Saturday 13th May 2006
Saturday 20th May 2006
Saturday 27th May 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 13th May 2006

1st XI vs. Southall

Report by: Alan Barnard

Southall away has not been happy hunting ground for the 1st XI over recent seasons, with a couple of toss losses leading to large 1st innings scores for the hosts, so when we were pitted against them for the first league game of the 2006 campaign it was more a case of let's get it out of the way, rather than let's go all out for a win. This probably isn't the right attitude to have, but with a slightly weakened team I think we would have been satisfied with a draw before a ball was bowled.

When we lost the toss and were asked to field, it was following the same script as the last couple of seasons, but with Ciaran Dodds and Mark Varley opening up, and bowling some fantastic lines, we were in a commanding position at 40-4 thanks in no small part to some excellent glove work behind the stumps for Chris Goddard. The highlight though was Southall's opener, who was caught by Loveday off the bowling ogf Varley after what appears to be some kind of comedy juggling act at mid-off. It was a tough chance, and one that was taken, so fair play to the big man for getting there!

At this point, we should have looked to kick on and really hurt Southall, getting into their middle order, but a combination of some poor fielding and some good, but risky batting from their number 4 meant that some of the good work was undone. This was a particularly poor passage of play for us with chances going down, and heads going down as a result. The skipped bowled a few overs, but had to pull out of the attack with back problems, so it was left to the Seamers to do the bulk of the work. Dan Hare bowled a tidy 7 over spell, and Ciaran and Mark returned to bowl 16 and 20 overs respectively, but we could not do enough to stem the runs, and Southall ended up on 257-8.

It could be argued that Southall might have declared earlier, on a wicket offering some movement and encouragement to the bowlers, and was hard to score quick runs on. In addition, the fact that we had 4 lost balls, and a low over rate (thanks in part to some slow batting and in part to some slow turnaround between overs) meant that we were only likely to get 42 overs back. Southall seemed content with the draw, and in reality, this was always going to be the most likely option.

Prabhu and Dave Hinnigan opened the batting and looked solid for a 75 run opening partnership. When Dave fell, Tim Beeden took over, and played some nice strokes to leg, but with the required run rate fast approaching 7 an over, it was never going to happen. A spate of wickets saw Prabhu fall for a patient 32, Tim for 25 Barney for 2 and Billy for a duck, and at this point, we were starting down the barrel somewhat, with a number of over still to face, and not a lot of batting left.

The unlikely duo of Danny Hare and Chris Goddard came to the rescue though, facing out 8 overs before the inevitable downpour came. It was a solid display of batting in the face of a some tricky bowling and some outrageously optimistic appealing, and we came of with 5 wickets down and 12 points on the board. All in all, not our best performance, but we can take enough positives to look forward to playing Indian Gymkhana next weekend at home on what should prove to be an easier batting wicket.

Team: Willett, Balachandaran, D Hinnigan, Beeden, Barnard, A Bilimoria, D Hare, Goddard, C Dodds, M Loveday, Varley

2nd XI vs. Ickenham

Report by: Gavin Mardell

The afternoon started on a bright note for the 2nd XI with the news that we were able to use are spanking new changing facilities for the first time, and everyone seemed to be in a confident and enthusiastic mood. I was feeling a little bit worse for wear after a few too many beers the night before, but was looking forward to my first taste of league action in 2006. Archer 'The Duke' Cornwall won the toss and elected to field first on a very overcast afternoon at Hydeside, that looked to be favourable for the bowlers early doors. Especially as the wicket was looking a little green on top also. Oh, and by the way, we are playing Ickenham if you are interested?

