed, with two overs remaining Alan was on 92ish after unleashing a six that is safe to say christened the new changing rooms unofficially (well I thought it was good, but don't tell Barney I said that). He and Dan were examining the score board and new what they had to do sadly neither reached their target with Barney finishing agonisingly short on 99 and Danny with an extremely mature and well deserved 92.

All round a good performance from the team let down by a 5 over lapse in concentration which cost us 30 points in hindsight, but isn't that a wonderful thing!!

Willett, Balachandaran, D Hinnigan, D Hare, Barnard, Herron, Beeden, A Bilimoria, C Dodds, M Loveday, Varley

2nd XI vs. Wembley

Report by: David Smith

Wembley away is not top of everyone's wish list for an away game but the 2nd XI came away delighted after recording their first victory of the season, even though we turned up with 10 cricketers and Danny who was distraught that his mum had forgotten to pack his bag and took the field in shorts and borrowed boots. Only joking Mary.

After losing the toss we expected to be putting our pads on and watching the football in the bar, but to our surprise and delight the opposing captain elected to bat enabling the returning Darren (Keeno) Bennett to get into the game early as he opened the bowling from the top end. It didn't take long for him to make his mark as the very first ball of the match was pushed to Chris Goddard at gully who made no mistake.

The fall of the first wicket brought their Australian to the crease, who it must be said looked very good indeed and was easily the best batsman on show, stroking the ball to the boundary on numerous occasions in his 45, but the fall of two quick wickets at the other end put the pressure on and he succumbed to the wiles of Archer caught superbly behind the stumps by the excellent Dave Rae, leaving the hosts struggling on 70 odd for 4 after moments earlier looking a real threat at 70 -1.

Some very good bowling from both Stavros Elia and Archer Cornwall saw the fall of wickets at regular intervals which saw Archer finish with 5 for 50 odd after bowling unchanged in a 22 over spell, Stavros 3 and the returning Darren picking one up at the death to finish with two. The Wembley captain put up some fine resistance before being adjudged LBW to Cornwall as he helped his young side amass a poor looking score of 149. Some fine fielding throughout by Chris Goddard in particular stopped the score from creeping up to the 200 mark and the majority of the catches being held made it a fine day in the field for the E Unit.

After the first week in which the side were chasing an almost identical target we were determined not to let this chance slip through our grasp. Opening up again were Dave Smith and Gavin Mardell who started brightly stroking the ball to the boundary in a brisk start which saw the score reach 40 for no loss at 4 runs an over. The introduction of spinners from either end slowed the run rate and the openers were soon struggling as first Gavin (18) was LBW to the quicker one and moments later Dave Smith (24) played a loose sweep shot that saw him bowled. Unfortunately James Hazell (5) followed soon after and the E Unit was struggling. At the crease were Daz Sivathasan (20) and Dave Rai (45*) who went about repairing some of the damage. Daz batted solidly and showed his experience before falling for 20. Chris Goddard (30*) strode in at 6, and by his own account fairly nervous, and played the kind of sensible innings we want to see much more from him over the season. He played the ball on its merits and once in hit the bad ball very hard indeed amassing 3 sixes. Not to be outdone Dave Rai started to take the attack to the bowlers and sped past Chris as he smashed 4 sixes of his own to see us home with 6 wickets and plenty of overs to spare.

Man of the Match Archer Cornwall, for his monumental bowling spell closely followed by Chris Goddard, Stav Elia and Dave Rai.

Overall a fine all-round performance that has seen the E's rise up to second in the league.

Gavin Mardell, Dave Smith, James Hazell, Daz Sivathasan, Dave Rai (wk), Chris Goddard, Dave Baker, Danny Muschamp, Stav Elia, Archer Cornwall, Darren Bennett.

4th XI vs. Alexandra Park

Report by: Kevin Fursse

Alexandra Park batted steadily with a fine knock from their number 3 of 97. Edmonton also bowled steadily, but were hampered by a handful of dropped catches. Youngsters Billy Pete and Paul Baker both impressed with the ball. Salman Khan and Steve Loveday bowled well in tandem restricting Alexandra Park to a solid but unspectacular score. In reply Imran Baccus well supported by Azid Sohoye steered the ship to victory. Imran narrowly missed out on a centuary.

