Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club

Scorecard

Welford Park v Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Saturday 1st XI on Sat 11 Aug 2012 at 1:30
Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Lost by 3 Wickets

Match report Crows travelled to picturesque rural West Berkshire to play Welford Park CC in the stunning surrounds of the Welford Estate. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the local farm animal population were in place early on the boundary to get a good view of the clash between 2nd and 3rd place teams in Division 2.

Crows assembled at Sunrise at Wellington College to prepare for the mammoth trip west. Skipper Knight had prepared for the visit with a trip to the South African Shop to stock up on Biltong and Cream Soda to cater for the Southern Hemisphere contingent in the ranks. Joe Davies was looking nervous ahead of his Motorway Debut, but when Skipper Knight assigned Chalmers and Partridge as co-pilots, he knew he was in safe hands.

After checking everyone had their passports and necessary travel documents , the Crows convoy pulled out of Wellington College before most of the good folk of RG45 had eaten their cornflakes. A fairly uneventful drive to Welford, took approximately 5 hours door to door*. Team Davies kept a good pace with Team Knight as the Knight-mobile had possession of the supply of Biltong. Joe racked up some good overtaking stats on his Motorway Debut, including Knight twice and “at least 2 BMW’s”. All of this in the face of some expert tuition and advice from Chalmers in the passenger seat.

(*Very approximate)

Arriving at Welford Park, it was like arriving in God’s Own Country. Rolling Hills, quaint cottages, sprawling farmland, a boutique Cricket ground in the middle of a country estate. The Perfect setting for a game of cricket. Surely the residents of this special place would be a welcoming bunch. As the start of play approached the hosts had managed to utter a cumulative total of about 5 words to the entire Crows team. We could tell they meant business in this Must-win game. They had their game face on. We knew we were in for an interesting encounter.

Winning the toss, Welford decided to ask the Crows to bat. At least that’s what we assumed as they were still finding it hard to speak. They were obviously saving their tongues for later in the day.

Welford took the unusual step of naming 2 substitute players on their Teamsheet. Despite there being no sign of them in attendance, it seemed a good plan to have 2 12th men down – just in case. One can only assume these 2 Super-subs were at a secret address somewhere in the locale, doing Frisbee practice and worshipping to their lord-god “Herro” in preparation in case they were called into action. Maybe they were just didn’t exist? Who knows? Or cares.

With the absence of a scorebook, the innovative umpire/Club secretary had by some stroke of luck got a photocopied score sheet for us to use. Handy. Shame we couldn’t enjoy a quick browse through their book to see which of their regular players were playing. Dreadful oversight for them to forget to bring their book. Thank heavens for the organized Umpire who carried a blank photocopy with him.

The match started in usual fashion. Crows looking to post a big score on what looked like a high scoring ground. Opening from one end was Welford Club Stalwart Rajpal. He looked like he’d played for the club for years. Week in. Week out. He bowled a lively pace, probably the quickest we’ve encountered all season. I’m surprised he’s not hit the headlines more often as he must have taken a lot of wickets at this level. Up first for the Crows was Rich Barron. Stuffed full of Biltong and Cream Soda, Barron found his leg stump pegged back for just 1. Welford celebrated like they’d won the World Cup, Ashes and Eurovision Song Contest in one go. With back-to-back centurion Any Cluett at the other end though, the Crows looked to hit back after the early loss of Barron. Cluett, too, though, fell to Rajpal who managed to clip the glove of Cluett’s leave, for the ball to drop onto the stumps. A terrible way to go for Ant, who’d been in imperious form in recent weeks.

Davies and Avrili were at the crease now and the youngsters both faced up to Rajpal and Barratt and accumulated runs at a good pace. Davies playing some crisp drives and Avrili looking as solid as ever. Davies fell for 41 whilst Avrili scored his fourth consecutive 50, before perishing for 59. Some brief cameo’s from O’Loughlin and Childs ticked the score along, with Childs hugely unfortunate to be run out at the non strikers end as the wily old campaigner Rajpal expertly got a few threads of his shirt sleeve onto a Chalmers straight drive to deflect the ball onto the stumps with Childs out of his ground. Luckily the eagle eyed square leg umpire spotted this from some distance away so was able to advise the standing umpire of the deflection. Chalmers continued his onslaught though. Hitting 2 trademark towering 6’s that gave the watching Livestock a bit of a rude awakening. Crows finished on 193-8 which looked a little light judging on recent scores on this ground and the modest boundaries. Welford looked happy with their effort which was impressive as they employed about 7 men on the boundary for almost the entire last 10 overs.

Into the pavilion for “tea” which consisted of an array of Bizarre sandwiches, a pile of bags of crisps and shed loads of Bourbon Creams. Pete Daines would have been in Snack food Heaven. Typically the Welford team took their tea and consumed it as far away from the Crowthorne Team as possible. Probably just as well as Joe uttered the immortal words : “Your scones are sh1t” The ultimate put down for what was an unusual Tea.

Crows took the field after tea interval and employed the recently regular tactic of retaining the old ball with Partridge and Davies aiming to wheedle out 1 or 2 of the openers before the new ball is unleashed a bit later.

Welford started like a train. Swinging from the hip from ball 1. This was their back yard and they obviously knew the conditions. The old ball plan worked once more with Partridge trapping their skipper LBW. However the batsman thought there might have been an outside chance that he’d got a little edge on the ball. Colluding with the Square leg view who “definitely heard something” the batsman showed great grace and dignity before leaving the fray. As he trudged off, gently bemoaning his bad fortune, the umpire politely asked if we’d like to call the batsman back as he’d clearly hit it. This was despite the bowler, standing umpire and non-striking batsman all fairly certain the bat was nowhere near it. Crowthorne declined the umpires generous invitation t ore-call the batsman and the decision was upheld.

