Scorecard

Chipperfield Clarendon v Aldenham Cricket Club on Sun 11 Sep 2016 at 1300
Aldenham Cricket Club Won by 4 wickets

Match report Aldenham beat Sachin Sangvhi Chipperfield Clarendon with just two balls to spare in a 40-over thriller featuring plenty of runs, wickets, drops, calamitous run outs…and a mystery blonde.

Home side Clarendon reached 200 having batted first on a difficult-looking wet wicket but Aldenham produced a quite brilliant response that culminated in a dizzying finish as Sangvhi took 4 of his own team mates’ wickets as he dragged the visitors over the line.

The A’s fielded first, with Chewit and a flea-ridden Charlie Munroe opening the bowling. The latter admitted to feeling a little weary - either from the 90 minutes he played for his 11-a-side football team earlier in the day or some sort of tropical illness brought about from his new kitten’s unwanted insect infestation.

The itchy Char made an early breakthrough and some very tight opening overs put Aldenham right on top with Clarendon around 20-1 at the ten over mark.

Chewit and skipper Munners, who was by now foaming at the mouth, then made way for the late Amit Chakrawarti and Mikey ‘Woices’ Ward, the latter picking up an early wicket with a full toss that was toe-ended straight to the soon-to-be-quarantined captain at mid-on. (25 for 2)

From there though, Chipperfield wrestled back control of the game with a 100-run partnership aided by a dolly of a caught-and-bowled put down by Woices not long after he’d refused to break into a run in the damp lower outfield, declaring: ‘It’s treacherous! I might slip over!’

Doughty replaced Amit and bore the brunt of the attack – suffering a hammering to all parts of the ground and later admitting: ‘I just didn’t feel right today” – perhaps he stood too close to Charlie before the match??

This passage of around 15 overs also produced one of the worst team fielding performances mustered by an Aldenham side in recent memory. Dots were turned into ones, ones were turned into twos, and at one stage one of the bowlers decided to just throw the ball into a gap to concede yet another single – elite levels tactics or blind stupidity? We can only muster a guess!!

Chewit and Charlie, by now suffering cold sweats and scratching himself all over, came back to steady the ship. The visitors were buoyed by the encouragement of Aldenham’s traveling fan Lisa Cooley who was roaring on the visitors having consumed an entire flask of coffee on the sidelines. Handsome former Saturday captain Hewett then made the all-important breakthrough, removing Samson for 47 before taking another two quick wickets to finish with 3-17 from his 8 overs.

Daniel ‘the all rounder’ Knight was more than a little unlucky to suffer four drops in his first two overs as the Henchman, Char and Chewit x 2 failed to cling on to a series of high balls – taking the number of drops to SEVEN for the day.

Chippo ended their innings on a very respectable 200-8, Charlie finishing with 2-23 and Amit, Doughty and Ward picking up a wicket each. Perhaps the quietest man on the pitch at this point was Sachin Sangvhi. His time would come …

A quite spectacular tea, featuring roast potatoes, turkey drummers, wedges, pasta and more, was enjoyed by all before the A’s set about the task of chasing 200 on a wet wicket.

Diseased cat-owner Char opened the batting with Daniel Knight after numerous regular batsmen declined the number one spot. Both fell early, Char caught at the third attempt and Daniel falling LBW to Chip’s South African coach, playing his final game for the club.
Their departures brought Sachin Sangvhi and Tanios Watfa to the crease with Aldenham in the perilous position of 31-2. Some early run-out scares gave a glimpse of what was to follow later in the innings but the pair overcame some dodgy calling to put on a quite brilliant fightback.

As both Sangvhi and Watfa steadily built their innings, the attention of the pavilion was turned to spectator Danny Morgan who had wandered to the other side of the pitch and was sitting on a bench with an unknown female. Use of the scorer’s binoculars confirmed he was in conversation with a mystery blonde, causing much excitement among the now strong Aldenham contingent. All rumours were quickly dismissed on his return though when it emerged she was married to the opposition’s slip fielder, with Danny declaring: “You lot are pathetic – I went and sat by a bin over there earlier but even that wasn’t single – there were two of them!!”

