2009 match archiveGreat Missenden Pelicans
Sunday April 19 at Great Missenden
Strollers won by 97 runs
Strollers 204-7 dec
(Timperley 64, While 59, Wood 19, Waugh 13)
Great Missenden Pelicans 107
(Troughton 3-0, Brodbeck 2-25, Crocker 2-31, Wood 1-3,
While 1-12, Walder 1-30)
Spring looked well and truly sprung at Great Missenden. The sun shone, the outfield was emerald green and the strip glistened in the bright light of early season optimism.
The optimism was not dampened by the fact that Simon Brodbeck, winter keeper of the kit, had forgotten to bring the newly refurbished bats and that Patrick Howard, in faraway North London, rang to say that his car would not start and he was waiting on the expertise of the AA.
Put in, the Strollers opened the campaign with Murray Waugh and Hamish McDougall. Neither dallied too long and it was left to James Timperley to carry on where he left off on October 12, 2008. Tom Wood kept him company to steady the ship with a stand of 70 before James While brought his broad bat to the party and began clubbing the ball to all parts.
Timperley perished for a relative failure of 64, which brought his Strollers average down a tad from 66.00 at the start of the day. While ran himself out for a fine 59 but the job had been done and skipper Mike Morgan
declared on 204-7.
Meanwhile, Howard reported that he was now waiting for the AA to return with a new battery…
Great Missenden began their reply after a handsome tea but were soon struggling at 3-2. Warren Crocker, with the new Mrs Crocker in dutiful attendance, troubled all the batsmen with his late swing but had little luck. While picked up an early wicket. Brodbeck kept it tight in the middle period and Christian Troughton, energised by the fact that baby Felicity had begun to sleep through after eight months of broken nights, produced the stunning figures of 1.2-1-0-3 before admitting that the rest of the season could only go downhill from here.
Waugh took two good catches, McDougall a neat stumping and a good time was had by all as Great Missenden fell far short on 107 all out.
In a break with tradition, the party turned right out of the gate and made its way to The Full Moon pub, which welcomes cricketers who just drink beer without a pan-fried rocket salad.
All – including Peter Greenwood and his hospitable Pelicans - agreed that it had been a delightful start to the 2009 campaign. The only dissenting voice came from the forlorn Howard who, as we went to press, was still waiting for his battery…
Capt: Mike Morgan. Wkt: Hamish McDougall. Match fees: Tom Wood.
Pepper Harow
Saturday April 25 at Peper Harow
Strollers won by 93 runs
Strollers 186-7
(40 overs; Timperley 100, Boyle 48, Mckenzie 11, Waugh 10)
Peper Harow 93
(32.1 overs; Dephu 4-10, Brodbeck 2-15, Russell 2-17, Blythe 1-9,
Crocker 1-19)
Cricket was first played at Peper Harow in 1727, but the old ground can hardly have seen many more dramatic debuts than that of Indy Dephu.
After first declining the skipper’s invitation to bowl, he came on to record the stunning figures of 4-0-10-4, with seven of the runs conceded being wides. A history-maker indeed.
The Peper Harow club was founded by Lord Middleton, a member of the family who owned Peper Harow Park until the end of World War Two. In the Doomsday Book there is a record of the estate of Pipereherge covering 300 acres.
These days the grand mansion - completed in 1777 - is split into bijou apartments looking across rolling parkland and the cricket ground, where Strollers skipper James Timperley made sure history repeated itself by recording yet another century.
Timperley’s fine knock of exactly 100 and Dan Boyle’s belligerent 48 on a tricky pitch - together they put on 154 - made sure of a reasonable score. But from 165-1 a Strolleresque collapse brought about by Matt Anderton’s haul of 5-5 produced a final 40-over total of 186-7.
