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Honours Board Season 2008
WHCricketChat
Cricket
Chat – The Weekly Newsletter from Winchmore Hill Cricket Club and
its Sections
Season 2008
Number 16
Tuesday 19 August
View from the Rooms...
A weekend in
Poland certainly gives you some perspective on life, if not a vodka
fuelled hangover. Vodka to the polish is what HP Sauce is to a full
English breakfast or salt & vinegar to fish & chips. They apply it
liberally and regularly.
Bushy Park, resplendent on a late summers day, is quite the opposite
of Warsaw. Replace vodka with Pimms, dank, grey tower blocks with
gleaming river houses, desolate dual-carriage-ways with single-lane
royally appointed and constructed roads. The only thing is common is
that their dialect and demeanour, generally, is incomprehensible to
the layman.
Histrionics and bullsh*t aside, this was a strange game of cricket,
where nerves, on both sides, got the better of the batsmen as the
bowlers held sway on a decent enough pitch. In the final reckoning,
The Hill deserved their victory for an efficient bowling performance
where only Robin Jones was able to provide any semblance of
counter-measure to Brown, Gatting, Amedee, Adamson and Barker. In
response, only Varley, Gatting and, triumphantly, Barker and Howorth
spent considerable time at the crease, but this proved enough.
65(ish) for 3 became 86(ish) for 9 in the face of excellent and
threatening bowling from King and Wood.
Weale then dropped Howorth and the game swung quickly and finally.
Danny's winning hit was greeted with joy unconfined from the Hill
boys, as momentum from celebratory leaps propelled them to the edge
of the square. Get in there, demons 'n all.
Two games to go. We are very much hoping to capitalize on defeating
each of the current top four and push onwards. This Saturday sees
the final home fixture for the 1st XI followed by something of a
party for Jude's birthday. Hopefully, we'll see a few people down
the club for the day.
A fortnight,
or so, ago now we hosted the BT 6-a-side tournament. The standard of
cricket is generally quite poor, but the atmosphere generated was
excellent. It showed our club in its best light. The bar was open
promptly and well managed, the 3 pitches were busy from 10am until
7pm, the food was welcome. The club made some money and it wasn't
too much like hard work (too
much,
that is). In between games, players watched our TV, drank our beer
and generally enjoyed being at the Paulin Ground. Can we extend this
approach more widely into the corporate market? It seems like too
good an opportunity to miss. If you think your employers would
welcome the idea of providing a motivating cricket day for their
staff, please let one of the cricket committee know in order we can
provide costings.
The next few
weeks sees quite a lot happening. We have the conclusion to the 2008
season. We are threatening to have quite a successful season. With
the ones retaining Premiership status for a 6th successive season
(We must now move the bar from retaining to challenging) and the 2s
right in the mix for promotion. Following swiftly on the heels of
the season is the annual dinner and then, thankfully early, the AGM
on October 12th. Both events deserve your attendance.
The dinner will see Ronnie Irani speaking, someone I am looking
forward to hearing. James Mote is organising, so please respond and
pay him asap so the club can ensure you a good seat for the main
event. Two days later we have our AGM. Attendance here gives you the
right to moan next summer. Non-attendance means you suffering in
silence if you think something is going wrong. It would be good to
see a more representative audience at the AGM this year. An early
meeting will give the section chance to plan ahead for 2009 and plan
to do even better again.
CRICKET DINNER
Get your order
in early for the Cricket Dinner—Friday 10 October at The Club.
Tickets available from James Mote priced £32. Please note that this
is a pay up front event. There will be no facility to pay on the
night.
You can pay for your ticket by credit/debit card at the bar.
Middlesex Twenty20 Finals day
Stanmore Cricket Club on Monday 25 August
First Semi-final
Finchley
140-6 (20 overs) Jake Milton 57, Jamie Whelan 40
Winchmore Hill 56 all out.
