Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club

Scorecard

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 2nd XI v Stratfield Turgis & Hartley Wespall on Sat 24 Jun 2017 at 1:00 pm
Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Won by 5 wickets

Match report Match report from Tom Nash...

Crows back on track with morale-boosting win over Stratfield Turgis

After a couple of troubling losses, Crows badly needed a change of fortune. Things started well. On a warm, overcast afternoon, skipper Desperate (for a win) Dan Finucane won the toss and invited ST to bat first. “I think the ball will swing today,” he predicted. And how right he was…

Wheeling away from the car park end, Hurricane himself swung the ball in consistently, often late, with the occasional one going away off the seam to keep the batsman guessing. Much of the time they guessed wrong, with our Leader bagging three early scalps, including a wizened, old, grey-haired opener described by Dan Partridge (who should know, having played against him since the Fifties) as “a big run-scorer” and “their key man”.

With Crinners bowling a superb tight opening spell from the Tennis Court end, regularly beating the outside edge, ST were under pressure. At this point their No4 mis-drove Crinners high towards Nirav, who was perfectly placed to take a comfortable catch at short extra cover. Naturally, Nirav called loud and clear for the catch, and Crows breathed a collective sigh of relief in the certain knowledge that the ball would fall safely into his voluminous hands, which were cupped and ready to receive it… Nikhil, however, had been reading a different script, as he tore in from Point, snatched the ball from under Nirav’s nose, proceeded to juggle with it a few times before completing with a flourish a much more difficult catch than the bemused, empty-handed Nirav had been calmly anticipating.

This nerve-shredding moment aside, Crows were well on top, with ST 20 for 4 and struggling to score. A period of stalemate followed, as ST tried to rebuild, but Crows kept a tight rein on their scoring with accurate spells from debutant Chris Emes and ‘nagging Nirav’. Another change of pace saw Bainos and Danny Boy Partridge operating in tandem and, as ever, both bowling with the wrong arm. As ever, it worked. The breakthrough came, with Danny Boy inducing a couple of edges and opening up ST’s tail. Crinners and Finners came back to polish off the last four wickets, the Skipper finishing with an outstanding haul of 6 for 18, backed up by some superb catching (special mention to Bainos for two smart catches). Nothing went to ground all afternoon.

After an excellent tea (many thanks to Saviour and, it was rumoured, a secret female admirer), Crows faced what should have been a routine target of 102. But we were determined to make a game of it and soon subsided to a nerve-jangling 20 for 4, in the face of good bowling from ST’s seamers on a still-helpful wicket. But our own wizened, old, grey-haired opener dug in for a lengthy vigil, and waited for the cavalry to arrive in the form of Dave ‘Swashbuckle’ Shaw. Swashbuckle proceeded to break the habit of a lifetime and started to hit his Cover Drive (which normally goes over Cow) as straight as a dye.

Maybe it was his recurrent back injury. Maybe it was the painful blow in the lower abdomen he had received at Waltham St Lawrence. Or maybe he was holding his new bat wrong. But whatever it was, Swashbuckle was finding the middle and breaking ST’s hearts with every thunderous blow, including one of the biggest hits seen at St Sebs, high into the woods (Ok, that one was over Cow, but let’s not get picky). With a thumping 50 to his name, Swashbuckle generously left it to big Bad Chris Emes to strike the winning runs – which he modestly achieved with four wides – leaving him undefeated on a fine debut – and leaving Crows to reflect on a great team effort and a well-deserved win.



Captain: Dan Finucane
Keeper: S Sheppard
Catches: D Partridge, N Pande, T Nash 2, A Baines 2, S Sheppard 2
Ducks: N Pande, N Bommanapali
6's: D Shaw 1
MOM Captain Finucane - 6 Wickets

Stratfield Turgis & Hartley Wespall Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 6w 3b 3lb 
for 10 wickets
14
101 (43.2 overs)		     
Walton ct  Baines b Finucane 2
Clark b  Finucane 1
Butcher ct  Sheppard b Finucane 6
Spence ct  Pande b Crinnion 1
Jones ct  Nash b Partridge 19
Brown ct  Partridge b Finucane 47
Clay ct  Nash b Partridge 9
Turvey Not Out  2
Nickless ct  Baines b Crinnion 0
Girle b  Finucane 0
Strudley ct  Sheppard b Finucane 0

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Dan Crinnion11.051427.001.27
Dan Finucane8.231863.002.16
Chris Emes5.011600.003.20
Nirav Upadhyay8.031500.001.88
Dan Partridge8.0020210.002.50
Andrew Baines3.001200.004.00

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 12w  
for 5 wickets
13
103		        
Tom Nash ct  b Brown 32 3 2
Simon Sheppard ct  b Strudley 4 2
Andrew Baines lbw  b Strudley 4 2
Nagaraja Bommanapalli lbw  b Strudley 0
Nikhil Pande ct  b Strudley 0 1
David Shaw Not Out  50 6 1
Chris Emes Not Out  0
Dan Partridge   1
Dan Crinnion  
Dan Finucane  
Nirav Upadhyay  

Stratfield Turgis & Hartley Wespall Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Strudley11.032746.752.45
Clark7.031000.001.43
Spence6.003300.005.50
Butcher3.001900.006.33
Brown1.3014114.009.33