5th XI vs. Harold Wood

Report by: David Sans

Saturday 3rd June was a free weekend for the 5th's in the league as North London had pulled out at the beginning of the season. We managed to arrange a friendly at home on the Grocers with Harold Wood, who won the toss and decided to bat first, which with the team I had out was quite helpful.

So Harold Wood batted first and posted a total of 169/9 in 43 overs, which was at the time the highest score set on the new Grocers ground. A Brilliant bowling spell from young 12 year old Adam Lord finished with bowling figures of 7 overs 1 maiden 20 runs 5 wickets, and twice he was on for a hat-trick. At the other end was the ever reliable DOC-(Anand Rooban) with figures of 12-3-39-3.

Our batting reply wasn't much in the way of entertaining, with Bill Billimoria and Peter Pate not available and the DOC had been pestering me about having a bat so I let him open the batting with young Thomas Boxer who got a well played 30 and the DOC got 21 in 28 overs. We ended up with a draw and finished on 127/4 in 43 overs.

Sunday Academy XI vs. Belmont & Edgware

Report by: David Sans

Our first game on a Sunday as the academy XI. We played Belmont & Edgware we managed to bowl them out for 91 with Steve Lynn finishing with figures of 5.3-0-16-4 and Chris Pratt 6-0-15-2, Chat Gallage 6-3-14-2 and young Jamie Hawkins from the U12's finished with 4-2-6-2. In our batting we came close but not close enough finishing with 84 all out. We were 35-1 collapsing to 71-9 and then Myself and Chris Pratt got us close but only to 84.

Saturday 10th June 2006

1st XI vs. Old Lyonians

Report by: Martin Loveday

It was hot; it was the day of England's opening world cup fixture against Paraguay. Most men were in a pub with a beer in hand but we were making our way to Harrow. They have a nice ground, although saying that the wicket had a fair amount of long grass on it which had obviously been rolled but probably not actually cut in a while.

Stand in skipper Adam Herron won the toss and elected to field first which was meet with a mixed feelings but if the England game wasn't on this wouldn't have been an issue as it was tactically the best decision.

We opened up with Varley at one end and Dodds at the other and the wicket was showing it had a bit of life; it was quick and had some extra bounce if you put your back into it. They both caused problems to both the left hand and right hand batsmen but especially the right-hander, who was really struggling. He played and missed at a lot; he threw his arms at pretty much everything and managed only in hitting the edge of his bat and fresh air. Both openers showed some aggression with the odd short ball which resulted in the lefty taking a blow to the ribs. The boys kept the runs down and the pressure was building and it wasn't long until Barney chased a ball through out the covers and after a tidy slide and good throw to the keeper saw their right hand bat run out by a mile. He decided to stand his ground as he believed he was impeded but the umpires agreed that there was nothing amiss and he eventually slopped off giving a bit of verbal to the big northern lad which was meet with 11 fielders and even an umpire laughing at him.

It was not long after this that Dodds got the wicket he deserved when the other opener got a nick to Tim at first slip who held onto a good catch low down. I should mention that their number 3 had played some very nice shots and looked like he could bat. Their number 5 (Kumar) attended nets with the ECC and had us assist him in obtaining a visa only to say that he had to return home. As you can guess it did not go down well when he arrived at the crease and the boys made sure he knew what we thought of him. After seeing him bat for a couple of overs I wasn't really to sure why we bothered because he didn't look like a world beater. Anyway Varley was replaced by Prahbu and Dodds replaced by Hare. They were both again bowling really well and causing a lot of problems. The run rate may have picked up slightly but it didn't last long as Hare rushed one onto their number 3 and he dollied one up to Dodds at cover and the very next ball saw Prabhu clean bowl Kumar.

All of a sudden there were 2 new bats to the crease and it was time for a drink break. Prahbu got straight to work and had their number 5 caught by Varley at mid off for 0. There was change at the other end when Loveday replaced Hare. It was Prabhu again who got the next which was had a lot to do with a great catch from Hare at short extra cover diving low to his right to take a ball which was travelling sharply. They had their 7 and 8 at the crease with the 7 having a decent cover drive but seemed to edge everything early into just about every gap there was behind square on the off side.