As the batsman reached the boundary edge he decided that he’d enjoyed the Olympics so much he’d try a few of the events for himself. With out the necessary equipment to hand, he improvised well. Firstly he used his bat as a makeshift Javelin. A reasonable technique was employed to hurl his projectile a good few meters. Quite short of Olympic qualifying distance but showed definite potential. Next he used his gloves to replicate the Shot Put. Again a good effort to get a decent distance. After that he showed his potential in a couple of lesser known Olympic Events. Firstly he showed definite Gold-medal potential in the “Throw the toys out of the Pram like a small child” Then there were incredible scenes as he showed a full repertoire of Swear words and hand gestures too, in the “Acting like an absolute Prick” discipline. Another Gold Medalist in the making.

By this time the home team had found their voices and were offering the Crows fielders lots of advice and encouragement from the boundary. Any drops or slight misfields were greeted with huge rounds of applause and cheers from the batting team. It really was lovely to see an opposition offering such encouragement to their opponents. It’s what Cricket is all about at this level.

Skipper Knight decided it was time to take the “New Ball”. The home umpire produced the new cherry from his pocket and Chalmers tore in from one end and O’Loughlin was trusted with the new pill from the other end.

After a couple overs, the Crows fielders had noticed that the ball was scuffing up a little more than usual. Upon closer inspection it appeared that the regulation League ball had been accidently mistaken for a £3 “Sports Direct” ball.. The Crows queried this to the Match Officials who were happy to replace the offending item with the correct equipment. Cue more hysteria on the boundary edge.

Crows chipped away to take a few wickets and it became apparent that it could become a close ending to the game. Also sensing this, the cheerleaders on the boundary did their best to inspire their batsmen. Jeff Cluett entered the fray and picked up 3 wickets. The noise and commotion on the boundary fell silent as a mark a respect for Cluett’s spell. They seemed to be in awe of his bowling and decided it was best to get padded up in silence rather than their confident regular behaviour.

As the contest see-sawed and all 4 results still possible, the fast bowlers off, Welford Overlord Ian “Herro” Herrington decided it was time for him to come to the party, with a sniff of hitting the winning runs himself and once again being the hero of his teammates/apostles. He was already writing his own headlines when he strode to the crease and immediately gave his adoring Posse something to salivate about with a slogged 6 to (literally) Cow-Corner off his first ball. Strutting about like a Peacock on heat, “Herro” was being called “Hero” by his adoring charges in the pavilion who’d suddenly found their voices.

With the required target getting small enough to make Welford the favourites, Crows bought back Partridge and Chalmers to try to wrap up a victory. Partridge claimed the wicket of Herrington who was too arrogant to offer a shot to the faster ball and lost his off peg. In the melee that followed, Partridge reminded Herrington which direction the Pavilion was located in as the disbelieving disciples wept for their departing leader as he trudged back to the hutch, robbed of his moment of glory.

As the late afternoon sun made it’s excuses and left, the Crows were still in with a sniff. However it wasn’t to be and Welford won by 3 wickets with just a bit more than an over to spare to all but secure their promotion at the Crows expense. The Crows post-match on-pitch de-brief, concluded that we should hold our heads up high and left the pitch knowing they’d given their all for the cause and most importantly been a credit to themselves and their club. Ironically Welford Park probably thought the same of themselves.

As Welford celebrated like they’d added “Ignorant Arrogant Simpletons of the Year” to their imaginary trophy haul mentioned earlier, the Crows beat the retreat to the more salubrious surrounds of the local Tavern. Keen to be the ultimate hosts, Welford jumped in their cars and followed us there. A few token pleasantries were exchanged before the Crows collectively demolished several bowls of World Class Chips. As we left the premises, one of the more friendly Welford players re-iterated the point that the result would mean that we’d be in a different league for the next year at least with the parting comment “See you in a few years” Let’s certainly hope so.


Note. All opinions above are of the author and in no way represent the views of Crowthorne Cricket Club.

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Saturday 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 2w 2b 6lb 
for 8 wickets
12
193		        
Richard Barron b A Ringer 1
Anthony Cluett b A Ringer 8
Joe Davies b Barratt 41 6
Will Avrili b A Ringer 59 6 1
Jeff Cluett ct & Bowled Hutchison 6 1 1
Julian O'Loughlin b Hutchison 20 3
Matthew Childs run out very unluckily 18 3
Mark Knight lbw A Ringer 2
Ross Chalmers Not Out  21 1 2
Terry Charles Not Out  5 1
Dan Partridge  

Welford Park Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Barrett11.0231131.002.82
A Ringer12.0044411.003.67
I Herrington11.005200.004.73
Hutchison11.0258229.005.27

Welford Park Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
11w 3lb 
for 7 wickets
14
196 (43.3 overs)		     
Myers lbw Partridge 29
Davies run out Charles? 40
M Westbrook lbw Chalmers 32
W Herrington ct J Cluett. b. Chalmers 7
A Ringer b J Cluett 38
Hutchison Not Out  16
J Westbrook b J Cluett 0
I Herrington b Partridge 14
Moongrey Not Out  6
   
   

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Saturday 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Dan Partridge9.0137218.504.11
Joe Davies3.002300.007.67
Anthony Cluett2.00500.002.50
Ross Chalmers10.4523211.502.16
Julian O'Loughlin8.024600.005.75
Jeff Cluett7.0038219.005.43
Terry Charles4.002100.005.25

  • Umpire :
    Harry Stent
  • Scorer :
    TBC
 
Photos and video of Welford Park v Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Saturday 1st XI on Sat 11 Aug 2012 at 1:30

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