Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club

Scorecard

Farley Hill v Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI on Sat 17 May 2014 at 1:30 pm
Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Won by 116 runs

Match report RED BARRON GUNS DOWN FARLEY HILL

Like a bucolic paradise the rolling countryside of Farley Hill is bathed in beautiful spring sunshine, and as they make their way through the rickety wooden gate, past the tree-shrouded pavilion and emerge out onto this idyllic landscape each of the men involved in today’s contest falls in love with cricket all over again, remembering just what it is about this wonderful game that is so dear to their hearts. Just as love transforms a partner’s foibles into endearing idiosyncrasies, so too are the preceding two weekends of rain-affected frustration brushed aside as the champions of Farley Hill and Crowthorne see their seasons truly begin in earnest on this most picturesque of days.

Today the finest of Crown Wood and Crowthorne have their first chance to complete a league game for the newly-merged “superclub”, and likewise it is “The Colonel” Ant Cluett’s first full match leading his troops into the fray. Renowned for his steely determination with bat in hand he has the same calm resolve written across his visage as he strolls out to the middle with the opposition skipper. As the coin tumbles end over end through the muggy air towards the unexpectedly green strip his confidence this time is misplaced however as he calls incorrectly and the Farley Hill captain has the opportunity to shield his heretofore fragile batting line up from the Crows’ bowlers, at least for the moment, in choosing to bowl first.

So it is that “The Colonel” and “The Red Barron” are called upon to resist the opening salvos of the Farley Hill heavy artillery, and it takes just two deliveries for Cluett A to edge an uncharacteristically aggressive drive behind, but he and his on-looking teammates breathe a huge collective sigh of relief as the shiny cherry finds its way to the verdant turf despite the best efforts of the sprawling keeper. What a mistake this proves to be as well, because the opening pair both find the middle of the bat with regularity in the ensuing overs, racing along through their fifty partnership and beyond to have the Crows perched prettily on 80-0 off 13 overs.

With the score at 86 however “The Colonel” makes only his second mistake of a well-constructed innings when he chips the Farley Hill leg-spinner tamely into the buckets of the mid-wicket fielder, barely making it back to the pavilion before collapsing into a chair claiming that he had been the victim of “de-hydration and heat exhaustion”, rather than that he had played a poor shot. No such problems for the commanding Rich Barron however, as he is quick to stamp on any semblance of momentum the opposition may have gained from claiming the skipper’s scalp, soaring past his fifty with some increasingly hefty blows. Smokin’ Joe Davies quickly looks an able understudy too, unfurling his signature brand of exquisitely timed drives but with the sweepers out he doesn’t get full value for these shots as the Farley Hill skipper is forced to defend even at this early stage.

As the runs continue to flow freely from the antipodean duo “The Red Barron” sends another crushing square cut over the ring fielders and into the deep on the off side, but just as the scorer is poised to chalk up four more to his already impressive seventy-two a lumbering Farley Hill fielder positions himself under the ball and steadies himself to take advantage of Barron’s first mistake...then after tumbling to the turf he struggles to his feet still carrying slightly too much timber, but to the dismay of his colleagues, not the ball. Indeed this dismay proves entirely warranted, as it is this moment that proves the turning point in the innings, with Barron von Richtofen finding yet another gear as he takes his scoring rate up into the stratosphere, where it has for company several of the huge strikes he sends high into the crystal blue sky.

Joining Barron at the crease on 134-2 is Mohamed Izzadeen, with the unfortunate Davies having been given out leg before despite it striking him somewhere near the hip bone, and he immediately senses the mood Barron is in and so happily plays second fiddle, looking untroubled as he pushes the ball around to give Barron as much of the strike as possible. In equal measures the opposition are hating this and the Crows onlookers are loving it, as “The Red Barron” begins an onslaught that will live long in the memories of all who were privileged to be there watching on this remarkable day.

Timing, composure, power (oh, so much power!), shot selection, aerial hitting and along the ground, leg side, off side, in front and behind square- this innings genuinely has it all. His first ever league hundred for the club comes up off just seventy four deliveries with a typically well-timed rocket of a clip through mid-wicket, but it is clear this is not what “The Red Barron” has come for today. It is as though Jacques Kallis retired from international cricket to come and play BCL Division 1, such is the mastery over the bowling Barron is displaying. No bowler is saved from this bombardment, and one over-excited spectator is heard to declaim this “the greatest innings anyone anywhere has ever produced”. That it may not be, but one thing that cannot be denied as Barron sends another cruiser missile off the middle of his bat to the fence to bring up his 150 and the 100 partnership is that there are very few playing in any division of Berkshire cricket that could have delivered such a display.

