Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club

Scorecard

Woodcote v Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Sunday XI on Sun 28 Jul 2013 at 2:00
Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Lost by 45 runs

Match report Comedy Crows in Catastrophic Collapse as Carnival of Cricket turns into CarCrash

The Crows DROVE ALL NIGHT, and arrived at Woodcote, cock-a-hoop at the prospect of participating in the festival of cricket they had been promised. The opposition team were already in the pub, and the crows were licking their lips at the prospect of playing against half sozzled players.
The pitch was undulating, and patchy and the weather overcast and blustery. So when the skipper won the toss he elected to have a bowl. It looked like the correct decision at the start, with Monty bowling his customary line and length at one end, and Partridge opening the bowling for the second week in a row causing all sorts of problems for the batsmen and keeping the run rate low.

The batsmen remained doggedly at the crease though, slowly building a total, increasing the rate slowly as the opening bowlers came and went. Ingram and Mackenzie came on, and the run rate increased again, especially during Mackenzie’s four overs, as he failed to find his line in the blustery wind, though he could have had a wicket as a skied drive went through the fielders hands (a theme that developed over the afternoon)

Finally the wicket fell, to O'Clarke who deceived the batsman with a slow straight delivery, followed soon after by another from Ant who expertly placed his fielder before enticing the right shot from the batsman. More were to follow at a steady rate for Joe, Monty on for his second spell, as well as another for the ever improving Billy 'the kid' Coles (who should have had his best figures ever but was let down in the field with two simple catches going down - the bar tab he is running up for his 18th birthday already stands at 3 pints, who knows where it will be when his 18th comes around in 5 years.)

The wickets may have been falling, but the score board was ticking over now at an alarming rate, and when the last wicket fell (run out, not stumped after a consultation with the rule book, much to Monty’s disgust) the total stood at 204. Sizeable, but very gettable.

After their tea, the Crowthorne openers walked to the crease, to a smattering of applause from the small crowd, which was somewhat smaller than expected due to the weather but did include a PRETTY WOMAN or two. Sheppard looked secure at one end, while the skipper looked to have made the right decision in opening, as a succession of shots saw his total race to 12 before letting a good yorker take his stumps. This brought Davies- last weeks centurion - to the crease, and the total kept increasing, behind the run rate, but within reach.

Sheppard fell to the very tidy opener on 29, bringing O'Clarke to the crease, and he continued where he'd left off last week, blasting a quick-fire 29 before being run out. Mackenzie, keen to put the misery of his fielding and bowling behind him, strode to the crease, intent on a score. the slow loopy spinner was on, and there to be hit, but after wafting ineffectively at his first two deliveries he played a premeditated block all around a ball that cut back and walked back to the pavilion, brought low by the game that had given him so many highs the week before.

What followed was collapse of spectacular proportions. Partridge followed Mackenzie (looking liek a cross between Roy Orbison and Ray Charles in his novelty Sunglasses), returning quickly with a quack. This brought Cluett to the crease, fresh from Saturday’s ton. The crows on the boundary relaxed, here was a man who surely wouldn’t be undone by such innocuous bowling. He returned just as quick, quacking as he came. It seems 24 HOURS IS NOT ONLY A LONG WAY FROM TULSA, but a whole world away from the form Ant had shown the day before.

The big Kahoona walked out and back again, as did Jarrett and Coles all for naught. As the chaos erupted all around him, Davies saw his chances of another big score receding, like the backs of his batting partners on their way to the pavilion, and opened up, smashing a succession of spectacular shots over the rope, including one that smashed the tiles on the pavilion roof, and one that has only recently started to come down again. Monty Blocked away at one end while Davies expertly farmed the strike, racing to 75, before Monty finally played at a wide one, dragging it onto his foot and into the stumps. Just as the Woodcote team were starting to look at the scoreboard with concern it was all over and the crows were left CRYING.

7 ducks, all in a row, had left Davies stranded, and handed Woodcote the victory, in a collapse that will live long in the memory, and had the club historians looking through the records to see if we'd ever seen its like before. I hope to never see its like again.

Interviewed after the game the disconsolate Crows skipper, returning against his home town club said "I'm Distraught! we were looking so steady, but yet again, the curse of the crows struck , with a complete disintegration caused by the slow loopy stuff. Then to put on so many for the last wicket, with a man like Joe at the crease, we started to believe we could actually pull it off. To have that snatched away at the end just topped things off for us. As John Cleese once said "I can cope with despair, it’s the hope that kills you" It was a good game, and if you came for entertainment, YOU GOT IT, but this is very much a game we wish to put behind us, I can only apologise to the fans who came to see us win today, and promise them that we will all be working hard to put this right, and ensure it never happens again."

Skipper & Keeper: RP Hester
6's: J Davies 5
Catches: Sheppard, Davies 2, Jarrett 2
Ducks: (in order) Mackenzie, Partridge, A Cluett, Ingram, Jarrett, Coles, Miller (no golden)

Woodcote Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
8w 14b 1lb 
for 7 wickets
23
204 (35.0 overs)		     
Roberts ct  J Davies b A Cluett 38
Anderson b  S Clarke 39
Ravenhill ct  & bowled J Davies 12
Stroker ct  T Jarrett b A Cluett 12
Saeid ct  T Jarrett b B Coles 12
Aldridge ct  S Sheppard b M Miller 34
Worsfold run out  R Hester 34
Fuller Not Out  0
   
   
   

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Sunday XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Marshall Miller7.0131131.004.43
Dan Partridge4.02800.002.00
Colin Ingram6.022900.004.83
Brendon MacKenzie4.002500.006.25
S.D. Clarke4.0025125.006.25
Anthony Cluett4.0021210.505.25
Billy Coles3.0027127.009.00
Joe Davies3.0022122.007.33

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Sunday XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
9w 5b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
16
159		        
Richard Hester b  Pearson 12 1 1
Simon Sheppard ct  Saeid b Pearson 29 5 1
Joe Davies Not Out  75 5 5 2
S.D. Clarke Run out  29 4
Brendon MacKenzie b  Roberts 0
Dan Partridge ct  wk b Roberts 0
Anthony Cluett b  Roberts 0
Colin Ingram b  Worsfold 0
Tom Jarrett b  Roberts 0 2
Billy Coles ct  wk b Roberts 0
Marshall Miller b  Allen 0

Woodcote Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Pearson7.031628.002.29
Simpson5.003300.006.60
Roberts7.012555.003.57
Saeid2.001600.008.00
Worsfold5.0031131.006.20
Allen3.0030130.0010.00
 
Photos and video of Woodcote v Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Sunday XI on Sun 28 Jul 2013 at 2:00

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Roof Damage

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Joe's Damage to the roof

R Orbison