Scorecard

Eaton Bray v Aldenham Cricket Club on Sat 07 Sep 2024 at 12.00
Aldenham Cricket Club Lost by 92 runs

Match report Having secured promotion for the club after winning the previous fixture at home against Southgate Adelaide, ACC’s final game of the season was at Eaton Bray. A win would at this game would boost the hopes of winning the league's top prize.

To start off the proceedings, Ah, the classic tale of punctuality in cricket. It's like a race between the tortoise and the hare, except in this case, the tortoise is running on Bedfordshire time and the hare is stuck in traffic from miles away! These players from afar must have set off before the roosters even woke up, while the locals probably thought they had time for a quick nap before heading to the venue just a stone's throw away! And of course, let's not forget the fines - those fines must have felt like a mini-tax for being fashionably late in their own backyard!

Moving on to cricket from the 100m sprint race to Eaton Bray, in the absence of regular captain Chris Munroe, club stalwart Michael Ward lead the team. Spoilt for choice in the bowling department, after winning the toss for ACC captain decided to field first on what looked like a very flat deck.

After a moral boosting speech from the captain which included, discipline, discipline and … erm… discipline, ACC took to the field on a hot sunny afternoon with plenty of planes and gliders to distract them in the clear skies above. Eaton Bray batsman started somewhat cautiously, saw off opening spells from our leading wicket taker Amit Chakravarty and the accurate Sheikh Ahmed. Captain in search of early wickets turned to Tim Hale who did not disappoint and clean bowled one of the openers to give us the first wicket. Opposition batsman number three, Brown and their number one batsman, Norris went about cautiously ensuring they weren’t giving any chances other than some edges to the slips which didn’t go to hand. The occasional boundary kept the scoreboard moving for Eaton Bray and by drinks the home team had lost just one wicket.

After drinks ACC introduced spin doctor Barot into the attack. Spin Doctor Barot who is often seen with his special concoctions in a blue jar, not only spins the ball but probably spins some tales too to distract the batsmen. It's like a magical potion brewed by a wizard, hoping to cast a spell on the opposition with his wizardry. But alas, the batsmen on this occasion were like unflinching rocks, standing firm against both the spinning deliveries and Barot's spins of words - it's like they came prepared with earplugs for his verbal googlies!

Itty Haque, unfortunately, picked up a nasty injury to dislocate one of his fingers and dropped his wicket keeping gear in pain, but only for our spin doctor Barot to quickly drop the ball in hand and adorn Itty’s gear to take on a new role as a wicket keeper for the remainder of the game.

In another change from the other end saw Sheikh Ahmed introduced again for a second spell, Sheikhy took the wicket of the opposition centurion batsman to give us the much-needed wicket. Despite some good fielding efforts from ACC fielders, the occasional bad ball was put away to the boundary and it was starting to prove costly. Eaton Bray batsman also showed good presence of mind in taking cheeky singles as the field spread out to save boundaries, but what really made the difference was the singles that were converted into twos and the twos which were converted into threes by some good running between the wickets by the opposition batsman. Captain Ward who usually takes wickets at crucial times also went wicket less due to some great batting display from the opposition. In the end club’s leading wicket taker Amit Chakravarty came in to bowl his final spell at a time when opposition batsman had decided to throw their bats at everything. Amit didn’t let the opposition batsman cash in on the last few overs of the innings and took wickets with some absolute beauties.
Eaton Bray finished on a total of 277 in the allotted fifty overs whilst losing just five wickets. A total which looked chasable on their flat deck.

