Chenies and Latimer
Sunday July 28 at Chenies Strollers won by nine wickets Chenies and Latimer 126
(37 overs; Macaulay 3-5, Love 2-0, Travis 2-17, Oliver 1-0, Rogers 1-6, Broster-Turley 1-10)
Strollers 131-1
(20.3 overs; Pittams 84no, Travis 28no, Rogers 14) Another beautiful Sunday for cricket saw the Strollers
visit Chenies and Latimer. As is customary, captain Ben Mangham, having
recently become armchair expert at many Olympic events, expertly failed with
the toss and we found ourselves fielding first, again. Fortunately our number
was increased to 11 by the adoption of one of the Chenies and Latimer players,
none other than Brian Shipley, taking a break from recent exploits playing for
England Over 70s.
In an unexpected and slightly unwelcome twist of the rules
it had been decided that nobody could be out lbw first ball, though happily the
offer of one hand one bounce was rejected! The wicket looked good, with the
prospect of plenty of runs.
Freddie Broster-Turley and James Dela Rue opened the
bowling and initially scoring was fairly brisk with the score at 13 after the
first two overs. James had had the Chenies and Latimer No 2 Mike Pickard plumb
lbw third ball by then but confusion reigned as the umpires assumed the
batter’s first instance of lbw was to be chalked off rather than lbw first
ball. Disappointing for James, but although the umpire’s call stood fortunately
this was the only time the rule was applicable in the game.
The bowling and fielding tightened up after this and after
10 overs the score was only 27. The No 1 Shan Patel was striking the ball well
but could not get it away with any frequency, while in contrast Pickard had
produced increasingly aggressive cuts, slashes and drives without connecting
with any of them. Finally in the 11th over, Freddie’s sixth, the pressure
earned reward with the wicket of Patel, the fourth ball of the over clipping
top of middle and leg stumps with the score on 32.
In the 12th over Pickard began to find his range and took 12
off the over, putting a dent in James’ otherwise excellent spell. After a final
maiden over from Broster-Turley, Mangham rang the changes and took over himself
from James, with Blair Travis coming on in place of Freddie.
Drinks were taken after the 16th over with Chenies on 63-1,
Pickard finally with his eye in and scoring several boundaries square on the
offside. Drinks, however, duly served up a wicket, with Pickard bowled by Blair
for 36 in the very next over, ending a second wicket partnership of 37 runs.
With new batsman Wesley Cerlin taking time to settle in,
Dias now took over the scoring with a brisk 20 runs off 13 balls. At the halfway
point after 20 overs wicketkeeping duties were taken over by Hugh Martindale,
releasing George Love for a bowl in the later stages. The score was poised at
89-2, representing a reasonable recovery from a generally slow start.
However, Blair’s next over saw Dias caught comfortably by Mike
Pittams in the covers and in the following over new bowler Glen Oliver trapped
new batsman Chunot Shah for a second ball lbw. This brought the No 6 Luke
Marsden to the crease and although he survived the rest of the over he was
still audibly bemused by Glenn’s pace off virtually no run-up. Shipley took
over from Blair, beginning a spell of well controlled off-spin bowling which
should have had a wicket, a faster ball edged away between keeper and first
slip.
Glen followed his wicket maiden with another maiden, but a
tight hamstring curtailed his spell at 1-0. This allowed Love to join the
attack to immediate effect, with Marsden trying to up the pace but mistiming
his first ball high and into Dela Rue’s grateful hands at mid-on.
In his next over Cerlin top-edged a pull shot which flew
straight up in the air to be claimed by Blair at slip, his shout of ‘mine’
still ringing in the keeper’s ears the next day. At 113-6 skipper Mangham
decided to have spin at both ends calling on the experienced Alastair Macaulay to
bamboozle the tail, leaving Love with the excellent figures of 2-0 off two
overs. Not to be outdone, Macaulay also started with two wicket maidens,
claiming Michael Lurie caught by Steve Rogers at point and then the No 9 Kineel
Natthurata caught second ball by Love at a very silly mid-off, both soft
catches.
The No 10 Rayan Patel managed to get some runs but soon ran
out of partners, with Goddard losing patience and bottom-edging Macaulay behind
for three and last man Hargreaves being bowled by Rogers in his second over for
nought, the ball keeping a little low. Macaulay’s spell returned three wickets
for five runs and Rogers’ one for six. The Chenies innings had lasted 2 hours
16 minutes and 37 overs.
Pittams and Rogers opened the Strollers innings with some
intent, and after six overs the score had reached 42 for no loss, with Chunot
Shah having been replaced after only his second over by Kuneel Matthurata. But
in the next over Rogers missed a pull shot and departed bowled by Matthurata
for 14, bringing Travis to the crease.
After the 10-over mark was reached with the score on 56-1, the
innings raced towards its conclusion, duly arriving in the 21st over with a
majestic six from Pittams over midwicket and over the road, his second of the
innings, leaving him on 84 not out (13 fours, 2 sixes) and Blair 28 not out (4
fours).
The innings had only lasted 70 minutes. The early finish at
16.50 had its advantages however, with cooling beers, lovely early evening
sunshine, good company and a fantastic setting being the perfect way to round
off the weekend…
Capt: Ben Mangham. Wkt: George Love/Hugh Martindale.
Match fees: Alastair Macaulay. Match report: Hugh Martindale.
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