Archer 'The Duke' Cornwall opened up from the Pavilion End, and John 'Quality' Street from the Allotment End. Runs were hard to come by for the Ickenham openers, partly as a result of some superb bowling from these two, and a wicket on which the ball was nipping about, and getting some variable bounce on. Hats off to the Ickenham opener who was sporting a quality Goochy moustache by the way, great to see a retro look in the modern era. A lot of the Ickenham innings I'm afraid I cannot clearly recollect, mainly because of my hangover, and the fact that I was struggling to stay awake on a day when runs and exciting cricket were to be at a minimum. A very slow outfield was not helping matters either. Ickenham's score after 30 overs read along the lines of 70 for the loss of 1 or 2 wickets!! Johno and Archer man bowled in tandem for roughly 25 overs, and both deserve a huge amount of credit for their efforts (Archer finishing with figures of 4 for 23 off of 17 overs I do believe - great spell of bowling from the Grenadian International, the West Indies could do with a man like him at the moment hey Glenny Brown?). The fielding also was of a high standard, with everyone working for each other, and it will have to stay that way if we are to have a successful season. Dave 'the Raiman' Rai was also looking hugely impressive behind the stumps whether stood back or standing up, to the likes of Streety and Danny 'Is That Shaun Pollock?' Muschamp. Anyway, as the overs progressed Ickenham had to push things on a little, as their run rate of roughly 2.5 after 35 odd overs did not seem good enough, especially on a track which is renowned for high scoring encounters. Wickets fell at regular intervals, and at one stage the hope was to restrict the oppo to somewhere near the 100 mark. Stav 'Princess' Elia and new boy Kafi 'the Bengal Tiger' Khan were bowling well, and both picked up wickets, but credit to Ickenham, they put away the bad balls and were patient enough to make the most of the good spells they had towards the end of their innings. They were finally bowled out for 146 after 55 overs had been bowled. Yes, I know what you are thinking - enthralling cricket!!

Streety was rewarded for his marathon spell with the sight of Stevie Gerrard crashing a long ranged shot into the net against his beloved West Ham, just on his entrance into the tea room - bad luck Johno!! Tea was taken and many a sausage roll and jam tart devoured.

Although Ickenham got a few more runs than we maybe thought they should have done, we were still very confident of getting a good result, and personally I was thinking at worst we would come away with a winning draw. Me and Dave 'Scott Minto' Smith opened things up, and I could see from the very first few overs that things would not be that easy. The ball was nipping around off the seam, and the bounce was a little indifferent at times, and like with a lot of early season wickets the ball was not coming onto the bat. Add to that the fact that a good shot, that would normally have brought up a boundary, was only bringing a couple of runs due to the rather lush outfield. By the way, that's not to say that I played very many of them. Dave and I were going along ok at 30 odd for no loss, not exactly batting any quicker than the Ickenham boys, but just trying to get us off to a solid start to chase 146 down. My thoughts were at the very least to get the score up to 60 or 70 before the partnership was broken, going a long way to draining the belief from the Ickenham players, but as happens fairly often I was dismissed much earlier than intended, when the score was in the 30s. All I can say is that it kept low!! What was to follow was a mini collapse, with the score going from 33 for 0 to 48 for 4. Kafi played a few lovely shots, showing his real quality that we hope will play a major part in our success this year, but fell only after getting to double figures playing a mistimed drive straight up in the air. Credit has to go to Dave 'MC Hammer' Baker and Dave 'Is He Really Still Out There?' Smith, who put together a vital stand in the middle of our innings when the wickets were falling and a bit of true graft and bottle was needed - no not that kind of bottle Firestarter!! Dave finally fell for 42, but it was a really good knock, and the kind of innings we will be needing from him every week. However, his dismissal was a major dent to our hopes of winning the game, and a winning draw was looking like our more realistic option now with wickets having fallen. What was to come was a tense finale in the rain, which by the end was lashing it down, with us finishing on 138 for 9 in response to Ickenham's 146 all out. This gave us the winning draw via the way of a higher overall run rate. Danny 'Andre Nel' Muschamp chipping in with a notable 24 not out at the end, showing us some of the real talent he has and some lovely strokeplay.

There wasn't much hand shaking after the game, quite simply because most of the team were running around like headless chickens trying to put the covers on in what seemed to be a mini monsoon season that had hit Hydeside. Yeah I know, a lot of people say I do the same when I'm fielding!! The feelings were mixed in the changing room after the game, a lot of positives could be taken from a very good performance in the field in putting us into a match winning position, but it seemed as if 6 points had been dropped almost as opposed to 4 gained. Even so, looking at it realistically it was a solid start to the season for the 2s and overall a good team performance. We know we let ourselves down in the batting department, with the exemption of Smith, Baker and Muschamp, and we will be looking to improve on this when we make the trip to Wycombe House next week.

Man Of The Match: Archer Cornwall (A real of Captain's performance with the ball).

