Scorecard

Hertingfordbury CC Development XI v Abbots Langley on Sun 11 Jul 2010 at 1.30
Match was Tied

Match report The field of dreams was obviously the place to be on Sunday. After the U15’s pulled off a miracle victory in the morning, we began to believe we might have the chance of revenge against Abbots after a disappointing loss last month.
As is the norm and expected of the skipper, we lost the toss, and had to toil away in the field first, always appreciated under the midday sun. I opened up, with an over to settle the composed Solanki, offering him 10 runs on a plate. Anthony wasn’t quite so generous and started a useful opening spell, which included a wicket in his second over, caught behind by Ranner.

From here it became a little more difficult as Solanki and Rossiter built a fluent and dangerous 2nd wicket partnership, not taking long to find their timing, Lee possibly a bit too much as he thwacked a pull off Rowland straight onto a female spectators knee. Fortunately after a little attention she was up on her legs safely, if rather bruised. Rowland came back from this and along with Jonny and Pearcey slowed down the run rate for a 10 or so over period, with Jonny finally removing Rossiter. Rob started his economical spell well and then induced Solanki to drag on 3 short of what would have been a well deserved 50. Unfortunately this brought on a long period of toiling away as the Balmforth/Theaker Jnr partnership prospered, and their good confident hitting combined with some oh so very very questionable fielding as we lost concentration all over the park.

Entering the last 10 overs we had them, under some reasonable control at 144-3, however some very good shots, poor fielding and good fortune allowed both batsmen to reach good 50’s before i managed to bowl Theaker as he came down the wicket once too often. His father came in to support Balmforth and they too managed to boost the scoring just a little more than really pleased us, and by the time the 40 overs were up and extra 98 runs had been added leaving them 242-4.

To call what the Pearcey’s provided, a tea would not do it justice, instead I’ll describe it as an almighty feast which would have kept a small village happy for a week, or at least sufficient for me and woody for the rest of the afternoon, but we’ve got bottomless legs. SO thank you very much to them, extra effort was appreciated as a virtually entirely handmade tea of such quality is seen only a few times a season.

Ranner and I were sent out to see what we could build as a base to our chase, however with Ranner having an irrational fear of facing the first ball I had to take duties of number 1. All of 5 seconds into the innings I was walking back to the pavilion having played all round the first ball which Roche had had the cheek to bowl deadly straight AND on a good length, taking my middle peg with it. Peter, having been forced to pad up mid-walk to the middle has probably had much more composure before starting an innings, however it didn’t seem to faze him as along with Ranner he got on with kick-starting the innings. Both players, timing well and picking gaps even better built a solid partnership, before Ranner was guilty of jug avoidance for the umpteenth time in recent memory, as Rossiter had an impressive 6 starting overs. This could however be a blessing in disguise as Gil walked to the crease, originally his innings was focused on, and I quote “Let’s not run singles, I can’t be bothered, can’t we just hit fours” and in making sure the opposition “Keep their 13 year old banter to themselves” but once he’d got over these formalities he started swinging his bat through the ball with great ferocity. Losing Peter caught behind didn’t at all alter Gil’s method, instead he saved Rob some running as he almost dealt single handidly in 4’s. Reaching 50 in what must have been at well above a run a ball, giving the elder of the partnership the chance to play himself in and then release to play some equally good shots himself.

Solanki introduced himself into the attack and started bowling a decent mix of seam up and spin, causing some problems and finally getting Gil caught on the boundary to a very impressive catch. Here began the customary Bury collapse. Ashwood leathered one off Solanki to be equally well caught at mid-wicket as I was already halfway through writing in 4 in the book having seen the shot. Pearcey then stuck around for a little while, but not quite long enough and departed for a 6, which boosts his average, but not quite the sort of thing he’d like reminding of. Rowland, came, and went, loosing his off stick to Solanki, and the tidy Roche then caused Ant to soar his first delivery higher than farther, to be caught at extra. Leaving us in a little bit of a pickle 225-9 was the situation, Jonny and Bernard at the crease both looked comfortable, but would they be able to play their shots to score the runs quickly enough without throwing their wickets away was the question. They were negotiating the problem nicely and as we entered the 40th a simple 5 was needed. Rossiter to bowl, Murphy to face, 1st ball dispatched through cover for 4, scores tied, surely it was our for the taking, 2nd ball was a dot, and as Rossiter pulled up through his 3rd ball run up, potential mind games, emulating the Bangladeshi’s perhaps, the old man decided to pre-empt a dab to third man to win the game. The ball was bowled, the shot was played, the off stump was removed and the game was tied, as is cricket, the unlikely is most likely to happen.

However we can’t have too many issues with the result, both teams played a high standard of cricket, with a respectable and friendly attitude to match, so a tie seemed fair. Many thanks to Abbots for the way they played the game, and for Phil for umpiring virtually the whole innings, which was very helpful, and we hope to see this bunch again, if not once more this season, next year as they're well ahead of the other teams in keeping the balance between competitiveness and friendly atmosphere. (Smurf)

Abbots Langley Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
242 (0.0 overs)
Solanki Bowled  Stone 47
Mitchell Caught  Gronert 1
Rossiter Caught  Paxman 29
Balforth Not Out  65
Theaker.C Bowled  Murphy 58
Theaker.M Not Out  12
   
   
   
   
   

Hertingfordbury CC Development XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ross Murphy7.0051151.007.29
Anthony Gronert4.0017117.004.25
Rowland Reeves7.004500.006.43
James Pearcey7.004200.006.00
Jonathan Paxman6.0034134.005.67
Robert Stone6.0116116.002.67
Bernard Murphy3.002500.008.33

Hertingfordbury CC Development XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
242
(0.0 overs)		    
Ross Murphy Bowled  Roche 0
Sam Ranner Bowled  Rossiter 40 1
Peter Hart Caught  Rossiter 37
Gil Reeves Caught  Solanki 77
Robert Stone Bowled  Roche 42 1
Andrew Ashwood Caught  Solanki 1
James Pearcey Bowled  Solanki 6
Rowland Reeves Bowled  Solanki 0
Jonathan Paxman Not Out  9
Anthony Gronert Caught  Roche 0
Bernard Murphy Bowled  Rossiter 10

Abbots Langley Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Roche8.0132310.674.00
Wall6.003200.005.33
Maher2.002000.0010.00
Rossiter7.3131310.334.13
Groves3.002700.009.00
Wildman5.004300.008.60
Solanki8.0147411.755.88
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