Scorecard

Flitwick II v Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI on Sat 25 Jun 2011 at 1:00pm
Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Lost by 122 runs

Match report First the good bits. We all got there on time. Typical in that when it comes to making the longest trip of the year, we’re there in time for a long and injury-inducing warm-up. Which your correspondent avoided like the plague.

En route, and just before enmotorwaying, my constabulary travelling partner and I came across a party of lovely ladies enjoying an 11.15 a.m. vat of pink ‘champagne’ while their limo driver patiently waited, and wondered what sort of day he was going to have. The temptation to pull over, have a quick pink livener, and whatever else might be on offer, was almost too much to resist. As it was a couple of beeps on the horn and a cheery wave was all that we could cope with, at our ages.

Thus arriving at the picturesque and enormously well-appointed Flitwick ground well before 12.00 enabled the team to engage in all manner of nonsense which, in all seriousness, helped us to prepare properly - it got us going and warmed up, and in the mood to put in the best fielding performance of the season to date. Sadly the CC pulled a fetlock and will severely hamper his
running around after Mrs CC when Junior CC (Zeus, Athene, anyone?) arrives, as he or she will, any day now. Ed., please update idc.

Jim took notice of all those promptings that he underbowls himself by taking the new ball. After a typically on the spot first set from Chas, Jim was no doubt ruing his decision when the local blacksmith heaved anything in his half over cow, horse and pig corner. Though his stance featured the openest open faced bat I have ever seen, this was, one presumes, to facilitate the heaving of anything in is half over the animal corners. Agricultural ain’t in it. But then with the ball not coming on to the bat, and the outfield slow, to go aerial was probably the best policy. The fielding tone was set by the V-C (honest) who threw himself around with manly abandon, while everyone else followed suit.

Block bash was the method, and though Charlie beat the bat regularly it fell to Steve to take the first wicket, when the right-handed opener who had blocked for 15 overs or so mistimed a drive which Charlie held at mid-on. This facilitated the lengthy partnership between two left-handers of contrasting styles – El Bottom-Hando ( © Chris Benn 2010) and El Cangrejo (the crab) who crabbily crabbed around squirting drives past the diving Millridgians. El B-H went first but not before he had biffed his way to 62. A drop off a hard-hit drive, albeit one that went straight to a reliable catcher’s midriff, cost us relatively dear. While he got there aerially it was not especially quick as Chas & Steve pegged him back by adjusting their lengths and Jim cannily placed fielders in his special areas. Charlie’s in-swing to lefties was going round corners at this stage and it was no surprise when he cleaned the big fella up, except that it had taken so long. El C was next, when, after attempting to ape his old mate, he shovelled one in the air where Jim took a good catch pedalling back at mid-off. Things slowed down a good deal and the bowlers enjoyed a spell of bowling at righties, Waqas chucked down some good nuts but enjoyed no success, so the new old firm booked in to finish things off. Steve pinned no.5 in front with an off-cutter (the crosswind was so strong he wasn’t about to swing it away) and then bowled no.6 with a ball that barely got an inch off the deck …. Charlie meanwhile plugged away and upped his final column with two smart stumpings courtesy of Mike P ... a couple of tail-end biffs took the Otters up to 184, one shy of 8 batting points, and we congratulated ourselves on an excellent fielding effort, though perhaps the catching wasn’t up to that high mark.
Yet again Charlie was superb, displaying amazing stamina, skill and guile, finishing with 27-8-57-3; while Steve has bowled and will bowl more accurately, he sent down a lot of wicket-taking balls, and was not flattered by his 17-2-69-4.

Than came the bad bit. And my life, it was very bad. We have to give credit to the Flitwick bowling attack who had more penetration, more variety, and in the convoluted shape of Twist a genuine attacking spinner – one who has played most of his cricket at 1st XI level, and Flitwick’s 1st XI are in Division 1. The scorecard tells its own tale – except to say that those who dug in found it hard to get the ball away, while those who tried to play shots hadn’t got themselves in, to enable them to play shots with confidence.

A lot of harsh words were spoken in the dressing room after that ‘performance’. Rain in recent weeks has disrupted things, true – but people need nets if they aren’t playing, to make sure they can work on technicalities and simply feel bat on ball. There’s a lot of talent in this side, but talent without meaningful practice is nothing, so we have work to do if we are to get back in the promotion race. Second placed Hitchin won’t be an easy ride next week, and as it’s at home we’ll probably start with 3 – a bowler, a keeper, and a fielder in a 1-0 field – but then again, given this side, we’ll probably hammer them. We can do it.

Flitwick II Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
184 (0.0 overs)
S Nicklin Bowled  Low 62
A Summerfield Caught  Lyall (Low) 8
P Thurstance Caught  Lyall (J Hutcheson) 45
D Moxon Stumped  Low (Pratt) 16
G Valentine Lbw  Lyall 4
J Nicklin Bowled  Lyall 5
D Alder Not Out  10
J Twist Stumped  Low (Pratt) 15
B Barzilay Not Out  4
I Moxon-Booth  
S Allen  

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Charles Low27.0857319.002.11
James Hutcheson4.021800.004.50
Steve Lyall17.0269417.254.06
Waqas Memon5.012500.005.00

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
62
(0.0 overs)		    
Jeremy Graves Caught  Twist 17
Jeremy Book Bowled  Moxon 1
Gregg Cruder Bowled  Moxon 6
Peter Leslie Bowled  Twist 1
Alex Book Caught  Allen 1
James Hutcheson Bowled  Allen 0 1
Michael Pratt Caught  Twist 14 2
Kit Hutcheson Caught  Twist 5
Charles Low Bowled  Moxon 8 2
Steve Lyall Bowled  Twist 0
Waqas Memon Not Out  0

Flitwick II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Moxon-Booth8.03900.001.13
Moxon7.321334.331.73
Twist11.061052.000.91
Allen8.0122211.002.75
Thurstance3.02100.000.33