Saturday 26th May 2001
Saturday 19th May 2001
Saturday 5th May 2001

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Saturday 26th May 2001

Report by: Alan Barnard

In a disappointing weekend for the Club, Edmonton's 1st XI managed to lose a game they should have won, the 2nds tied from a near impregnable position, and the 3rds eased to a win against a weakened 4th team. It's only a short report today, as I don't have a lot of time on my hands at the moment. Mentions have to go to Venki, our 1st XI overseas wicketkeeper batsman, who played a magnificent knock against some good Middlesex Tamils bowling, and Pat Carr, who took 6 wickets in the second team, and shared in a 1st wicket partnership of 51 with Kevin Lawrence in difficult conditions.

The First XI started brightly, wining the toss and electing to field. The decision looked justified after some good bowling from Neil Roche and John Street resulted in two early wickets. However, a very good partnership between two Middlesex Tamils batsmen left us struggling. A late comeback restricted them to 251 on a good batting track, Such Roy being the pick of the bowlers, and Ali Cohen making a promising 1st XI debut.

In reply, we started brightly with Tim Beeden and Simon Roche scoring boundaries, but two silly run-outs and three silly shots left us reeling at 50-5. We recovered well, with Venki leading the charge with some delightful strokeplay on his way to 97. He was well supported first by Ali Cohen, and later by Such Roy. A late comeback from MTSCC denied him his first centaury for the club, and they managed to take the last wicket with only three balls to spare and the score at 175. Altogether, slightly disappointing, but as with last season, out batting let us down at the vital time.

In the 2nd XI, Edmonton fielded first, and on a shocker of a track at MTSCC, managed to bowl the opposition out for 75, Pat Carr continuing his rich vein of form, taking 6 wickets. Dave Stevenson Jnr. also deserves a mention for taking a hat trick. At this stage a win looked the only likely result. This was further reinforced by an excellent opening stand from Kevin Lawrence and Pat Carr, putting on 51 for the first wicket. Unfortunately, the rest of the batting laid down and died, resulting in an improbable draw for the grasps of victory.

Speaking to some of the second team after the game was enlightening to say the least, there were quite a few angry people in the club on Saturday night, I can tell you! In fact, when I saw Pat Carr and Kev Lawrence on Sunday, the summed the whole situation up quite concisely in 1 word "B*ll*cks" - cheers boys! Fair play to them though, they are 2 of only 3 people who can take any credit from the game at all.

The first of the inter-club league games took place at Hydeside on Saturday, the 4th team batting first, with Nick Waker and James Hazell looking comfortable against some indifferent 3rd team bowling. Thanks to runs from Tony Brown, Roger Sans (!) and John Stockman, they managed to reach 195-8 in 52. Colin Turner and Kevin Fursse opened up for the 3rds, but CT holed out in the deep to John Kenway. Skipper Kevin Fursse was the next to go, but there was no further loss as Alan Porter and Phil Langdell guided then home off 31 overs, Phil Langdell scoring 51 not out.

Bank Holiday Monday saw Edmonton take an inexperienced team to Lincoln Road to compete in a 6-a-side tournament. We were drawn in a group with Enfield (including former England captain Mike Gatting) and Mayfield. We eased through our first game against Mayfield easily chasing their target of 43 from their 5, with an over to spare, Tim Beeden scoring 25 not out and Alan Barnard chipping in with 17 not out. In the second game, we set Enfield a target of 58, David Hinnigan the pick of the Batsmen with a rapid 20 not out. We were always in touch with Enfield, as they set about chasing the target. Gavin Mardell bowling well to restrict Mike Gatting and Steven Sivathasan also looking good. The final over from David Hinnigan went down to the last ball. Unfortunately Gattings class shone through, and he lifted the ball for a huge straight six to win the game.

In the final game, we bowled first against a strong and highly motivated Winchmore Hill, who racked up 49 off of 5. Alan Barnard and Gav Mardell being the pick of the bowlers with 1 over for 7 each. In reply we were always struggling when we lost two early wickets and Daz Sivathasan retired hurt. In the end, Winchmores bowling was too tight and we struggled to 38-4 off of 5. Off the record, I'd just like to say that Mike Gatting clearly didn't have a clue against my slower ball! Edmonton were: T. Beeden, A Barnard, D Hinnigan, G Mardell, R Lewis, N Hubbard, S Sivathasan, D Sivathasan.

Saturday 19th May 2001

Report by: Alan Barnard

Welcome to the second week of the new seasons comment section, and with Alan Barnard not coming back from Portsmouth last weekend due to the cancellation of the 1st XI match it is down to your truly wonderful ex 1st team skipper to write this weeks section (with a little help from Andrew Cooper & Alan Porter).

An amazing thing happened on Saturday, the seconds, thirds and fourths all managed to gain victories, and a big well done must go to the new captains Andrew Cooper, Kevin Fursse and Dave Stevenson all captaining there respective sides for the first time.

Starting with the first team, after being the only XI to play last week we had our game called off late on Friday night by Alexandra Park due to the pitch still not being ready even after a week with hardly any rain. After receiving about five messages on my mobile saying that the game was off I tried to tell some of our players that it was cancelled, luckily I got in touch with Alan Barnard who was on his way back from Portsmouth but unfortunately I didn't manage to contact Neil Roche who was out drinking (as usual) until he was on the night bus home so he missed out on a few more hours drinking time. It was a shame our game was off as we had a very good side out (despite it being the FA Cup final) and it was such a lovely day.