FINCHLEY won by 84 runs
Finchley
were in trouble at 44-4 against a weakened Winchmore Hill team
before Jake Milton and Jamie Whelan put on 96 runs for the fifth
wicket.
Second Semi-final
Ealing
120-7 (20 overs) Simon Hawk 23, Sameer Patel 21, Ian Blanchett 21*,
Nick Goh 4-9
Stanmore 123-3 (19.4 overs) Alistair Fraser 42*, Marc Reingold 19*,
Nick Goh 18
STANMORE won by 7 wickets
Stanmore
won a thrilling semi-final in the last over. Nich Goh was the star
of the show following-up his figures of 4-9 in four overs with the
ball, with an innings of eighteen. Stanmore were steered home by
Alistair Fraser 42 not out with skipper Marc Reingold 19 not out.
FINAL
Stanmore
120-5 (20 overs), Nick Goh 30, Omar Anwar 30, Zawar Hussain 25,
Clements 3-18
Finchley 107 all-out (19.3 overs) Jake Milton 38, Marc Reingold
3-17, Paul McIvor 3-25
STANMORE won by 13 runs
Stanmore
beat the defending champions Finchley to secure a place in the
Shepherd Neame South-East Finals day at the County Ground,
Canterbury. Batting first, they were given an excellent start by
Nick Goh and Omar Anwar who put on 58 runs for the first wicket in
six overs. On the slow wicket, the Finchley batsmen struggled to
make headway against the Stanmore slow bowling attack of Reingold,
Goh and Mukesh Bhatt. Left-arm seam bowler, Paul McIvor took 3-25
with Marc Reingold taking 3-17. Jake Milton top scored for Finchley
with an inning of 38.
Special thanks must be given to
Angus Fraser for presenting the prizes following the final, the
Stanmore Club for hosting the event and their excellent staff.
From the boundary...
Scoring duties for me again last Saturday—this time for the Second
XI against top of the table Barnet Bs.
The Bees batted first and there was some good controlled bowling
which prevented the visitors from making a big score. Wickets fell
at regular intervals with each of the Hill’s six bowlers getting at
least one wicket.
The league leaders were finally bowled out in 41.3 overs for 147.
Alby was tidy behind the sticks, claiming two catches and a
stumping.
Steve Gent went early in the reply, caught for 4 and other wickets
fell reducing the hosts to 50—4, at which stage things were looking
a bit dodgy. Fabio Sgarbini joined Alby Kerry at 87—5 and they took
the score within two runs of the target before Fabio was caught for
a mature 27. Louis Cant got the winning runs and Alby was 64 not out
at the end. A fine match-winning innings.
Fabio also deserves much credit for the victory, taking 2—16 from 5
overs and a partnership of 58 with Alby to get the Hill almost
there. He (Fabio) looks a good prospect for the future.
With no cricket on Sunday, I eagerly awaited Monday for the Bank
Holiday 20Twenty Festival at Stanmore.
The Hill were drawn in the first semi final against Finchley who
batted first.
We soon had them in a bit of trouble at 40—4 but they steadied their
ship and went on to total 140—6 from the 20 overs. Siran Seeveratnam
bowled the only maiden over of the day, taking two wickets, and
there were also two wickets for Chris Chapman who is now on a
hat-trick in both the Middlesex Cup and the 20Twenty competitions.
The Hill didn’t fare too well with the willow, being bowled out for
56 with no batsman reaching double figures.
A bit disappointing, but you can’t expect a mixture of 2s and 3s
players (only three first team players in the side) to outperform a
strong Finchley side.
Still, at the end of the day there was £250 prize money for the
losing semi-finalists.
The Final was won by Stanmore who go on to the County Ground,
Canterbury for the SE England finals day. The all-England finals are
at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff and are being televised by SKY
TV,
Just think what might have been with a full squad….
Match Report(s)...
None received this week
[Page updated 24 July 2008]
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