Loveday managed to pick up the number 8 caught at gully by Hinnigan. This bought there number 9 to the wicket and he had more interest in padding everything that using his bat. This again put pressure on them to accelerate at the other end and their number 7 was superbly held by Hare at deep cover when the ball went high and he had to travel a way to his right and gave Loveday his second victim. It was about ten runs later when the number 9 tried to use his bat against the bowling of Prahbu and only managed to play the ball onto his stumps. Seeing as the opposition only managed to gather 10 players for this game it was the end of their innings with them dismissed for 166 in 45 overs.

The general feeling at tea was that this was a solid performance with all the bowlers bowling well and backed up by very good fielding that was maintained throughout the entire innings and some great catches when the ball went to hand. Maybe the early season rustiness is out the way as we have perhaps let ourselves down in recent weeks with fielding errors and dropped catches but this performance was excellent. There was not the normal rush for tea as the building it was being served doubled as a greenhouse and I don't think anyone could manage much more than a sandwich, despite the tea being top drawer.

Mardell and Hinnigan were to open the batting for the E-unit. Their 2 opening bowlers looked sharp on a quick wicket but sprayed the ball around to the sum of 3 wides in the first over. The boys took to the task well and played some good shots all over the ground. Hinnigan played some outstanding straight drives and Mardell played the ball all over until he was dismissed for 20 when he was caught at mid on with the score about 75 for 1. Hare was next in and was soon coming back as he was judged to be LBW to one that looked like it stayed a little low on him. 2 down and Barney to join Hinnigan.

The boys looked comfortable and Hinnigan smashed a huge six as he brought up his 50. Unfortunately Hinnigan was out with the score on about 110. Herron joined Barney at the crease and they set about knocking the runs off with some quick running between the wickets. It was this running that led to the fall of our 4th wicket as Herron set off for a tight run he seemed to make his ground by some way after a poor throw left the keeper with a lot of work to do but the umpire decided that he was short of his ground. It must be said although disappointed Herron accepted the decision unlike the opposition batsman. We needed about 25 runs to win when Bilimoria came to the wicket and he and Barney looked at ease and scored at will. Barney bought up his 50 as they boys guided us home with 6 wickets and 6 overs to spare.

It has to be said that this was a top performance where we always seemed in control both in the field and batting so the skipper validated his decision to field first as we took 30 points and a lot of plus points going into next weeks game.

Finally it should be noted that verses of Prahbu is better than Kumar could be heard all around Harrow...

Team: Mardell, Hinnigan, Hare, Barnard, Herron, Bilimoria, Prahbu, Beeden, Dodds, Loveday, Varley. Scorer: Chris Barnard

2nd XI vs. Uxbridge

Report by: Chris Goddard

Turning up to the picturesque Hydeside, for what we believed would be a hard fought game against one of the big boys of the county league.

Me, Stav and Danny are there well before one and are sitting in the sun watching the England fans turn up to watch the football. Time approaches 1:15 and our opposition have yet to arrive, based on this we get to choose the toss, which is of course for us to field!!

Once they have turned up, we take the field, Whalli and Jilesh have returned from exile and come back into our ranks. Anyway back to the game. Whalli and DB opened up and both were bowling well, DB sticking to his lines and lengths and Whalli shooting the ball through to Dave Rai.

The openers did not look comfortable and in I think Whalli's third over picked up the wicket of there opener thanks to a superb catch from Stav at first slip. The ball flying off a low edge and Stav managing to catch from behind his body and hold on!!

After this we hit a bit of a dry spell, with us more content to stem the flow of runs which we did, it got to about the 22nd over and they were at 80 odd, if that, wickets were falling at a slow rate. It wasn't till their 6 and 7 came in where runs started to flow. Bearing in mind it was a roasting day and it wasn't till like the 42nd over where they started to push it along. Anyway the 50 overs come along and we weren't surprised to see them preparing for the next over as they were only at 190ish.

4 overs later they were all out; with Smithy taking 2 good catches one over his shoulder which was very good indeed. 227 the target. 54 overs bowled Stav got 6, Archer a couple and Whalli a couple. Jilesh bowled very well and helped the stem of the runs, DB bowled well wit no luck and our fielding was very good indeed!! Anyway took our usual tea, if u can call it that.

