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!
OE’S Breeze into 2nd Round
Travelling to Wormley after our re-introduction to the Hert’s County Trophy, we were asked to have a bat on what looked to be a good batting track. After the first few overs, Andy Vernon (21) and Matt Heavey began to set the platform for what was to be a superb batting display. The opening partnership of 95 was accumulated in just 17 overs with Heavey reaching his half-centruy ion just 51 balls. Both openers fell with the score advancing only 10 runs which brought Navaid Akhtar to the crease, who dominated the opposition attack to register a score of 99 from just 71 balls. He fell agonisingly on 99 when he directed a leg-side full toss straight at mid-wicket.
When Akhtar was out, the score was 276 which paved the way for the lower order to advance the score without pressure. This final push came with Glenroy Hylton (39) and Matt Holland (33*) adding 61 for the 6th wicket in just 7 overs. We completed our innings on a mammoth 352-7 off our 50 overs.
The pressure was off our bowlers and it showed with Alex Herbert leading the way with figures of 7-3-15-3 from two spells where the batsman struggled to lay a bat on many of his deliveries. The only resistance came from the 3rd wicket partnership which added 122 for Wormley, but Matt Holland returned for his second spell to break this partnership and all but end the game as a contest. The wickets continued to fall at regular intervals and the final result was a resounding 120 run victory.
Summary
Old Elizabethans 352-7 (50 Overs) N.Akhtar 99, M.Heavey 55
Wormlety 232 All Out (43.1 Overs) A.Herbert 3-15
2nd XI March On
Written by “Fitzy”,
On the sixth weekend of the season, the second eleven were to host the team standing rock bottom of division 10, Boxmoor II. With Skipper Rob Dunne up in Scotland munching on some deep fried mars bars, captain for the day was the familiar face of Smithy, who decided to stick the oppo in.Simon Godfrey and Pete “Bazza” Mackay took the new ball on the extremely bowler-friendly wicket and after 10 overs and some extremely tight bowling, Boxmoor had only just got into double figures, with both bowlers claiming their first wickets. After Simon finished his first 7 over spell, Bazza kept on the pressure from the top end, using the wind and the new ball to great effect against a struggling batting line-up. A sterling performance from Mackay (including a Triple-wicket maiden) saw him finish with figures of 16overs-8maidens-22runs-6wickets. Godfrey came back on to finish off the innings which saw him finish with figures of 8overs-5maidens-9runs-2wickets – good luck at cub camp next week Simon!!! All Credit to the Oe’s team who bowled and fielded excellently to restrict to visitors to a mere 91.
With Paul “Pablo” Lissowski and Skipper Rob Dunne missing (who together have scored nearly 50% of the teams runs this season) the 2nd eleven were looking to avoid a reoccurrence of the horrors of their unsuccessful chase of 105 against Northwood. However innings lasted only 16overs. After a promising start with Javid Akhtar smashing 16 in the 2nd over, his dismissal was shortly followed by the departure of Fitzy and Nav. However the cool heads of Rob Jones (24*) and Dom Goring (16*) steered the home team to victory with extras top scoring with 26!!The second eleven stay 2nd in the league having now won 5 out of 6 (the same number of games won the whole of last season!) and with 4 top of the table clashes in the next four weeks, it could be a make or break month for the promotion chasers!!
Summary
Boxmoor – 91 (39 overs) [Mackay 6-22, Godfrey 2-9]
OECC – 94-3 (16 overs) [Jones 24*, D.Goring 16*]
2nd XI Continue Winning Run
On a breezy day, the 2nd XI travelled to Welwyn garden city looking for their 4th victory of the season. Having lost the toss we were asked to bowl first, on what looked like a belting wicket. Simon Godfrey opened the bowling however, and first ball cleaned up their opening batsman and captain by almost knocking out his off stump. In his first spell of 7 overs he took 5 more wickets, all bowled. Welwyn looked all but out at 41-6. A small partnership took them to 71-6 before Simon returned to claim two more victims, as well as Shane Millar pitching in with a wicket of his own to take the score to 95-9. The 2nd XI got complacent and their opening batsman who was still in and their number 11 guided Welwyn to a challenging total of 179-9 from their 53 overs. Simon Godfrey finishing with figures of 8-33 after two scintillating spells of fast bowling.
With the team feeling like they had lost the game after such a strong fight back from the hosts, they took to the field with the bat, looking to chase 180. Javid Akhtar got the 2’s off to a storming start racing to 50 with the score 70-0. Other opener Paul Lissowski had barely seen the strike as Javid ‘slogged’ his way to 55, before eventually being caught on the mid-wicket boundary (after almost reducing the two opening bowlers to tears with his hitting). The wicket brought Will Montgomery to the crease and he and Lissowski knocked the ball around for singles, with all the pressure lifted after Javids rapid start. With about 130 on the board, a change of bowling brought about the wicket of Montgomery (20) with a belting delivery nipping back off the seam to take his off stump. After a duck from Nav Parkar, Kailesh Gadhavi joined Lissowski at the crease and the two of them punished the straight bowling. Gadhavi got out with 10 required to win, having racked up a rapid 20 or so runs. In came Rob Jones (0*) to finish off the job with the unbeaten (run machine!!) Lissowski (82*) to secure what turned out to be a comfortable chase. The 2’s move up to 2nd in the table, 7 points behind the leaders, continuing their strong start to the season.
Summary
Welwyn Garden City IV 179-9 53 overs (S.Godfrey 8-33)
Old Elizabethans II 181-4 35.4overs (P.Lissowski 82*, J.Akhtar 55)
A Tale of Two Centuries
Sunday saw the the game where several regular OE’s players take the field for the opposition and play against their usual teammates. Jon Smith won the toss for OE’s and elected to field, thinking it would be easier to bat having sampled the tea provided by Mrs Mali, a big thank you to her for the enormous spread she put on.
The Old Hendon innings was built around the opening stand of James Heavey (105) and Rashmi Lakhtaria (29) who put on 95 for the first wicket. Heavey was dropped twice by the very generous Jonathan Smith, first on 0 but the much easier chance came when Heavey was on 49 and looped a caught & bowled opportunity back to Smith who managed to put down the catch, Heavey didn’t let that opportunity go and reached his hundred as Old Henedon finished all out with a score of 206.
In reply, Heavey’s innings was bettered by Will Montogmery who made his maiden century. He opened the innings alongside Charlie Whitebread who was making his senior debut. Whitebread (20) & Montgomery shared an opening stand of 63 as they set the platform for what would be a successful chase. Two quick wickets fell and Montgomery was joined by Edward Kiddle (33), he batted alongside Montgomery to add 72 for the third wicket and all but seal victory, the only left to find out was if Montgomery would have enough time to reach three figures. With 8 runs needed for victory, Montgomery needed a further 6 runs for his century which he achieved to finish 100 not out a seal victory for the home side.
Summary
Old Hendon 206 All Out (J.Heavey 105)
Old Elizabethans 209-6 (W.Montgomery 100*)
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