Scorecard

Bamville v Aldenham Cricket Club on Sun 07 Jun 2015 at 1400
Aldenham Cricket Club Won by 148 runs

Match report The Parish arrived at Bamville’s mid-golf course ground, hoping to complete the season’s double over our old adversaries after Saturday’s very satisfying victory. This reporter pulled into the car park at about 1:20, just after Barry Letts - who was looking every inch the guest professional with his Lotus and enormous kit bag.

Some creative editing of the batting order was required from Char “Skip” Munroe - having at his disposal 11 batsmen and only 4 bowlers - but just after 2pm and in near perfect conditions, openers Simon Letts and Dan Wells (“Wellsy”) took to the crease. The Chairman was into his stride fairly quickly, dispatching some fairly pedestrian stuff through his favoured scoring area between square leg and mid on.

Wellsy however was somewhat more circumspect, his nerves perhaps betrayed by the knowledge that he was on a pair for the weekend following his duck on Saturday. Several giggles were emanating from the practice net from Messers Hill and Watfa, as Wells played out dot after dot. The left hander eventually got his account underway with a clipped single through the on side, to large cheers of approval from the Parish faithful.

Mr Wells unfortunately fell soon after, falling LBW for 3 from 24 balls, bringing Mr Itty Haque to the wicket. 3 balls later and he was gone too, top edging an attempted sweep behind (having been dropped at cover first ball) and making way for the in-form Tanios Watfa to restart the innings. Watfa started slowly but was soon casually knocking the ball around, allowing the strike to be dominated by the near-free scoring Chairman.

Simon promptly brought up an excellent 50 from only 42 balls, and then accelerated to within touching distance of a maiden ton. It was alas not to be - despite the good will of his team mates, Simon was caught for 80 (75 balls), never the less gaining rich applause for his efforts as he made his way back to the pavilion.

New batsman Sachin Sangvi was anxious to maintain the scoring rate, but tried too hard to attack early on and was dismissed for a fairly stone-dead LBW for just 2. Greg Hill also came and went in not too much time, his 6 ball innings of 24 unsurprisingly not containing any dots.

No sooner had Mr Russell arrived at the wicket, than Watfa was then on his way. Eyeing up a juicy length ball, the Wolverine impersonator / Lebanese Lip / Watford Watfa could only scuff the ball straight up and into the hands of the point fielder, for a respectable 36 off 42 balls. Hardly a game changer as this only served to allow Barry Letts to enter the fray.

The younger Letts got stuck in straight away, hammering his first four deliveries for 18 (4-4-6-4) and then racing to a fifty of his own from only 15 deliveries (is this a club record, anyone? It surely must be). Both Letts and Russell benefitted strongly from the Bamville bowlers’ bizarre tactic of continually feeding full tosses, Mr Russell dinking his way to a quickfire 30 before being bowled going for a huge swish on the last ball of an over to avoid stealing the strike.

The skip came in and saw Barry to a beast of a hundred (40 deliveries), and Letts then immediately retired to give a chomping-at-the-bit Danny Morgan a chance at some more carnage. Mr Morgan eyed up a massive six on his first delivery, but then pulled out at the last second in somewhat comical fashion, edging the ball onto his legs while standing at a right angle to the direction of the track. Morgan did not get another opportunity, left stranded on 7* as Char was bowled for 8 while taking a huge swing at the last ball of the innings.

A very satisfied Parish took tea having bludgeoned a mammoth total of 315, and another unfortunate headache for skip Char as he had to find 8 overs from somewhere (match was 40 overs, 8 per bowler). The four regular bowlers (Char, Morgan, N Hale and B Letts) were to be complimented by a combination of Sanghvi, Russell, S Letts, Hill, Watfa and Wells.

The confident parishioners took to the field with the sun still blazing down, no doubt hoping (at least, this reporter was hoping) to wrap up victory before the part timers and non-bowlers would be called upon. They did not have to wait long for the breakthrugh as Char trapped one of the Bamville openers LBW for just 2, and then hitting the middle stump of the other opener, also for only 2.

