1st XI Step Up the Push for Promotion
Early morning showers do not begin to describe the type of rain which had hit North London on Saturday morning, so when the skipper had lost the toss and been asked to bat first we were slightly dubious of what the pitch may do.
Before the game Bushey were 14 points ahead of us, so this was an extremely big game.
Miles, back from a holiday, opened up with Olay and began with a blaze. Hitting 41 of the first 60 runs he made a mockery of practising and looked in very good touch. Olay and Kappa were removed in quick succession (Kappa probably could have walked for his LBW if truth be told) and then Miles chipped to mid-on to leave us 70-3.
Gibson entered at 5 to join the skipper who looked to continue his good touch, and Gibbo was looking just to hit the ball!! Despite only 2 balls in 4 weeks, Gibbo picked up his early season form and played some lovely strokes in a well constructed 70.
When the next couple of wickets fell, there was a thought from Bushey that they may run through our lower middle order. But with the flame haired Petit Ginge (Nick Jones), Indee ‘Boom Boom’ Mali, Penny Parkar, Dutchy and The Colonel making up our 7 – 11 this really was a very long batting line up.
Petit Ginge hit a couple of big sixes as he was looking to hit himself into some form, losing a ball in the process; however the best was yet to come. Boom Boom and Penny made hey as the Bushey fielders began to wilt. Massive hitting from Boom Boom and some classy shots by our number 9 ensured that we walked off at half way having posted 254-7.
Knowing that Bushey would come at us it was imperative that we got off to a good start. Taking the old ball, Nav managed to pick up a caught and bowled first ball. Capitalise on this we thought.
Colonel started at the other end and also had a wicket first ball, caught by the garish looking Gibbo standing up. 1-2!!
Nav continued to use his magic and throughout the innings took 4 more wickets for back to back 5-fors, this one only costing 9 runs from his 12 overs. Very impressive!
The other 4 wickets were shared between Dutchy and Petit Ginge who were doing their best to fill in the void left by Herbie.
Only one chance was shelled by Dutchy in a caught and bowled attempt but other than that a near faultless display which had all the team beaming in great smiles following Bushey being bundled out for 91.
A massive swing of 28 points now sees us in the promotion places ready for the final 3 games. COME ON OE’s! 3 TO GO…….!!!
1’s Return to Winning Ways
Finally Skipper James Heavey won a toss to the delight of his team and duly inserted the home side on a slow wicket. This decision paid dividends straight away as Alex ‘The Herbetron’ Herbert removed batsman 2 & 3 inside the first 10 overs with full pitched deliveries that shaped away from their bodies drawing outside edges greatly fully received in the slip cordon. The excellent opening spells of Holland (8-3-16-0) & Herbert (4-41) was followed up by Kailesh Gadhavi (1-18) & Navaid Akhtar (5-19) who strangled the middle order in which the opposition number 6 scored 16 runs in 19 overs. When Herbert returned for his second spell he was making the ball talk proving unplayable at times as he and Akhtar wrapped up the innings inside 45 overs.
Over to the batsman, who in true Old Elizabethans style made the chase difficult when it should have been straight forward. In the short spell before tea, we were reduced to 19-3 losing Kappa, Saqib & Gibson with a collective score of 10. Andy Vernon proved to be ‘The Wall’ again as he & Skipper Heavey (31*) restored control of the game before a loose shot from Vernon ended his innings on 27 with the score 53-5. However, Indee ‘The Finisher’ Mali (28*) came to the rescue again as he saw the side home with an unbroken partnership of 54 with his skipper. Once again the one’s find away to win and yet again it proved to be a team effort that saw them over the finish line.
Next up is fourth placed Bushey in a possible Promotion deciding fixture.
Gibson stars as 1st XI go top!
A lovely setting at Chorleywood was the location for the first team to make amends for their dismal performance of the week before following being bowled out for 85 at home. But when wickets fell on a regular basis with Kappa first playing a loose shot, Andrew ‘Fun Sucker’ Vernon was given out middling it onto his pad, and then Kailesh on his debut got a rising delivery which he played onto his stumps. 40-3 soon got worse as Navala was another victim of a loose shot, Skipper Smirnoff was caught bang in front to a ball which swung, seamed and spun before Indee was caught in front also. Despite a couple of lusty blows from Holland who soon after lost his wicket the team were 102-8 with Gibson once again standing tall and trying to get the 1’s to a competitive total. With Daniel ‘Willobooby’ coming in at 10 we kept the faith, and Daniel stepped it up. Under the guidance of Gibson, the pair began a counter attack of epic proportions.
The field back to Gibson and up for Daniel the two of them picked their deliveries and ran fantastically between the wickets. With the team moving through the batting points some faith was soon returning. Big shots soon came with Gibson in particular attacking cars in the car park and smashing a window on the club house and putting spectators in danger. Daniel was not to be out done launching a couple of balls onto the road one of which hit a passing bus and ended up going down the road.
When Daniel departed for a very well played 43 and a brilliant partnership of 116 with Gibson, the ‘Finisher’ was still going with a ‘fantastic’ 125* and with Cassie adding a lusty blow to finish, Skipper Smirnoff declared with the team 244-9 off our 50 overs.