The second team got off to a winning start to the season with a good victory against Sri Lankan Cavaliers. After having their match cancelled last week it was important to get a victory in this match, Cavaliers batted first and were restricted to 167-8 thanks to an impressive bowling display by Pat Carr (4-39) and Daz Sivathasan (3-27) but it should have been more as Caviliers decided to declare with 6 of their 55 overs left (must have seen our 2's play last season). Edmonton started well with Kevin Lawrence (48) and Gavin Mardell putting on 61 for the first wicket, despite a middle order collapse (well batted Daz) a solid 33 not out from new boy Glen Brown and a cameo from captain Cooper saw them home too victory by six wickets with 2 overs to spare.

On to the third team who were playing North London fours, the day started well for skipper Kevin Fursse as he won the toss and put North London into bat, after some excellent bowling from Anan Rooban (2-26) North London managed to take control of the game with their no. 4 batsmen scoring 127 out of 260-5 Dec, although a certain Mr Smyth told me a few decisions went against them (he also told most of the North London team - politely of course).

Edmonton began their innings feeling that with the time left a draw was the most likely outcome and when the skipper was caught in the gully with the score on 3 things didn't look to good, an excellent 2nd wicket partnership between Ray Bullen (74) and Colin Turner (35) got us back on track but a draw still seemed the most likely result, two quick wickets then fell bringing Phil Langdell and new member Andre Edwards to the wicket and then ball started to disappear too all parts of the ground, Phil was eventually out for 37 but now Edmonton were looking good for a win and Alan Porter and new boy Andre (57n.o.) didn't let us down seeing us to 261-4 of just 35 overs and an excellent win.

The Fourth team were away to Kenton 4's and not having won for as long as I can remember defeat looked very likely, but they shocked everybody with a superb 7 wicket victory with the stars of the show being John Kenway (4-33), Paul Cooper (3-18) and heroic captain Dave Stevenson who was taken to hospital for stiches after pulling a long hop into his eye, but not before he had seen his team win.

Well that's it for this week and I am sure Alan will be back next to give you his opinion on this weekends matches, if anyone else out there wants to contribute to the weekly reports just get in touch with Alan.

Just a couple of other things to finish with, firstly if you go down The Stag & Hounds at the weekend Alan stay off the Czech lager, and finally a special mention to Michael Owen whose superb finishing on Saturday made my day even better.

Saturday 5th May 2001

Report by: Alan Barnard

Welcome to the weekly club news update in the first week of the season, in a weekend where only the first team played due to most pitches in the league being unfit for play. The opposition on Saturday was Turnham Green, and we managed to gain a creditable draw, making 203 all out, then bowling well to see Turnham Green stutter to 150-7 in reply.

Much of the credit has to go to our two South African imports, Rico Lewis (4-42) and Ezra Prinsloo 84. Ezra's knock was impressive in that it was the first match he had played for two years - he certainly didn't look too out of touch, hammering 8 sixes, and then claiming to stand in skipper Tim Beeden that he was not timing the ball! Rico bowled as well as we have come to expect from him, with his 'ball on a string' working wonders, and slipping in a quicker ball to great effect.

The innings had not started well, with the loss of Kevin Lawrence and Simon Roche early on, but our overseas player V B A Venkatesh (who had flown in from Madras earlier in the day) and Ezra set about building an impressive partnership. After 'Venki' was dismissed for 32, we lost three quick wickets, most notably Daz Sivathasan who was given LBW after managing to fling his bat past a bemused square leg fielder trying to play a pull shot.

Tim Beeden was next in at number 8, and this gives an indication of our strength in depth in batting. Tim put on over 90 with Ezra, as we managed to post a respectable total on a slow stopping wicket. Some late big hitting from Rico Lewis pushed the total beyond 200. Claims from Neil Roche that he could bat a bit resulted in him being promoted to number 10 above John Street, and he managed to produce a number of Sand Wedge type shots, chipping the ball into gaps just beyond fielders.

In reply, Turnham Green were always going to struggle on a tricky pitch, and Rico Lewis managed to take 4 wickets, whilst Neil Roche, John Street and Daz Sivathasan shared the other three. We took 18 points from the match, which whilst not as satisfying as a win, was very respectable, especially since other matches in the division are likely to have been affected by the weather.

Sunday saw the visit of County League side Staines and Laleham for our inevitable first round National Cup exit - the only question being "what would the losing margin be?" - in this instance a resounding 9 wickets. Considering we were 13-5 at one stage, our total of 108 was reasonable. Alan Barnard scoring a determined 43, almost totally devoid of any timing whatsoever. Dave Baker and Pat Carr offered solid support, as did "Exrtas".

Staines passed the target with 19 overs to spare, John Street and Daz Sivathasan the pick of the bowling. Tim Beeden also managed an over at the end, which curiously enough only went for 1 run. However it has to be said that the batsman may not have been talking him quite as seriously as Tim would have liked, blocking two leg side wides, the second of which was played with the bat the wrong way around! Oh well, we would only have been stuffed by Eastbourne anyway, so who really cares?

On a final note, a special mention must go to Dave Smith, whose girlfriend is an avid reader of these pages. She even took the trouble of asking why Dave came in for so much abuse in last seasons comments section. Obviously she's not seen you play Dave!