Team: Gavin 'Foot Fetish' Mardell; Dave 'Wrongun's Boyfriend' Smith; Archer 'Grenadian Fire' Cornwall; James 'Kerry's Bit On The Side' Hazell; Dave 'Raiman' Rai; Danny 'Micro-Smith' Muschamp; Stavros 'Princess' Elia; Kafi 'Kumar Sangakkara' Khan; Dave 'Beer Belly' Baker; John 'Postman With A Special Delivery' Street; Kemal 'Can't Get My Best Tracksuit Wet' Panchal.

Vets vs. Old Bacchanalians

Report by: Kevin Fursse

On a difficult batting track, Linserd Miller anchored the innings and Dave Baker played powerful shots to enable a declaration which was generous. The opposition struggles with Anand Rooban making early inroads, followed by Daz Sivathasan cleaning up the late middle order. Tony Barker claimed the wicket of Old Bacchanalians top scorer - a notable feat. Victory was claimed with 4 overs to go.

Saturday 20th May 2006

1st XI vs. Indian Gymkhana

Report by: Alan Barnard

With what appeared to be a match stopping downpour both for most of the night before, and the morning of the game, it was looking pretty unlikely that we'd be able to fulfill the fixture against Indian Gymkhana. Whether this had any bearing on some of the younger members of the side going out on the town in a big way the night before has yet to be confirmed, but what we do know is that as of 1pm on the day of the match, those players that were at the ground on time were not looking overly bright and full of the joys of spring.

Skipper Willett won the toss, and elected to bat - which seemed the obvious decision given that rain was most likely to play a part at some stage in the proceedings, so it made sense to try to get as many batting point on the board if it was going to be a rain affected draw. Dave Hinnigan opened the batting with Adam Bilimoria, and both made steady and unspectacular progress towards double figures. The new ball seemed to be doing a heck of a lot early on, and it's nice to see a Hydeside wicket offer a little for the bowling side, rather than just being totally batting oriented.

Dave was the first to slip up, falling LBW to one that seemed straight, but he might deem himself a little unlucky, as he appeared to get a fair stride down the wicket, as well as batting well out of his crease. Wills was the next man in, but the less said about his innings the better as he departed for a golden. Prabhu and Billy ticked the score along nicely, but Prabhu played an uppish looking cut to backward point, which was well held by the diving fielder.

Barney came to the wicket to join Billy, and both batsmen looked to consolidate the innings, with a few quickly taken singles, and some nice shots to bad balls. It was at this point that Indian Gym's very own Thierry Henry took centre stage. A fantastic cricketer, he bowled his left arm spin from the bottom end into the wind with relentless accuracy and length. With the right field set, it was always going to be a low scoring affair once Gymkhana had opted for this tactic, and his first victim was Billy, who was bowled through the gate, bringing in Danny 'Wrong-un' Hare.

Dan and Barney pushed the score along quite nicely, with Hare looking to be especially positive to the bowling of Chaudry, hitting him for a four and a six in consecutive balls, which did not go down well in the marble halls of the Allotment End. Dan departed after a positive 36 and another excellent piece of bowling form you know who, and the score on 100-5, which soon became 105-6 as Adam Herron played all round a straight, full delivery. Things were not looking good at this point, but with strength in depth of batting that we've not seen in recent years, Tim Beeden came in at number 8, and worked hard to graft out a partnership with Barney.

With some effective, but conservative stroke making, and some good running, a hard fought partnership of 65 was built to take the total up to a respectable 175-7 when Tim departed to a smart catch on the boundary off the bowling of Chaudry. This brought in Doddsey, who again ran well with Barney before departing for 10, again caught in the deep. With Loveday and Varley scraping together another couple of low partnerships with Barney, we finished on 194-9 from 55, with Barney scoring a Chris Tavere-esque 50 from 121 minutes! Although this looked low for Hydeside, the way the wicket is playing at the moment, it was always going to be a challenging score, as Indian Gym were unlikely to get more than 43 overs back due to some stoppages for lost balls, and a brief rain delay.

It's worth mentioning that we used the new changing rooms for the first time, something which made such a massive difference, and it was really nice to see the new facilities really are as good as we'd imagined. After the tea break (where the fish-fingers made a nice change, and worked very nicely in adding some bulk to the tuna sandwiches), we took the field again looking to make a positive start, and get a couple of early breakthroughs, after a positive team talk from Wills about bowling the right lines and length.