Smithy and Muschamp opened, got us off to a great start, before Danny got caught. Danny played some very nice shots for his 25 odd. Smithy and Jilesh were in and continued the run chase. Smithy then knocked one on to his stumps and this bought Dave Rai to the crease. First ball golden duck, this brought me to the crease hit a single then over.

At this point Jilesh succumbed to a huge cramp attack and was in serious pain, playing thru the pain for a couple of overs, before Danny had to come in as a runner. That over I gave the mid off catching practice, which brought Whalli to the crease. Jilesh finally succumbs to cramp and mis-timed one, which brings Baker to the crease, one four then tries a non-cricketers shot and is bowled. This brings Imran to the crease; Imran played some nice shots and stuck around giving Whalli a lot of the strike. Imran finally got out caressing one to mid on.

This brought Stav to the crease, knowing perfectly well that we needed a further 20 odd for the winning draw wit 3 wickets left. Stav did his job and stuck around giving Whalli the strike. Whalli put on smashing fours, sixes and singles to get us on target for the win with 3 overs left.

Great chase, good game, England won - another plus!

Special mention to Whalli / Stav who chipped in with wickets and runs, and Jilesh for contributing with 45 runs as well! Same as the week before, we restricted then knocked them off, well done lads!!

Team: Danny "Trousers" Muschamp, Dave "Retired" Smith, Jilesh "I Got Cramp" Pattini, Dave "It Was a Stumping" Rai, Chris "What a Crap Shot" Goddard, Whalli "or is it Sunnil" Khan, Dave "I Wanna Bat, Bowl and Keep" Baker, Stav "Princess" Elia, Archer "Captain Fantastic!" Cornwall, Darren "Best Bat in the Club" Bennett.

5th XI vs. Shepherds Bush

Report by: David Sans

On a hot day with England playing, No Rooban, Pate, Kershaw, I managed to get a still good team out to play away at Shepherd's Bush Not much to shout about in this one Shepherd's Bush won the toss and batted, they got 269/5 in 45 overs and in reply we blocked out finishing with 130/3 in 47 overs. Only real positive thing was that Bill Billimoria got 57 not out when we batted.

Sunday Academy XI vs. Blackrose

Report by: David Sans

Blackrose won the toss and batted first, they posted the highest score at that time on Grocers of 202/8 declared in 30 overs, with U15's Dominic Gibbs shining with figures of 7-1-19-1. In our reply we got 108 all out in 34 overs, youngster Shehan from the U17's batted really well and getting a good 32.

Saturday 17th June 2006

1st XI vs. Calthorpe

Report by: Tim Beeden

Another hot Saturday afternoon, another lovely day for cricket. With skipper Tony Willett once again absent, it was up to Adam Herron to lead us. Calthorpe won the toss and decided to bat - we knew if we kept them to below 250, we had a good chance of chasing it on what was another Hydeside batting paradise.

Calthorpe started quite well with their skipper playing his normal anchor role with the rest of the team looking to bat around him and play their shots. This was certainly true of the other opener who, despite a lack of foot movement dispatches anything in his zone. Ciaran Dodds and Mark Varley were both unlucky to pick up a wicket, and it was left to Danny Hare to remove the opener and number 3 in quick succession.

Calthorpe then had a good 3rd wicket partnership of over 100 before Prabhu got the number 4 for 55. This took the score to about 170, and put Calthorpe in a good position to post a big total. As the innings went on, we managed to pick up the odd wicket, but couldn't stop the flow of runs, what with the short boundary and quick outfield. Calthorpe finished on 282-6 from 55 overs. We went into tea a little disappointed, but knew that we could still get the runs with a couple of good partnerships.

We got off to the worst possible start when we lost Gavin Mardell for 0 in only the 3rd over, it was left to Dave Hinnigan and Danny Hare to rebuild the innings, and this was done slowly, but surely. They had put on over 50 before Danny was dismissed. This brought in Alan Barnard, with himself and Dave being the form batsmen at the moment, this would have to be the big partnership. Neither batsman looked in any trouble as the score went onto about 140 before Alan nicked one behind. It was now very important that Dave batted all the way through the innings as this now seemed our only change of winning.

Adam Herron went cheaply before a good cameo from Adam Bilimoria saw us needing 100 from the last 10 overs. With Dave now past his hundred, this looked well within reach. Ciaran was put up the order, but unfortunately after a few lusty blows, he managed to run Dave out for an excellent 118. A couple more wickets fell as we still chased the win, and it was left to Tim Beeden and Martin 'Hoggard' Loveday to see out the final few overs, as we finished on 234-8.

