Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club

Scorecard

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Saturday 1st XI v Theale & Tilehurst 2 on Sat 03 Jun 2006 at
Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Won by 5 wickets

Match report Berkshire League Division 3

Crowthorne 103-5 bt Theale and Tilehurst 99ao by 5 Wkts.



Summer finally arrived this Saturday as Crowthorne made the most of the peasant conditions to register their first victory of the campaign, beating Division 3 newcomers Theale and Tilehurst by 5 wickets at their Great Hollands ground.

Having suffereed the disappointment of several cancellations in recent weeks, both teams were delighted to see the sunshine. The disruption to the season caused by the cancellations has meant that no teams have really had much cricket, so any chance of a game is greatly appreciated even though the quick burst of sunshine hadn’t really dried out the pitch and outfiled as much as both teams would have liked.

Crowthorne won the toss and elected to bowl first, with the pitch looking to favour the bowlers rather than the batsmen. Aran Long made early inroads into the Top order, removing openers Eddie Eliis for 3 and Roger Puri for 9.

T&T fought hard to get back in the match despite the difficult batting conditions. Mark Mason providing a valuable 29 not out to boost the visitiors score.

Crowthorne paceman Naz Younis returned his best bowling figures for the club, taking 4-31. Firstly he had Mike Toyer superbly caught by Morgan Kemp for 6 and Kemp held on once more to remove Nehal Bhatt for a patient 19. Younis used his natural pace to get the most help out of the pitch and was well rewarded with his 4 wicket haul.

Crowthorne also unveiled their new weapon in their bowling attack in the shape of leg-spinner Neil Stent. He picked up two wickets, including one in his first ever over in competitive cricket. Stent bowled a tidy spell extracting turn and bounce out of the pitch and this left the visitiors reeling on 97-9.

Long returned to the attack and grabbed the final wicket and finished with a miserly 4-10 off his 11.5 overs , which meant that T&T were all out for 99 and the ball firmly in Crowthorne’s court as the late aftrnoon sunshine continued to dry out the pitch and make batting slightly more comfortable.

Crowthorne’s reply started slowly, in pursuit of the modest total. Neil Stent made 12 before he was bowled by the swing bowling of Theale captain Mickey Mehta. Skipper Mehta then accounted for Australian debutant Tony English first ball, trapping him leg before on the back leg with a ball that swang late and all of a sudden there was a contest.

Jo Morgan and Gary Hampshire pushed the score into the 30’s with some dogged batting, but it was when skipper Adam Elrick and wicketkeeper Gary Attree came together that Crowthorne put their foot down. The pair added 52 in 7 overs, with Elrick striking two towering 6’s to tkae the game away from Theale.

By the time Attree had departed, Corwthorne were nearly home and dry and it left Elrick (46 not out) and Morgan Kemp (4 not out) to guide the Crows home by 5 wickets and 25 overs to spare.

Adam Elrick : “ It was a very pleasing victory, especially having lost so much cricket to the weather over the last few weeks. We made the most of the conditions and bowled very well to restrict them to under 100. We then batted sensibly early on to get a platform that, thankfully we were able to build on. From my point of view it was nice to spend some time in the middle and get a few runs, and especially good to seal the victory.

“We play Ibis Mapledurham this week and hopefully we can build on the good things we showed against Theale because although we’ve played well here, there’s definatly some more in the tank and we know we can do even better

“I am looking forward to really getting the season going now. It is important that now we are hopefully seeing an improvemnt to the weather and the pitches that we build up momentum. We had two good games against Ibis last year and we enjoyed a convincing victory there last year when under pressure we won by 152 runs. ”

So, a bouyant Crowthorne travel to Ibis Mapledurham an Saturday and will be hoping to repeat the perfomance of last year where a convincing victory in the last week of the season propelled them to a third place finish. Crowthorne will be hoping that the sun once more shows it’s face and that they can begin their seaon in earnest with back to back victories.

Theale & Tilehurst 2 Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
99 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Saturday 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Aran Long11.551042.500.85
Morgan Kemp12.013100.002.58
Naz Younas7.013147.754.43
Dan Partridge5.011400.002.80
Neil Stent3.00924.503.00

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Saturday 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 5 wickets
0
102		        
Neil Stent Bowled  12 1
Gary Hampshire Caught  6
Tony English Lbw  0
Jonathon Morgan Lbw  11
Gary Attree Bowled  10
Adam Elrick Not Out  46
Morgan Kemp Not Out  4 2
Simon Sheppard  
Aran Long  
Dan Partridge   1
Naz Younas  

Theale & Tilehurst 2 Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
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