Match Reports - 1st August 2009
OPCC beat Kempton by 4 wickets
It looks like a regulation victory on the scorecard but this game had a bit of everything, and in the end we did well to force a victory in the conditions. We made an excellent start with Serj and Sam bowling well and picking up a wicket each, the latter thanks to a good catch at 1st slip by Freddie. Podge was doing an admirable job behind the stumps as the first of our wicket keepers (due to injury we were operating a rotational system). Sam picked up another and then a crazy run out got rid of their skipper. Everybody should know you don’t run a second when your partner is 15 yards past the stumps – the Kempton no.5 didn’t know that but he does now that he ran his captain out by yards thanks to a good throw from Serj and solid take from his opening partner Sam. A little partnership followed, but Dave Newsome intervened as he has done so often this year. A quicker ball crashed into middle stump and then, next ball (but 1st ball of his next over), a quicker ball crashed into middle stump again. So, hat-trick opportunity for the second week in a row: Dave went for what was working – quicker ball – this time the guy got a pad in the way but as we know, that is still out (barring being outside the line etc, which it weren’t). Cue wild celebrations for the Hat Trick. Five or six minutes later we calmed down and noticed there was still only 1 representative of Kempton present. We sportingly waited for him to arrive and do his trousers up while he took guard. (As it turned out, quite a few of their blokes did like to take time getting ready, more of which later.) Meanwhile our friend no.5 was still hiding from his captain in the middle. He hit a couple of boundaries but then whacked one back at Chuck who took a trademark snare off his own bowling. Not long later no.11 Stephen Crossley (who was very cross, perhaps because he was batting 11 and not bowling, and it was his birthday and he had better things to do, apparently), was caught Duncan bowled Newsome to end the innings on 110.
We went straight out with weather looming over the pavilion, and made a decent start with 3 boundaries in the first over. After that though Kempton bowled much better, the off and leg spin pairing both finding turn and bounce. The offie took both Podge and Dave N caught behind to good balls that turned. We made it through to tea without further loss. It actually made a change to face some decent spin bowling from both ends, not something we dish out all the time but don’t face regularly ourselves. The offie could have had more than his eventual 4 wickets. The leggie was our friend the no.5 (let’s call him Andy Ward from now on), who bowled too many full tosses but still got good turn and bounce. Sadly he was let down by his chat, which was puerile at best. Freud would have had a field day with it, and concluded that there was some serious repression of urges going on…
After tea it rained for a bit, we went on, came off and it rained some more. By this stage there was some muttering of discontent in the Kempton ranks. We went on again, got a bit closer for the loss of Freddie and Alex, it rained and we came off. The mutterings were becoming more forceful… It stopped raining, we got the covers off, assessed the damage, and the umpires agreed that play should resume. Half of a Kempton side took the field, but the other half were nowhere to be seen. Andy Ward emerged from the dressing room in a fetching pair of red trousers and declared the situation ridiculous. Some similar faffing and flat out refusing to obey the umpires followed, which delayed things long enough for it to start raining again. It stopped again not long after, and since we had been covering the pitch, all was still well and the umpires decided play would resume again. By now muttering had become grumbling, oathing, whining and whingeing. The red trousers were still on, and there was no sign of a wicket keeper. However the rain held off long enough for finally all the Kempton boys to get themselves properly attired and take the field a quarter of an hour or so later. Inmates of the Siberian gulag have gone about their daily hard labour with more gusto and joie de vivre than was in evidence from Kempton, but present in body they were.
Chris Titley and Matt Kiernan played very well. Spotting the clouds rolling in again and in almost pitch black conditions they whacked the ball around to get us over the line as quickly as possible. Chris made 22 from 19 and Matt 22 from 26, but it was left to Sam to hit the winning runs.
It was handshakes all round at the end, and we presume KCC got over their disappointment pretty quickly, judging by the raucous fun being had in the showers and the hot soapy water coming out from under their changing room door. We wish them well in their relegation battle, hopefully they get out of it and the Kempton cup remains a 1st and 2nd XI comp next year.
2nd XI Winning Draw vs Kempton
A very useful 4 points in the end as all other games washed out - if we'd won the toss however we'd have made some real progress. As it stands we are up to 4th with games against 2nd and 3rd to come.
An absolutely outstanding opening partnership of 147 between Manav Maini and Tom Rigby set the foundations for a big total. Manav fell for a very attractive 69 (not for the first time we hear) and Mike Kiernan scored 32. Tom Rigby was masterful and stayed undefeated for an incredibly well crafted 138*. We managed to reach 261-2 off 49, leaving Kempton 51 overs to chase.
Try as we might we couldn't ram our advantage home, as the pitch was just too batsman friendly and then a wet ball was not our friend. Jack Harrison and Tim Quayle tried hard but couldn't get much out of the pitch, and it took an extraordinarily good slower ball from Chris Burkett to prise out one of the openers. Special mention to Richard Roberts for a very unlucky and excellent spell of controlled left arm seam.
Only two overs were lost to rain, which was a nice break and allowed us to regain focus, as well as nicotine levels for the skipper.
After the break, the captain made the wise decision to put the old hands on - ie himself and Mikey, both having hardly bowled and both wicketless this season. This seemed to work as each picked up two wickets and kept the run rate down to the point where Kempton couldn't possibly get the winning draw, even if we went off again - I've lost count of the number of times over the years that we've gone back on for 10 overs, got the oppo's run rate above ours with a few full bungers and then gone off with a losing draw, so it was nice that this didn't happen.
Kempton finished on 202-5 off 49. An interesting point to note is that the average age of OPCC was 21.3 years old - has to be a record! Mike Kiernan second oldest in the team...How quickly time passes. This week we are back to limited overs and play Stoke D'Abernon who are 2nd but beatable. Win that and we could have a very exciting run-in....
OPCC 3rd XI vs Guildford City 3rd XI - Lost by 33 runs
A disappointing result in the end from a game we arguably could, and should, have won. But a result we got on a day when that didn't seem at all likely and gave us more points than an abandonment, if we're going to look at the positives!
Having won the toss we got off to a good start in the field with Sunny picking up an early wicket for the second week running. He also had a sharp chance missed at slip in his first over as Guildford City signalled their intent to attack from the word go. Having raced to 90 for 2 from 15 overs, the introduction of John Sutherland and Simon McNicol changed the course of the innings. Great variations of flight and pace made it difficult to get the ball away, and with wickets falling regularly, Guildford City slipped to 116 for 8. Simon wrapped up his thoroughly deserved 5 for 27 with a steepling catch from Sunny with the money well on the ball! We let the oppo off the hook a bit as the last two wickets put on 58, but we were happy that we'd restricted one of the league's top sides to 174, a target we had to chase down in 51 overs.
It's fair to say we got the worst of the batting conditions as bad light and a slowing outfield meant that when we did manage to get the ball away, we didn't get full value! From 90-odd for 3, with George Netherton making an assured 36, we should have gone on to win but disaster struck as Rich Benjamin, having made a good start, was run out when he was sent back and couldn't turn quickly enough without spikes on. The middle order all made starts but Abid Hussain (6 for 25) ripped through with a spell of nippy full bowling that was difficult to pick up in the conditions. At 126 for 8, the eventual outcome looked ever more likely but Si and Cliffy saw us through to an extra batting point before Si nicked one off Hussain and the keeper took a sharp one-handed catch.
Good to get a result on such a miserable day, just a shame it didn't go our way! There were good performances all round though from one of the stronger sides we'd put out this season - well played all (special note for Paddy Campbell for his three stumpings!)