In the end it was a fair result, we knew we had to get their skipper early so they couldn't build the innings around him. They couldn't declare any earlier because 250 is easily chasable on our wicket, and if we could have found someone to build a partnership with Dave, then we might have ended up winners.

Team: Herron, Mardell, D Hinnigan, D Hare, Barnard, A Bilimoria, C Dodds, Balachandaran, Beeden, M Loveday, Varley.

2nd XI vs. Barnet

Report by: Dave Smith

There is not much you can put in a report when the opposition have been bowled out for 16. Two bowlers Wally and the returning Lloyd bowled unchanged and took the 9 wickets between them, with Wally returning figures of 7-6-1-5. Quite exceptional.

In reply Dave Smith and Danny Muschamp sped to 17-0 in 2.2 overs to secure the win. We finished at 2.30 and still paid 10 pounds for the privilege.

All in all another victory has been achieved and we are now top of the league for the first time, a position we hope to stay in for the rest of the season.

4th XI vs. Southgate

Report by: Kevin Fursse

Southgate won the toss and batted on another very hot day. After a tight opening spell from Archie McArthur, the slow bowlers took over, bowling the majority of the overs. Paul Baker again showing real promise with a spell of 3-27. A total of 218-8 was always going to be tough. Dominic Harte (55) and Azid Sohoye (103*) led the way, supported by Colin Turner (16) and Paul Baker (10*). Victory was reached with 2 and a half overs left, a fine display, particularly by Azid.

5th XI vs. Swamibapa

Report by: David Sans

Another Saturday home game for the 5th XI saw us taking on bottom of the table Swamibapa, and on a wicket that had been keeping low on it's first ever game, I thought I'd better carry on the tradition and bowl first but I lost the toss, but thankfully they decided to bat first and at the end of the 12th over Tony Kershaw shouts to me: 'Dave I'll have to come off, I think I done my hamstring.' So with that I turned to Bill Billimoria who stepped up to the plate and with him and the DOC {Anand Rooban} bowling in tandem we dismissed them all out for 91 in 33.4 overs. Rooban finished with figures of 17-5-46-4, Billimoria 10-3-31-5 and not forgetting Tony Kershaw 6-3-6-1.

In our reply we lost three wickets with young Alex Coxall from the U17's top scoring with 29 then extra's second top scoring with 25, might have took us 35 overs but a second win means we have set a record for the 5th's with now the most wins ever in a season.

Sunday Academy XI vs. Winchmore Hill

Report by: David Sans

Well not much to say here as we got completely tonked. Winchmore won the toss and batted first scoring a massive 310/5 in their 45 overs.

In reply we struggled to 97 all out in 32.4 overs But I better mention that Kemal Panchal top scored with 17, and u17's Jack Shirley got 16 along with Alan Lord who got 16, Tony Kershaw got 11 and BELIEVE IT cos it's in the book but David Sans scored 5 NOT OUT…

Saturday 24th June 2006

1st XI vs. Osterley

Report by: Alan Barnard

Not an easy report to write this one, not just because of the brevity of the game, but the general lack of competitiveness shown by most of the team was disappointing to say the least. We knew that it would be a spinner friendly track from the experiences of the Sunday before, and on inspection prior to the game, this certainly seemed the case.

Winning the toss and deciding to bat was a point of some contention, but not something that I'm going to spend much time dwelling on, and despite the early loss of Dave Hinnigan to what can only be described as an unplayable delivery, Dave Smith and Danny Hare set about rebuilding the innings, and getting us back into a respectable position. Smithy, who was drafted in for his first start for some time looked a little shaky early on, but visibly gained in confidence as his innings went on, whilst Dan batted as well as anyone on the day, looking in very little trouble throughout.

Three wickets in 3 overs changed around the match situation, and left us staring down the barrel as Osterley introduced their left-arm spinner to immediate effect, getting turn and bounce to snag Hare and Barnard, whilst skipper Herron was undone by a quick Yorker from the opener at the other end. Wickets fell at regular intervals, with only Smith offering anything in the way of resistance, and we eventually succumbed for a way below par 83.