As “The Colonel” reluctantly draws the curtain on the Crows’ fearsome batting performance, declaring after just 41 overs, the impressive Izzy just has time to bring up his own fifty, and as he walks off with the unbeaten Barron they are mobbed by their jubilant teammates, ecstatic with the 291-2 they have achieved and to a man congratulating Rich on his sublime 173 not out and the pair on their unbroken 157 partnership. Tea is the reward for the weary batting heroes, and as both teams tuck in it is clear to all that there can now only be one winner, and in the shell-shocked, wide-eyed expressions of the Farley Hill players this truth is writ large.

Despite knowing that defeat is, in all likelihood, inevitable, the Farley Hill batsmen begin their innings with creditable purpose. Ravi and Cluett J, the club’s newly installed opening bowling partnership, are posed more than a few questions by the orthodox Farley Hill skipper and the, um, less than orthodox number two. Runs do begin to flow, but both bowlers strike as first Ravi removes the skipper with one that leaves him and catches the faintest edge, safely pouched by Azza who begins an afternoon of excellent glove-work with this regulation take, then Jeff produces an eponymous “Jaffa” to send the number three packing for a duck, swinging a full delivery past his outside edge to rattle into middle and off. The wild innings of the number two then comes to an end as he eventually finds a fielder with one of his agricultural mows, the alert Izzy pouncing at mid-wicket to pluck a fantastic catch out of the air and gift Cluett J his second.

The batting side certainly do not capitulate however, and they keep the Crows honest throughout the next hour or so, batting well and, at times, aggressively, but ultimately tied down by the accurate Nirav and Rob Crook, who maintain the Crows’ pressure with little luck. The next breakthrough comes at just the right time, with Riyas shaking off the rust of two years out of the game and claiming the fourth scalp via the steady hands of Smokin’ Joe. Crook then follows this with his first wicket of the season, again aided by a classy catch, this time by Ravi at mid-off, taking a powerfully struck drive two-handed above his head. Inspired by this Godbole returns to the bowling attack to help clean up the tail, not letting his team down and adding two more victims to the first he claimed earlier, including another safe-as-houses catch from Nick O. “The Colonel” brings himself on to complete the clean-up operation of the tail, breezing through numbers nine, ten and eleven, the pick of which being a quicker delivery that span slightly to uproot off stump from the ground. In the hazy evening sunshine the Crows players, applauded by the gracious Farley Hill players who eventually managed 175 to their credit, walk off led by the deserving Rich Barron, who is undoubtedly the hero of this tale, a resounding 116 run victory.

“United we stand, divided we fall” is one of the oldest adages around, but as six former Crown Wood and five former Crowthorne men clasp hands in solidarity after this comprehensive team victory, this simple truth has never been more perfectly illustrated.


Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 4w 2b  
for 2 wickets
9
291		        
Anthony Cluett ct Potts Connolly 37 3 1
Richard Barron Not Out  173 26 3
Joe Davies lbw Ben Cowdry 15 1 1
Mohamed Izzadeen Not Out  57 7 1
Ravi Godbole   1
Nick Outram   1
Azarudeen Mahroof   1
Jeff Cluett  
Riyas Rajab  
Robert Crook  
Nirav Upadhyay  

Farley Hill Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Trevor Clacey8.024200.005.25
Tahqeer Khan5.002700.005.40
Potts Connolly9.0180180.008.89
Saj Abbasi12.007900.006.58
Ben Cowdry7.005300.007.57
John Vorster1.00800.008.00

Farley Hill Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
13w 3b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
18
175 (39.0 overs)		     
R Ditchburn ct Mahroof b Godbole 9
S Abbasi ct Izzadeen b J Cluett 31
W Nash-Wrotham b J Cluett 0
P Jameson ct Davies b Rajab 41
A Jalil ct godbole b Crook 25
J Vorster Not Out  33
P Holland b Godbole 2
T Clacey ct Outram b Godbole 6
T Khan b A Cluett 0
P Connolly ct & b A Cluett 10
B Cowdry lbw A Cluett 0

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jeff Cluett8.0045222.505.63
Ravi Godbole9.0141313.674.56
Nirav Upadhyay5.021700.003.40
Robert Crook8.0120120.002.50
Riyas Rajab5.0026126.005.20
Anthony Cluett4.002137.005.25

  • Umpire :
    A Brown
  • Scorer :
 
Photos and video of Farley Hill v Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI on Sat 17 May 2014 at 1:30 pm

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