Scorecard

Codicote v Aldenham Cricket Club on Sun 31 Jul 2016 at 1330
Aldenham Cricket Club Won by 177 runs

Match report The Aldenham Allstars arrived at Codicote and surprisingly had no late arrivals for their 2pm game. This was likely due to an administration error from the disappointing fixture secretary who had listed the start as 1.30pm, but many great discoveries come as the result of a mistake!

Skipper Char won the toss and elected to bat, much to the delight of several A’s players left scratching around for time at the crease following the Saturday League tactic of taking the draw out of play by bowling first.
Out to open was Sacho and Tanios and they were greeted by a beautiful track and a lightning fast outfield and were hoping to fill their boots. Both made a bright start, the outfield ensuring the nudges and nurdles which would yield few runs in the lush undergrowth of the Parish were instead racing away to the boundary.

Tan however, mistaking his rapidly increasing score as a sign that he was seeing it like a beach ball, played a loose drive and snicked behind for 22 off 17. This brought Karan out to join Sachin but Sach was hurried into a pull shot and only managed to get it as far as square leg, who pouched it with a good tumbling effort.

Lee the Pirate then joined Barot at the crease and apparently the road of a pitch had turned into a deadly minefield, both showing an incredibly jumpy nervousness in their shot selections as they faced 21 deliveries before getting their partnership underway.

Lee eventually fell for 9 as Karan survived a strong LBW appeal as Umpire Watfa couldn’t quite muster the enthusiasm to give him the finger, eventually deciding to give the batsman the benefit of the doubt due to a large deviation off the seam towards leg. Surely he would have fallen to many of our trigger happy contingent of umpires?

Dan Knight meanwhile didn’t even bother waiting for the finger at the other end when he was wrapped on the pads, he was half way to the pavilion walking off as Watfa’s heavy arm was removing itself from its pockety home.
Meanwhile, back at the pavilion, a storm was brewing. The Skipper was concerned with the run rate following the hairier opening batsman’s reports of “It’s a 300+ pitch out there”. This prompted the usual debate about batting order and of course not everyone was happy. From the relative safety of dealing with angry bowlers out on the square I didn’t catch the full story, but upon my return I was informed of arguing, dissent and a storming off! Surely these would be the last Parishioners to let themselves down a bit today?!

Back in the action, Itty Haque was still relying on Isaac’s ‘Batting by numbers’ book. A block, a leave, a swoosh, repeat, Itty swiped his way to 13 before finding himself bowled, so Skip got to leave the frostiness of the Pavilion and go out to bat.

Having bowled his three best bowlers out and still persisting with an attacking field, Karan and Charlie released the shackles. Karan passing 50 and then cruising past 100, taking apart the field with some inventive shots, cultured strokes and some agricultural heaves. Presumably the skip might have asked him to retire to quell the dissenting voices among those still awaiting to bat, but Karan carried on eventually making 132 from just 87 deliveries before being bowled.

Basil then grumbled his way to the crease and stroked a 12 ball 23 as Skipper Char vindicated his own promotion by reaching an unbeaten 56 as the A’s eventually settled on 280 from their 40 over allotment.
A fine tea was enjoyed by all in Codicote’s fantastic new pavilion and the A’s went out to field in good spirits.

Chewett and the Viking were to be the new ball pair of the day and Sacho had earlier, much to the amusement of many Parishioners, volunteered for short leg duty. Armed with Watfa’s suit of armor, he got the usual jeers from team mates who are far too terrified to do such a job. That is until the second over of the game when in a breath-taking display of athleticism and reactions, Sacho gathered a well struck leg glance with a diving stop, pick up and throw, striking down the stumps leaving the batsmen who’d merely overbalanced agonisingly short with a dive. Cue scenes of celebration which left Thursday nights victorious cup final paling in comparison!

Chewett managed to pick up a wicket with his next over. The Viking, wielding his axe and beard in full flow with a rare outing for his long run came steaming in for his second and found the middle of the Batman’s bat with a thunderbolt capable of matching Thor. A nonsensical appeal, driven surely out of joy at bowling his quickest ball since the late 90’s, was amazingly given by the opposition’s umpire prompting outrage from the batsman and many of the slip cordon. A team consultation followed and Aldenham collectively and very sportingly decided to withdraw the appeal.