The pairing of the Bamville 3 and 4 batsmen put a useful partnership, deciding to go down fighting with several lusty hits and lucky edges finding the boundary until 1st change “wheels” bowler Barry Letts castled the Bamville no.3 for 28. The no.4 remained, however, and it was his continued presence that caused Mr Russell to “sack off” his bowling spell in favour of top order batsman and wannabe ‘leggie’ Sachin Sanghvi. No.4 reached a quickfire half century, during which the A’s were treated to the amusing sight of Mr Watfa at slip readying his arm to throw the ball back to the bowler, only to forget to let go of the ball and watch bemused as the ball flew off in the opposite direction, to guffaws from his fellow fielders.

Sachin confounded all his doubters almost immediately, leaving Itty Haque behind the stumps speechless as the no.5 batsman somehow missed a straight delivery, resulting in delirium for Sanghvi and a combination of delight and surprise for his team mates. The (very) part time left arm tweaker Greg Hill also claimed a scalp, thanks to an astonishing full length diving catch from the skip, a sure-fire candidate for catch of the season.

Nic Hale eventually removed the determined no.4 batsman, beating him in flight and clipping middle and off, on his way to good figures of 8-3-29-1. Mr Watfa’s mystery spin brought no reward, however, whose only over went for 8 runs and lasted 8 balls (including managing to overstep in his run-up twice). Neither did the left arm meduim paced swing bowling of Wellsy, who never the less conceded only 6 from his two decent overs.

Danny Morgan was then brought back with 10 overs to go, and promptly removed the Bamville no.7 clean bowled, and then filling the role of playground bully by hitting the stumps of a young lad half his height with his very next delivery. Ultimately the A’s ran out of overs to wrap the game up, and although the Chairman trapped the Bamville no.10 LBW with the penultimate ball of the match, the no.11 bat scored 2 off the final ball to leave his team on 167/9, about a light year short of their target of 316.

A good contribution-filled match for all concerned, in perfect weather, was celebrated in the bar afterwards with a round (as opposed to a jug) from Man of the match Barry Letts (100* from 40 balls, bowling figures 8-1-30-1). A morale enhancing double over Bamville to savour indeed.

Aldenham Cricket Club Aldenham Cricket Club Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
7w 17b  
for 9 wickets
24
315		        
Simon Letts ct Pec 80 75 12 106.67
Daniel Wells lbw Abishek 3 24 12.50
Itty Haque ct Pec 1 3 33.33
Tanios Watfa ct Hayes 36 42 4 85.71
Sachin Sanghvi lbw Pec 2 7 28.57
Greg Hill st Tizzard 24 6 1 3 400
Robin Russell b Chapman 30 26 4 115.38
Basil Letts Retired Not Out  100 40 11 5 250.0
Charlie Munroe Bowled  8 7 1 114.29 1
Dan Morgan Not Out  7 7 1 100
Nic Hale  

Bamville Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Chapman8.0141141.005.13
Abishek8.0053153.006.63
Pek8.0058319.337.25
Patel8.0048148.006.00
Hayes5.0049149.009.80
Tizzard3.0049149.0016.33

Bamville Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
167 (40.0 overs)		     
Cartel lbw C. Munroe 2
Patel b C. Munroe 2
Pec b B. Letts 28
Smith b N. Hale 55
Hayes b S. Sanghvi 9
Tizzard ct G. Hill 4
Roberts b D. Morgan 5
Abi b D. Morgan 0
Tizzard Not Out  33
Hayes lbw S. Letts 3
Chapman Not Out  2

Aldenham Cricket Club Aldenham Cricket Club Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Charlie Munroe8.0122211.002.75
Dan Morgan8.0325212.503.12
Basil Letts8.0130130.003.75
Nic Hale8.0329129.003.63
Sachin Sanghvi2.0013113.006.50
Greg Hill2.0011111.005.50
Tanios Watfa1.00800.008.00
Daniel Wells2.00600.003.00
Simon Letts1.00919.009.00