There's no doubt as to the player that had the most impact on the match, the left arm spinner from Osterley finished with stunning figures of 14 overs 7 for 11, and at times was totally unplayable. It has to be said that even another 50 runs may well have been competitive on this type of wicket, and with two specialist slow bowlers in our ranks, but sadly this was not to be, and we looked resigned to defeat.

Tea was taken, and we all took the field hoping for the improbable, but realistically looking to snag a couple of bowling points and drag the game out as long as possible. What happened was completely the opposite, as the openers came out all guns blazing and hitting everything off length, and most stuff on length too. Dodds was suffering from the top end as a result of some very risky strokeplay, whilst Varley beat the bat, and found the edge on a number of occasions from the other end, but sadly nothing went to hand.

After a brief stoppage for handbags at ten paces, and a general desire for several players to get more closely acquainted with their opponents, the game continued with Danny Hare replacing Ciaran from the top end. The bowling change paid immediate dividends, as Barney took a sharp boundary catch to dismiss the number 2 for 37, a couple of balls later, and Hare repeated the feat, with Varley this time taking another good catch running in from third man. Despite Mark bowling another probing over, beating the bat on several occasions, Osterley passed our score with no further loss, and there wasn't a lot more to be said or done.

Clearly we can't have too many more performances like this one, in more than one respect, and to be honest, I think this was more of a one off than the norm. Also, as somebody pointed out: to be in to the 7th game of the season and to suffer your first defeat is no mean feat, and something we should be proud of, rather than disappointed with. There's no denying that we have to hold our wickets more precious on difficult wickets, and not get into the mindset that we can't score runs on tough pitches, but other than that we're not doing a lot wrong. On that performance, Osterley will be competing at the end of the season, so there's no shame in losing, just a large sense of disappointment in the nature of the defeat.

Team: Herron, Smith, D Hinnigan, D Hare, Barnard, A Bilimoria, Balachandaran, Beeden, C Dodds, Elia, Varley

2nd XI vs. Brentham

Report by: Danny Muschamp

An Edmonton side that had so far up to this point in the season bowled first, were put into bat on what seemed a great batting track. Muschamp and Adeel opened the batting and to say they struggled at the start would be putting it mildly. Also the pitch had a bit more life to it than we thought, leaving Muschamp with a whack on the hand, and Adeel getting a nasty delivery that reared up and left him with a bit of a headache, also knocking out his capped teeth (which were found about 7 overs later)!

Muschamp and Adeel moved the score on slowly and steadily, with many of the runs being scored through edges, before Adeel lost his wicket, with the score around 75. 20 overs were gone and we seemed in control of the game. Jilesh came in 3 and moved the score on with some superb stroke play before a row broke out that is best not spoken about! Shortly after Jilesh departed, but with overs to spare and a decent start, 240 looked a good score to reach.

Muschamp attacked the bowling and although a number of air shots were played, pushed on the score before falling for 94. Wickets fell towards the end of the innings, Muschamp, Goddard, Rai and Walli all played a part before being dismissed, leaving Mardell and Singh (Dhoni), to complete the innings, setting a modest total of 218-6 off of the 50 overs.

Everyone was fired up for the chase, and a good start was vital in ensuring the score set was not reached!! Lloyd and Walli opened up and bowled excellently, keeping to tight lines and restricting the flow of runs. It was clear from the start that the intentions of Brentham was not too score the total set, rather see out the overs and hope for a point!

Archer came on to bowl and as usual produced a solid spell of bowling, picking up a few wickets. The overs began to run out and we needed quick wickets to win the game, and seeing that Brentham had 100 odd for 5 off 35 overs, us losing the game seemed very unlikely.

We worked extremely hard in the field and although mixing the bowling up brought success, we just fell short of a victory, holding Brentham to a very defensive 113-8.

It was very spirited effort and with all what occured during the game, our behaviour in the field was exemplary throughout. This is why there is no man of the match, but a well done to the whole team to the performance produced!

5th XI vs. Uxbridge

Report by: David Sans

After Uxbridge showed up at 2.30pm and not starting for another 15 min's, they had won toss batted first and declared on 215/8 in 40 overs, with the DOC finishing with figures of 19-4-89-5. We replied with 112/6 in 42 overs and Justin Benedetti top scoring with 39.