Scorecard

Aldenham Cricket Club v Luton Royals on Sat 09 May 2015 at 1400
Aldenham Cricket Club Lost by 71 runs

Match report Aldenham crumble to worst defeat in club's history in unbelievable game against Luton Royals

- The A's are bowled out for 29 in humiliating loss
- Luton Royals earlier reduced to 9 for 5 after being put in to bat
- Pete Munroe eats hat after hopefully betting the pathetic Aldenham XI would reach 30 runs
- Rumours spread The Horse has bolted amid fears he may be taken round the back of the pavilion and put down as Saturday skipper
- Maltese international Andrew Naudi sent for DNA tests after his dismal return sparks claims of a pretender in the ACC ranks
- Committee member Danny Morgan absolved from selection debacle and invited to pick eleven dustbins next Saturday in a bid to improve results

Aldenham slumped to their worst ever defeat as they were bowled out for a miserable 29 runs in an unforgettable match against the Luton Royals.
Chasing a meagre total of 100, the home side snatched a historic defeat from the jaws of victory as the batsmen trundled out one by one to play out their spectacular failures.

Earlier in the day it was the visiting Lutonians who looked in danger of humiliation as they capitulated to 9 for 5.

But clearly worried the visitors might steal the headlines, the Aldenham all-star XI put on a quite incredible display of appalling cricket to spark wild scenes of celebration among the Royals and draw a mixture of morbid laughter and tears from the Aldenham pavilion.

The return of Maltese international Andrew Naudi created a buoyant atmosphere at the home of cricket before the unmatchable scenes that followed.

Aldenham put the Royals in to bat after winning the toss and some tight lines from openers Chris "I'm just a bowler" Hewett and Charlie "It wasn't my fault either" Munroe, combined with some incredibly rash shots from the visitors, reduced them to 9 for 5.

A charitable bowling change saw an unusually out of sorts Dan "I probably still did better than my dad would have" Knight and Amit "I'm just passing through" Chakrawarti (spelling from the book!) brought into the fold, followed by Mikey "The Ranter" Ward and later Danny "I need you to drop out on Saturday" Morgan.
Wickets for Ward (2), Dan (2) and Morgan (1) ended with the Royals posting 100 all out with an early tea at 4pm.

All was well as the A's polished off a delicious Knight tea, adorned with delicious home made cakes and scones. The flapjacks were also a treat but nowhere close to as sticky as the situation the home side was about to find itself in.

Talk was already brewing about a beer match and the predictors were right, but for all the wrong reasons.

Lee Burrows and Darpan Gorsia opened the innings, the latter somewhat unlucky that some fluent strokes went straight to the fielders, the former somewhat lucky that he top scored...with 9.

The Pirate's departure (LBW) paved the way for Andrew "Allegedly Aldenham's best ever all rounder" Naudi to walk to the crease, look at the pitch and then watch a skiddy medium pacer cart into his off stump second ball as he practised a quite beautiful forward defensive into thin air.

Darpan was the next to go, delicately jumping backwards in front of all three stumps before peering down and welcoming the ball onto his pads. The wince from both batsmen as they looked up at umpire Chew gave it all away, the finger was up and he was gone.

19-3 but still plenty to come from this batting line-up. Game still very much in the bag.

Danny Morgan was next in, probably worrying about his phone bill after spending an unprecedented 53.5 hours calling a raft of ACC double hopefuls last week (see A Rant).

A swing and a miss, the ball narrowly missed the stumps. "Blimey," he said to the keeper. "I'd normally be walking with my bat under my arm after that."
And the next ball he was, playing what became a familiar perfect forward defensive as the ball clattered the stumps via his bat for 1.

Watfa next. Omnipresent, outstanding, obedient...out. That forward defensive into thin air again as the ball clattered into the stumps to gift the medium pacer his second in as many balls.

*** Overheard in the changing room minutes later, Watfa to Dan Knight who was umpiring: "What exactly happened Dan?"
"Hmmm....you just missed it to be honest Tan." ***

Hat-trick ball. Next up the Saturday skipper Nick Hale - superior, scowling, sensational....skittled!!!!

The captain, playing a less than perfect forward defensive, also had his stumps cleaned up, sparking wild scenes among the fielding team as Nick stood statuesque with his legs parted like a Victorian actor for what seemed like an eternity. The disbelief in his face gave away a naievity about the form that had been staring the rest of us in the face for much of the winter!!!!!
In what were quite literally unbelievable scenes, the medium pacer had his Hat-trick and Aldenham were 20-6.

Amit showed some brief resistance, facing what proved to be one of the better innings with 2 off 13 balls before he was caught and Aldenham really were staring down the barrel.

Chewit strided in confidently...then strode out sheepishly as he dollied his third ball straight back to the bowler.

Charlie Munroe had been attempting to hold the fort with a valiant 5 as the wickets tumbled around him.

But as Dan Knight joined Munners he too dollied one up to cover and was taking the walk of shame.

25-9. Ward and Knight at the crease. And it was all over when Dan was bowled after a solid looking few overs that involved some actual runs, two of them in fact.

And so the humiliation was complete, but not before Aldenham went on to lose the beer match as well.

Straight to the bar for the inquest. Much like the innings, it didn't last long!!

Man of the match: Null and void after such am embarrassing display!!!!!

Luton Royals Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
6nb 4w  
for 10 wickets
10
100 (27.0 overs)		     
Mahmood ct  Hewett 2
Mujaba lbw  Hewett 0
Farhad ct  Munroe 5
Raisal Jr b  Munroe 0
Shabir ct  Munroe 0
Fawad ct  Knight 19
Farhan b  Ward 31
Umair Not Out  29
Shakeel ct  Knight 1
Zafar b  Ward 3
Asad b  Morgan 0

Aldenham Cricket Club Aldenham Cricket Club Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Charlie Munroe5.011936.333.80
Chris Hewett5.031226.002.40
Dan Knight7.0031215.504.43
Amit Chakrawarti4.001900.004.75
Michael Ward5.001226.002.40
Dan Morgan1.00111.001.00

Aldenham Cricket Club Aldenham Cricket Club Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
3b  
for 10 wickets
3
29		        
Lee Burrows lbw  Umair 9 24 1 37.50
Darpan Gorsia lbw  Shabir 7 24 1 29.17 1
Andrew Naudi b  Farhan 0 2 0 2
Charlie Munroe ct  Zafar 5 23 21.74
Dan Morgan b  Farhan 1 5 20.0
Tanios Watfa b  Farhan 0 1 0 1
Nic Hale b  Farhan 0 1 0
Amit Chakrawarti ct  Shabir 2 13 15.38
Chris Hewett ct  Shabir 0 3 0 1
Dan Knight b  Shakeel 2 16 12.50
Michael Ward Not Out  0 12 0

Luton Royals Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Umair4.01717.001.75
Farhan7.011343.251.86
Shabir4.01431.331.00
Zafar3.02212.000.67
Shakeel3.01212.000.67