This enraged the Viking. Steam coming out of his ears, he directed a torrent of abuse at an unfortunate member of the slip cordon, banishing him back to fine leg. With a huge fire burning in that belly, Danny bent his back and focused on an area somewhere in the middle of the pitch, determined to give the batsman a glorious send off to Valhalla. The batsman fought a good fight but there was no stopping the Son of Odin, eventually finding a defenceless glove which popped up to a diving Sangvhi who was still standing tall at short leg. Another juicy team celebration followed until the towering bowler advanced on the group. Another tirade followed, those who dared made a quiet quip but the field retired back to their positions fearing their turn for a volley of abuse.

Aldenham had built up a head of steam and nothing was stopping the train as far as the result was going. Grumbly Barry was brought on first change and he attracted a ‘Jug Ball’ call from both himself and Chewett, amusingly producing an absolute pearler from his experimentation with the seam up delivery which brought a wicket an the jug tally up to a hefty 5 following the batting display.

Skipper Char removed the Axe from his post and brought himself on. A jug ball call from Danny followed, as did another wicket! 6 jugs for the A’s to get through on a Sunday night! Another wicket for Charlie followed next ball. Leroy didn’t back the hattrick and called his Jug Ball. Surely 7 would really be dangerous for the A’s, most of whom had driven themselves to the ground. Alas, it wasn’t to be, and Charlie removed himself following figures of 2 overs, 2 wickets for 4 runs, bringing on Wardy.

Luckily for Mikey, Tanios had spent his morning watching “AB De Villiers Masterclass Part 3: Fielding” that morning and removed himself from the slip cordon to patrol the midwicket boundary. Four text book one handed pick up and throws that surely only a man half his arthritic age could produce, Watfa dazzled his team mates with a sparkling display in the field, culminating in a great catch running and tumbling forward in the deep.
Wardy was not so amused with Watfa’s efforts to hide the pain such efforts had taken on his crumbling body, exclaiming that he ‘hated cricket’. Not quite sure why, surely he wasn’t upset by the mode of dismissal which produces a large percentage of his wickets?!

He then picked up another wicket, this time clean bowled. Surely this would improve his mood at the bar…

Chewett cleaned up the last wicket to wrap up what was probably Aldenham’s most dominant display of the season against a good Codicote side, winning by 177 runs. They were certainly unfortunate to come up against an Aldenham side who were so fired up with cricketing glory that they retired to the bar and promptly spent the next hour tearing strips off each other, presumably having not satisfied their bloodlust in the field.

Aldenham Cricket Club Aldenham Cricket Club Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 6w  
for 6 wickets
8
280		        
Sachin Sanghvi ct  b Shaw 11 25 1 44.00 1 1
Tanios Watfa ct  b K Day 22 17 4 129.41 1
Karan Barot b  Mobrey 132 87 21 3 151.72
Lee Burrows b  Shaw 9 30 1 30.0
Dan Knight lbw E Day 6 13 46.15
Itty Haque b M Wilky 13 19 1 68.42
Charlie Munroe Not Out  56 39 7 143.59
Basil Letts Not Out  23 12 3 191.67
Chris Hewett  
Dan Morgan  
Michael Ward  

Codicote Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Kane Day8.0242142.005.25
Shaw8.0327213.503.38
E Day8.0143143.005.37
McQueen Wilky7.0050150.007.14
Devon5.006100.0012.20
Mobrey4.0049149.0012.25

Codicote Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
9w 1b 3lb 
for 10 wickets
13
103 (27.0 overs)		     
Liversidge run out (Sanghvi) 3
Chauhan b Hewett 13
Smith lbw Hewett 0
Day ct Sangvhi b Morgan 4
Matheson b Munroe 2
Day b Letts 4
Boatright ct Watfa b Ward 18
Day b Munroe 0
Bevan Not Out  46
Shaw b Ward 0
Mcqeen-Wilkie b Hewett 0

Aldenham Cricket Club Aldenham Cricket Club Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Chris Hewett7.021133.671.57
Dan Morgan8.0228128.003.50
Basil Letts5.0026126.005.20
Charlie Munroe2.00422.002.00
Michael Ward5.0034217.006.80