After a quick lunch break Ebay and Dush opened the batting for ACC to start the chase. Both batsman happy to hit a boundary each over during the early stages of the innings. It was when Ebay nicked one to the keeper, ACC were one down with 22 on board. In the absence of the ACC top run scorer and regular no:3 Chris Munroe, Karan was promoted to No:3 and alongside Dush started to build on a decent partnership. Boundaries started flowing and runs were finally ticking away on the scoreboard. Opposition then spread the field and brought on left arm and right arm spinners. The left arm spinner Ashiq went for some runs and was quickly taken off but the right arm spinner Edwins was miserly at giving away runs and created pressure which ultimately broke the partnership. A collapse ensured with Karan, Dush, Tim and Hamza’s wicket. It was then down to Amit and Itty. Itty with a taped broken finger, playing his usual aggressive batting and with support from Amit, got the scoreboard going again. Both batsman piling on runs and just when the going looked good for ACC, Itty got out stumped. But it was when Amit got out with ACC total on 155 runs and 10 overs left in the innings, that any hopes of an ACC win started diminishing. Gautam went to bat and had an early demise, LBW! And as Dwayne may have put it, It's like a universal truth in cricket - which batsman ever agrees with an LBW decision? It's as rare as a seagull not eyeing your fish and chips at the beach!
Captain Ward and Khurram put up a solid defence wanting to bat out the remaining overs in the game. Eaton Bray keeper couldn’t wait to retire to the bar, decided to drop a few catches before finally holding on to one of Khurram’s bat. Sheikhy went in to bat at number 11 but it was all over in the 47th over after Wardy was bowled to a quicker delivery.

A thoroughly entertaining season of ACC league games ends with a well-deserved promotion to Division 6A and second position on the points table for Herts League season of 2024.

If you’re looking forward to take a trip down the memory lane, the nostalgia train is making a stop at the awards dinner and AGM station! With fancier outfits and less traffic, who knew AGMs and awards dinners could be the highlight of the year? Well, other than Dan Knight, the reservation maestro!
Get ready to dust off your tuxedos and gowns, folks, because we're about to relive the 2024 season like it was the latest Netflix series - full of drama, surprises, and maybe a few plot twists that even the best scriptwriters couldn't cook up. And Dan Knight, the gatekeeper of reservations, is our ticket to this show!

Important dates for your diary:
The awards dinner of 12th October 2024
and
AGM on 29th November 2024.

Eaton Bray Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 6w 5b 3lb 
for 5 wickets
15
277 (50.0 overs)		     
Norris ct  Khaliq b Ahmed 113
Gauntlett b  Hale 18
Brown b  Chakrawarti 92
Akhtar b  Chakrawarti 13
Ashiq Not Out  26
Jacobs b  Chakrawarti 0
Harris Not Out  1
   
   
   
   

Aldenham Cricket Club Aldenham Cricket Club Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Amit Chakrawarti10.0145315.004.50
Sheikh Ahmed10.0050150.005.00
Tim Hale10.0068168.006.80
Karan Barot6.012100.003.50
Michael Ward4.002500.006.25
Khurram Chaiwalla5.003200.006.40
Gautam Kashyap5.002800.005.60

Aldenham Cricket Club Aldenham Cricket Club Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
2w 11b  
for 10 wickets
13
185		        
Ubaid Khaliq ct  Harris 12 19 3 63.16 1
Dushant Pandit ct  Edwins 37 62 6 59.68
Karan Barot ct  Pearson 43 59 6 72.88
Tim Hale lbw  Edwins 0 9 0
Ali Hamza b  Oakes 3 17 17.65
Amit Chakrawarti ct  Gauntlett 34 47 3 1 72.34
Itty Haque st  Gauntlett 20 19 2 105.26
Khurram Chaiwalla ct  Harris 5 25 20.0
Gautam Kashyap lbw  Ashiq 5 7 1 71.43
Michael Ward b  Pearson 13 24 2 54.17
Sheikh Ahmed Not Out  1 1 100

Eaton Bray Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Harris7.0033216.504.71
Emerson6.002200.003.67
Ashiq10.0126126.002.60
Edwins7.0028214.004.00
Pearson9.4132216.003.31
Oakes2.0010110.005.00
Gauntlett6.0124212.004.00

  • Umpire :
    Dwayne Gunasekera
  • Scorer :