That proved a bit too tough for Peper Harow, despite the best efforts of their promising youngsters. The luckless Warren Crocker - that seems to be the trend for him in 2009 -“ bowled well. Brendan Russell, with toenail hanging off and sporting splendid new cut-down trousers, winkled out two victims, while debutant Alex Blythe flighted his left-arm offerings to good effect and Stuart McKenzie, making his 150th Strollers appearance, gave little away. In the absence of Hamish McDougall and Mike Morgan the wicketkeeping gloves were taken by Murray Waugh, who did well despite just failing in one lung-bursting effort to reach a chance.
But the headlines all went to Dephu and those startling figures. Peper Harow skipper Chris Ford and his team were very hospitable and it was a treat just to be on such a stunning ground.
Capt: James Timperley. Wkt: Murray Waugh. Match fees: Stuart McKenzie.
Jacobite Chancers
Sunday April 26 at Pinkneys Green
Strollers lost by six wickets
Strollers 146
(McDougall 37, Timperley 36, Cullen 14, Howard 13, Patston 12)
Jacobite Chancers 150-4
(Timperley 2-26, Hodgson 2-47)
Well, at least the sun shone. There was little else to cheer the Strollers as they fell to a six-wicket defeat.
Skipper Mike Morgan won the toss and elected to bat on a surprisingly hard and true pitch for April. Openers Hamish McDougall and Peter Patston negotiated the opening bowlers without too much trouble and put on 54 for the first wicket.
The first change of bowling brought the wily David Mills on to bowl his leggies. He soon had Patston bowled off his pads for 12. James Timperley then came in and continued where he left off the previous day, hitting any bad balls to the boundary over the quick outfield. McDougall was bowled by Mills but at drinks a big score still looked likely.
At this point Tom Wood appeared - semi-recovered from the Walder wedding - to cheer us on and the innings rapidly went downhill. Patrick Howard hit Mills to mid-off for 13, James Timperley was taken at mid-on for a below-par 36 (some of us regard 36 as aspirational) and Jim Hodgson feathered a catch to the keeper first ball.
Neil Cullen and Morgan were the last of the recognised batsmen but Morgan was soon bowled for eight and Cullen for 14. Chris Locke biffed and nurdled his way to nine before being caught. The chairman tried to cut a straight one and departed shouting "idiot, idiot, idiot" in a fit of Maoist self-criticism. By this time Mills had the impressive figures of 12-5-19-7. Just to round things off, a mix-up between Alastair Macaulay and Dennis Cave saw Dennis run out in the last over. Amongst the carnage the Strollers had ended on 146 all out - at least 50 runs short of a decent target.
Unfortunately a splendid tea did not restore the energy levels of the Strollers. The Chancers’ opening pair of Ed Black and Andy Murphy were harsh on anything short or indeed pitched up and the Strollers spent a good hour trotting dutifully to the boundary to retrieve the ball.
Cave and Hodgson struggled to find their length and Macaulay and Cullen were also punished severely. The openers put on 116 for the first wicket and the only saving grace was a flurry of late wickets. Mike Morgan took a good catch in the deep off Timperley and Hodgson returned for a much better second spell and picked up a couple of wickets. However, it was too little, too late and the Chancers had knocked off the runs in only 21 overs.
The Chancers agreed that Pinkneys Green was an improvement on Greenford (particularly the way the ball just flies to the boundary) and we should give thanks once again to PG for providing such a good pitch and tea.
Capt: Mike Morgan. Wkt: Hamish McDougall. Match fees: Dennis Cave
Maidenhead and Bray
Sunday May 3 at Bray
Strollers won by four wickets
Maidenhead & Bray 201-5
(40 overs; Cave 2-31, Russell 1-28, Macaulay 1-36, Brodbeck 1-47)
Strollers 203-6
(39.1 overs; Timperley 81, Boyle 37, Jones 36, Hodgson 22)
Heston Blumenthal charges the little matter of £130 a head for his tasting menu at The Fat Duck in Bray. It was voted “the best place to eat on earth” by Restaurant magazine in 2005 and is currently rated second on the planet to Spain’s El Bulli. If it is snail porridge and egg and bacon ice cream you fancy, this is the place.