On the pitch, Watfa and Sangvhi took Aldenham to 92-2 at the half-way point. They continued their concentration and determination after drinks, brilliantly rotating the strike and hitting any bad balls for four. By now, Chips had brought back their Aussie opener, along with a top-class spinner who bowls for their league side in division 4a. The unbreakable Aldenham pair were not fazed however and with five overs to go Aldenham were closing in on victory, needing just 20 runs for a famous win.

The partnership was eventually broken on 191 when Sangvhi called a suicidal second, leaving Watfa run-out on 79 with three overs remaining.

Matt Bazeley, having travelled for close to two hours to play the match, went in with Aldenham needing just 10 runs off 18 balls.

The match situation however appeared entirely lost on Aldenham’s Indian partnership hero who by now had a demonic look in his eye as the unsuspecting Colonel wandered out to the crease.

Sacho The Assassin quickly nudged the ball into the ring for a single before mindlessly calling ‘YES!!!!’ for a second run that wouldn’t have been made by Usain Bolt let alone an Army Colonel with one knee. Bazeley became Sacho’s second run-out victim as Aldenham found themselves needing six runs off 10 balls.

Joe Hensman was next in, though before he’d even taken guard The Assassin had him in his cross hairs and the part-time swimming teacher was run out without facing a ball. Four needed from eight balls.

Chewit, having scrambled to get some pads on as the Domino’s fell in front of him, walked out to face the off spinner. Sacho, acting every bit of the cold killer, failed to even greet his new partner to the crease, presumably having already decided his fate as he walked out to bat.

Just a couple of balls later, Sacho had once again called a suicidal single and Chewit became run-out victim number FOUR thanks to some excellent fielding and a direct hit. Two needed off five!!

Mikey Ward gave everyone a scare when, first ball, he popped the ball high into the air, though it incredibly fell just short of all the surrounding fielders, allowing Sangvhi to scamper through for a single to tie the scores.

Sachin then made sure of victory, punishing a short ball from the Aussie quick to the boundary with two balls to spare, bringing cheers and sighs of relief in equal measure from the pavilion.

Sacho finished on 73-4 to help win a brilliant match that quite literally had everything!!

Memorable Moments: 'The Chipperfield Four' (Watfa, Bazeley, Hensman and Chewit) and 'The One That Got Away' (Mikey Ward)

Man of the Match: Tied between Sangvhi and Watfa

Chipperfield Clarendon Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 1w 15b 1lb 
for 8 wickets
18
200 (40.0 overs)		     
Samson b  Munroe 0
Hilliard ct  Munroe b Ward 14
Scranage lbw  Munroe 4
Samson b  Hewett 47
Desai Not Out  75
Clayton ct  Watfa b Hewett 0
Woollett b  Hewett 1
Hampson ct  Chakrawarti b Doughty 8
Von Rauenstein ct  Watfa b Chakrawarti 32
Leach Not Out  1
Thompson  

Aldenham Cricket Club Aldenham Cricket Club Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Charlie Munroe8.0223211.502.88
Chris Hewett8.031735.672.13
Amit Chakrawarti8.0232132.004.00
Michael Ward8.0036136.004.50
Richard Doughty5.0048148.009.60
Dan Knight3.002800.009.33

Aldenham Cricket Club Aldenham Cricket Club Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
6nb 6w 4b 7lb 
for 6 wickets
23
202		        
Charlie Munroe ct  Scranage b M Leach 16 25 3 64.00 1
Dan Knight lbw  B Samson 7 13 1 53.85
Sachin Sanghvi Not Out  73 103 6 70.87
Tanios Watfa run out  ( Von-Raustin) 79 94 10 84.04 2
Matt Bazeley run out  ( Thompson) 1 6 16.67
Joe Hensman run out  ( Von-Raustin) 0
Chris Hewett run out  ( Thompson) 1 2 50.0
Michael Ward Not Out  1 1 100
Amit Chakrawarti   1
Richard Doughty  
Josh Bazeley  

Chipperfield Clarendon Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Thompson6.402600.003.90
B Samson8.0134134.004.25
M Leach6.0028128.004.67
Desai8.003900.004.88
J Clayton5.003000.006.00
Von-Raustin6.002200.003.67