Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club

Scorecard

Waltham St. Lawrence v Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI on Sat 23 Aug 2014 at 1 pm
Match was Drawn (winning draw)

Match report Crows Crowned Champions

One more win? A losing draw? Umpire Points? The maths nerds in the Crows camp collaborated to provide the answer to everyone’s question. Having won the toss the Colonel, on a good, competitive cricket wicket at Waltham St Lawrence’s home ground, decided to bat first Crows required just 150 first innings runs to ensure back to back promotions as champions. Premier League cricket - the Promised Land where pitches are hard and changing room facilities thoroughly regulated. Going into the innings the boys could be forgiven for being somewhat distracted from the task at hand.

Baz ‘n’ Shak, prolific in amassing a century and two half century partnerships from their first three outings as a pairing, provided their now customary run-a-ball start from the first 5 overs. Both, however, fell to the excellent Gujjar, who extracted pace and sideways movement from the Waltham strip. Battling hard, Davies miraculously survived an onslaught from the fired-up Gujjar. The Colonel was not so lucky, nicking off to the military medium from the other end. Fresh from a sublime 104* last week, Psycho continued immediately in the same vein, with intelligent cricket allowing runs to be effortlessly accumulated. Drinks at 22 overs and Crows were looking well beyond the ‘target’ of 150. Psycho and Allwright’s soft dismissals in quick succession meant that Jules was brought to the crease with Crows fearful donating several overs to the Waltham chase. Jules successfully suppressed his innate attacking approach bringing the 45 over mark into sight before getting a good ball from the wily Waltham old-timer who bowled with excellent control. This brought Chalmers to the crease who spent less time there than in the sheds padding up. Charlie Blake, disregarding Davies’ demands to occupy the crease, had no intention of suppressing any of his instincts, hitting a 4 and a huge 6 in a short knock which gave the Crows a new attacking impetus heading into the final overs.

Throughout this steady loss of wickets Davies continued to accumulate very slowly. Attempting to take charge of the innings, Joe’s hubris was entirely culpable in the run out of the innocent Dan Crinnion. He then outdid himself, suicidally calling through the very capable Nirav in order to farm the strike and then, to top it off, getting himself out to close the innings having just turned down a single. Prior to Joe’s dismissal, Nirav had carved Waltham’s best bowler over point for his first boundary of the season. It was a shambolic end to an attritional innings of 49 of 108 deliveries (ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT – no typo). 172 all out off 44 overs was below par, and the Crows batsmen tucked into tea disappointed, having not achieved maximum batting points after batting first for only the second time this season.

The Crows took to the field desperately pushing for new ball wickets which, all season, had not been forthcoming. Ross delivered with a big away swinger, cleaning up the opening batsmen’s stumps. Waltham fought back bravely, picking up singles and dispatching the rare bad balls. Crows were uncharacteristically sloppy in the field, one particular Chalmers over went for 8 more than it should have due to overthrows. Following this, Crows fought back. Despite needing 9 wickets to win the game, Waltham were starting to become bogged, the scoring slowing to below the run rate required to chase down 173 off 46. The Colonel broke rank to finally dismiss the stoic Ashton for a hard fought 43. Jules was unlucky not to pick up a wicket (or indeed a few more overs) after bowling with pace and control.
The man himself will be the first to admit he didn’t reach his own lofty standards with bat or ball, but you can’t keep the Barrymore out of the game for long. He popped up, the only man saving the one on the off-side with a trademark dive and throw, running out the established number 3 Waltham batsman, changing the dynamic of the game, swinging the momentum in Crows’ favour.

Ross got the key wicket of the big hitting, potential match winner, Gujjar. Then Charlie took an absolutely hilarious catch after looking like making a complete meal of a sitter, he stuck out a hand and just managed to cling onto the ball mere inches above the turf. Psycho courageously returned for a second spell having been found by the Colonel somewhere on the leg-side ranting to himself about a dropped catch an hour and a half prior. Frustratingly, the Waltham 8 and 9 hung on for a draw.

This was a match in which the Crows were right on the brink: on the brink of becoming champions but also on the brink of an unexpected and potentially morale-damaging loss. The boys fought hard and rose accordingly at key junctures, showing a level of tenacity seldom called upon over the course of the season. The Crows XI next weekend will no longer face the distraction of mathematics and trophies. Next weekend the only consideration will be that of victory over archrivals Emmbrook, at Emmbrook, with local pride at stake.

Special mention goes to the Waltham team who are a great bunch of lads and were generous enough to treat a certain man of the match to a free beer at the close of play.

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2w 3b 5lb 
for 10 wickets
10
172		        
Richard Barron ct Gujjar 15
Muhammad Shakeel Arshad ct Gujjar 21
Anthony Cluett ct Apps 9
Joe Davies ct Herbert 49 1 1
Alex Sykes ct England 36
Chris Allwright lbw Kumar 3
Julian O'Loughlin lbw England 15
Ross Chalmers b England 0
Charlie Blake b Gujjar 10 1
Dan Crinnion Run out  0
Nirav Upadhyay Not Out  4

Waltham St. Lawrence Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Apps9.0152152.005.78
Evans2.001400.007.00
Gujjar11.022638.672.36
Kumar9.0145145.005.00
England12.032739.002.25
Herbert0.30010.000.00

Waltham St. Lawrence Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 3w 1b  
for 7 wickets
6
137 (46.0 overs)		     
Ashton b A Cluett 43
Jeffrey b R Chalmers 0
Evans run out (Allwright) 44
Gujjar b R Chalmers 28
Connor ct Blake b. R Chalmers 4
England ct Davies b. Sykes 1
Savva lbw Sykes 1
Herbert Not Out  3
Matthews Not Out  1
Apps  
Sivva  

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ross Chalmers11.0433311.003.00
Chris Allwright4.011500.003.75
Nirav Upadhyay5.011500.003.00
Alex Sykes12.0535217.502.92
Julian O'Loughlin5.021000.002.00
Anthony Cluett8.0326126.003.25
Dan Crinnion1.00100.001.00