On the other hand, if it’s nail-biting drama fashioned out of what should have been a routine victory, then the Maidenhead & Bray ground was the place to be last Sunday when the Strollers once again produced gripping drama from the most unpromising of situations.
It had all been plain sailing in restricting M & B to 201-5 from their 40 overs, thanks to fine spells from Jim Hodgson (8-3-24-0), Dennis Cave (8-0-31-2) and Brendan Russell (8-1-28-1). On a good batting wicket, the target of 202 looked highly gettable.
It looked even more so after a quickfire stand of 80 between debutant Max Jones (plucked from their old school first XI by Hodgson and Mike Morgan) and the prolific James Timperley. Timperley eventually holed out for 81 but Dan Boyle dropped anchor to hold things together.
The result looked a foregone conclusion until Boyle’s departure. Despite a cultured 22 from Hodgson, the wickets carried on falling and the pressure began to build. Nails were bitten; the retinue of ladies hiding from the cold behind the glass door of the pavilion even put down their copies of OK magazine and Soap Star digest to follow the action. Sally Hodgson interrupted an internet search for her £2million dream house in Bray with waterside views. Yes, it was that exciting.
Three runs from the final over were required and Russell (sporting a cracked rib to add to his proud collection of injuries) kept on eyeing the midwicket boundary. From the first ball of the final over his energetic heave produced the killer blow: an inside edge that flew past the wicketkeeper to the boundary for the winning runs.
The victorious squad later adjourned to The Fat Duck in the hope that Mr Blumenthal had victory curry on the menu.
Capt: Mike Morgan. Wkt: Hamish McDougall. Match fees: Dennis Cave.
Parry’s Whippets
Thursday May 7 at Barn Elms
Strollers lost by 27 runs
Parrys Whippets 135-5
(20 overs; Wood 3-15, Hodgson 1-23, Russell 1-39)
Strollers 108-4
(20 overs; Wood 26no, Boyle 22, Troughton 16, Pennystan 13)
It was a fine day for cricket. The rain had held off, England had knocked over 12 of the Caribbean’s finest at Lord’s, and, despite last-minute venue changes, a full complement of Strollers and Whippets had turned up, all eager to take part in an evening of Twenty20 drama. The Whippets had even brought the stumps with them.
There’s no time to waste in this condensed version of the game, and there was just time for a quick change, a jog round the perimeter with an arm-full of marker flags, and then we were off, Gallagher steaming in from the Pavilion End. And right from that first over it was clear this was no batsman’s wicket. The ball reared up, darted around, kept low - it was going to be a lively affair.
But the Whippets’ opening pair of Style and Warwick coped with it admirably. While Gallagher’s pace caused them problems and he restricted them to 14 from his four overs, they made hay while the sun shone and hit Russell for 39 from his four. Eventually he got his reward with Style nicking one to the keeper. When Hodgson came on at the Craven Cottage End and promptly trapped Warwick leg before, the Whippets run rate slowed considerably. Wood knocked over the stumps twice and enticed their number five into spooning one up to the ever-reliable Dephu at
mid-wicket.
Skipper Cullen brought himself on for the final overs to steady the ship, and the Strollers left the field, cold but fairly satisfied at having restricted the opposition to 135. “Just under seven an over. That’s perfectly do-able,” pointed out Cullen in a rousing half-time team talk.
And Troughton and Pennystan started comfortably enough, finding the boundary on several occasions and keeping the run rate at around six an over. However, as the innings wore on, the wickets began to fall, and the run rate began to tumble. Troughton went for 16, then Pennystan for 13. From the centre, skipper Cullen sent back orders for the entire team to pad up. Anything could happen.
When he was bowled for eight, Cullen knew exactly what he needed. Pointing with his bat he ordered: “Wood, you’re in next. Then you, Russell.” | 