The breakthrough didn't take long to come, with Doddsey, who was bowling up the hill and into the wind in admirable fashion taking 2 wickets from two balls after taking the edge for a routine catch to Herron behind the stumps, and then getting an inswinging yorker just about perfect to send the number 3 back first ball. This brought in the overseas superstar to the crease, and he batted nicely with Barney's bat-alike to move the score on to 80-2, of which he'd contributed 55 batting at 4!

It's worth mentioning that Mark Varley, who was bowling with genuine pace and carry from the top end was most unlucky, beating the bat on a number of occasions, as well as having Dodgy put down a flying chance at gulley to a ball he really had no right to get anywhere near. Prabhu had replaced Mark from the top end, and was bowling his usual brand of tidy flighty off spin, and the Rabbit was on at the bottom end after a brief blast from Loveday which again was very unlucky, with lots of playing and missing.

At this point, things could have easily gone astray for Edmonton, and the number 4 was looking to accelerate, putting anything off line and length away to the boundary for 4 or 6, but the bowlers were to hold their nerve to make sure there was no danger of defeat. Dan Hare deserved a lot of credit for bowling a absolute peach of an over, starting with 4 dot balls in the first 4 to Chaudry, the danger man, you could see the frustration building as he looked to get the ball away, but couldn't. The 5th ball was another on just the right line and length and as he advanced down the track, a swing and a miss saw middle stump hit halfway up, and any chances of a win were gone for the visitors.

A very smart catch from Adam Herron behind the stumps saw Prabhu take his first wicket for the 1st XI, and after a risky, breezy knock, the number 5 was run out after a direct hit from Doddsey at mid-on. We couldn't take another wicket to get an extra bonus point, despite some good looking yorkers from Varley and Dodds, and the innings closed on 122-5 from 42 after a very good performance in the field, where I don't think anyone made a mistake that I can remember. If we bowl and field like this every week, and bat with the sort of graft and determination that we showed, we should do well this season. There are some tough teams in our league, but if we show the sort of determination that we know we can do, and play good cricket all season, there's no reason why we shouldn't be looking to climb the table and put some pressure on the Elite.

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

4th XI vs. Polytechnic III

Report by: Kevin Fursse

In damp, cold conditions, Edmonton struggled early on having won the toss and elected to bat. Colin Turner anchored the innings and with the help of the lower order, we made a respectable score. Opening bowler Bala Gokul was unplayable and reduced the oppostion to 53-9. The last wicket was finally taken by Phil Harvey, a promising young slow bowler.

5th XI vs. Ealing

Report by: David Sans

Well, where do I start? The weather Friday morning looked as though it could put pay to our first ever league game at home on the grocers, however a dry afternoon and a Saturday morning which was supposed to rain but didn't, meant the grocers wicket was easily playable come start time.

Ealing won the toss and chose to bat, I was quite glad in a way as I Wasn't that sure what to do as last season I always when possible wanted to bat first for the double batting points, but as it was we fielded and with Jonathan squires taking a stumping off Anan Rooban in the first over it became a great start for us.

Tony Kershaw then got in on the act and took a wicket in his second over, the Doc (-Rooban} struck again as we had Ealing, 8-3 I believe, 42 runs and 5 more wickets and blinding catches from youngsters Alex Coxall and Adam Shirley meant we had Ealing 50-8.

I carried on standing there for a moment wondering why everyone was walking off, I hadn't realised that Ealing only had 9 men, still that's their fault.

Bowling figures: Tony Kershaw 9 overs 2 maidens 18 runs 4 wickets and Anan Rooban 9.4 overs 0 maidens 23 runs 4 wickets

Then came the batting... With senior pro's Tony Brown and Peter Pate suggesting to me let the kids have a bat I went with a totally different batting line up to what I would have chose...

But we wouldn't be the 5th team if we didn't try to give it away... Doc gave Bill Bilimoria out LBW even though apparently it hit the bat first. The youngsters all had a bat but unfortunately all got out, Tony Brown coming in at number 8 hit the winning run of his first ball and took the 5th team to 51-6 and our first win of the season... Hopefully many more to come...

As most of you who were in the bar Saturday night, will remember that I did drink quite a bit in joy of winning, in fact so much drink I did the now normal thing for me to do, and that was to fall asleep at the bar…

Still, who cares...?

The 5ths won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!