Gibson let it be known that was a brilliant knock and got us out of a lot of trouble. At the time of writing his league average is 171.50…..that’s a bit good mate!
When the bowling came about the team were in good spirits and by taking the new ball on a wearing wicket felt that getting a big 30 points was possible.
Kailesh and Navala started proceedings and duely picked up 2 wickets early doors. Enter Cassie……..
The week following his 0-50 off 7 overs for the 3’s he has stepped up his game completely. He took wickets on a regular basis forcing batsman back and then cleaning them up with the full deliveries. His pace and bounce on a dodgy track was nearly unplayable.
This makes it sound like the bowling took over, but that was not the whole story. 2 massive candidates for catch of the season took place this day. The ‘Fun Sucker Vernon’ plucked a catch inches off the ground with his left hand diving forward to the number 3 who looked in good touch off Cassie. And then when changing ends the captain, who was being hounded by Milo for his lack of effort in chasing our score once putting us into bat attacked only to be caughted by a diving Smirnoff with his hands virtually behind him. Comments on who’s catch was better are very welcome.
Navala returned to clean up the tail and the 1’s happily returned to their rightful place at the top of the table.
Some runs from the top order would be much required if this top form is to continue but contributions are coming all round and a good team spirit is leading to good results.
Next up……Berkhamstead. Bring. It. On!
3 from 4 and Top of The League
The first XI’s excellant start to the 2011 season continued with a 4 wicket win away to Cockfosters to make it 108 points from a possible 120.
Skipper James Heavey won the toss and asked the opposition to bat, 20 overs into the game he may have been regretting this decision as Cockfosters raced to 100 without loss. However the 1′s made a double breakthrough with Daniel Willoughby and Matt Holland combining to remove both openers within 4 balls, the latter taking two very well executed catches. From there the 1′s applied the sort of pressure which has epitomised their style of play and applied a stranglehold on the Cockfosters innings. Wickets were shared around as Alex Herbert and Navaid Aktar collected 3 wickets each, Willoughby with 2, and Holland with the other to fall to a bowler culminating in dismissing the opposition for 194 inside of 43 overs.
On a decent track there was a confident expectation within the OE’s dressing room to chase this target down. Steady progress was made as we reached 113-3 when two quick wickets fell to reduce us to 125-5. Matt Heavey was latter of these wickets to fall having made 60, a much needed return to form and after making the most of being dropped on 0. There was no need to panic however as Andy Vernon (38) and Indee Mali (33*) took us to within 8 of victory with a partnership of 63 in 12 overs, the latter dispatching a six to secure victory with 7.3 overs to spare. A well fought victory as we set a platform for the remainder of the season.
Summary
Cockfosters II 194 All Out (A.Herbert 3-51 N.Akhtar 3-59)
Old Elizabethans 200-6 (M.Heavey 60)
Gibson Leads The Way
Looking to continue our good form of the opening two weeks, we faced an old foe in the form of Old Cholmeleians II, who have secured 5 back-to-back promotions.
Old Cholmelieans won the toss and asked us to have a bat, which appeared a good decision after 9 overs as we found ourselves 33-3. However Rob Gibson aka “The Finisher”, and Andy Vernon set about rebuilding the innings with a partnership of 93 for the fourth wicket, this included some watchful but clinical batting, to move the total to 125-4 from 31 overs. Vernon’s innings came to an end as he looked to up the rate and take on the slow left arm bowler, unfortunately he was out stumped for a critical 43. Matt Holland joined Gibson at the crease looking to emulate his opening day innings of 85, he and Gibson upped the rate considerably scoring 66 runs between them in just 7 overs. Just as it was looking like the total was going to pass 200 with 6 wickets in hand and 15 overs left to bat, both Holland & Gibson fell in the same over. Holland tried to launch one of his lofted drives back over the bowlers head only to succeed in sending the ball straight up and was dismissed caught, this brought Gibson on strike with his score at 99, full toss on his legs and we all expect to celebrate a marvellous hundred only for him to pick out the mid-wicket and be dismissed an agonisingly one run short of his first century for Old Elizabethans. The damage had been done, the lower order continued from where Gibson & Holland left oft to post a total of 253-7 declared.
We took the field confident of pushing for victory with that total behind us, however it would seem that Old Cholmeleians had other plans. Our bowling was excellant and was backed up by some good ground fielding as we applied a strangle hold on the innings, the breakthrough came in the 17th over as we took our first wicket with the score on just 40. Wickets fell at regular intervals although it was tough work as Old Cholm’s didn’t force the pace at any point, not even in the pursuit of some batting points on what was a pretty dead pitch. The star with the ball was Navaid Akhtar who probed continuously at the defences of the opposition batsman to be rewarded with figures of 23-5-31-5. Despite our best efforts, Old Cholm’s seemed resolute in avoiding defeat and finished on 154-8 from their 50 overs, it was a great effort on our part to restrict and claim the 8 wickets we did.
Summary
Old Elizabethans 253-7 (R.Gibson 99)
Old Cholmeleians 154-8 (N.Akhtar 5-39)
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