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[mohawks94]

Thoroughly unpleasant game of cricket today, not played in the right spirit at all by the opposition.
They sold themselves as a team of IT professionals who play together with only 3/4 playing any league cricket. They had a bloke who plays Middlesex premier division, their captain opened and got 145, they were running for dead balls when we were throwing it back to the bowler etc. My team didn't help matters by fielding utter rubbish, but the way they played was not on against a team of kids.
Kept for 20 overs, no byes so I was happy. Bowled 4/5 but no wickets. Caught their skip in the last over at long off, which was satisfying.
Managed to miss a really slow, awful delivery first ball of our chase for a Goldie, so umpired nearly 30 overs. During this time their captain was 'bowling', but was definitely chucking, I only didn't call no balls as I didn't want the game to get any more angsty. He also had a massive rant at me when I turned down two appeals in two balls for lbw, both missing leg stump. Only bright side for the second half was that my lads batted a lot better than they fielded, @Joshthesmall got a nice 68, my other josh got 61, and we only fell 70ish short chasing 315.
All in all, not the game I want or expect for a Sunday friendly, and definitely will not be asking them back next year.

[SOULMAN1012]

Played against Bury St Edmunds CC today (East Anglian premier league side) they had both pro's playing Mark Nunn played for Middlesex and the Pro has just come over from playing for Trinidad in there first class season and the CPL.

They won the toss and the CPL player was class superb to watch as he timed everything to the boundary with ease not a false shot in site. We bowled really well but he played his way to 120 before finally being caught on the boundary. I loved watching him bat he was that good. All of there team were good players as Bury is a massive club. We bowled really well keeping them to 246. The other Pro smashes 4x6s in the last over to get them to 246 as we thought they would get about 220. I took 2 stu pings and a catch behind in arguably my best game this season behind the stumps. The pitch was very very good with a lot of bounce and pace and was standing up all innings bat 5 overs when there opener who got a ton smashed a drive straight into our opens bowlers foot and has possible broken his toe and he came off.

In reply we started solidly and the other opener and I put on 40 for no loss after 10 so a solid start and then there leggie came on and change the game 10 overs 2 for 17 he was excellent. Got my opener and No3 quickly and gave nothing to hit and turned it square with good bounce. We managed to score well from the other end and at drinks were 110 for 2. Then the guy that played for Middlesex and now Suffolk came on booed 2 balls of rank off soon that I sent to the boundary then sent the keeper back. Rapid is all I can see and he basically blew the middle order away starting with my middle stump for 38 then No5 first ball and 2 more after that. We beat them earlier in the season and he certainly wasn't going to let that happen again. Once he realised he was in the tail he sent down an over of seriously quick shorter stuff that there part time keeper couldn't or wouldn't catch that went for 12 extras and then another solid spiner came on. We ended up 196/7.

All in all a good game against a top side and was good to play against much better players as they played game in a good way and no chirp or ego's even though they were a much higher level and at a cracking ground

[ProCricketer1982]

Sunday league game today

Sadly we only had nine players so told them to bat first.. They him 356 off 40 overs for about 6 wickets. We didn't have any bowler above 3xi standard and they batted all their 1si bats so it was a mismatch. So, myself and another non bowler bowled and just let them hit us.

When batting, no chance of chasing so we just aimed to make them field for 40 overs. We lost 3 wickets and I got a nice 43* off 119 balls to see one end didn't fall

Oppos weren't happy but as I said to them, we told you we were weak and only had nine and yiu scored way to many to chase so what did they expect.. They fully expected us to go for it ! Yah right

[Jaffa]

No games this weekend and wrong forum I know but I took six wickets last week. Three clean bowled, three caught.

At the end of the second over I'd taken 4 wickets with none against. One of those days when everything goes right. Ended up with 5.3-2-29-6. I've still got a smile still on my face.

Batting at 7 I wasn't needed.

Playing against Quick it is always a pleasure to be with them on and off the field.

[Lumsden]

We had a good match this afternoon against a team called The Penguins at Silcoates School near Wakefield. After I lost the toss, the opposition chose to bat first so I informed their skipper my austistic friend was opening the bowling and he adjusted their batting order (so he wasn't initially bowling against 1st XI players). Pleased to report that my friend picked up a couple of wickets off his 8 overs (2-35) and afterwards I managed to get 9 players a bowl. Opposition eventually posted 196 off 40 overs as a couple of later batmen really could put willow to leather.

After a fantastic tea, we started off well but a bit like my match yesterday, the opposition performed far better in the field and took their chances when presented. I went in at 10 and was quickly joined by my autistic friend who concentrated hard but was finally removed by another very good catch, this time one-handed by the silly point/short extra cover fielder. However he faced over 4 overs (all from one end) before falling so was pleased he made the opposition work for his wicket.   

[dcullen8]

@Lumsden. This is what really restore your faith in the spirit of cricket.

[mohawks94]

Agreed, just the sort of thing I needed to hear after yesterdays farce.

[rickjames]

Played a game for a new club yesterday against Banstead's Sunday side, mostly made up of colts. Bumped into their vice captain on the bus to the ground and started the usual chatter etc. Emails went out a few days before about a 13:15 meet for 14:00 and to be mindful of leaving early due to RideLondon and all that.

Skipper himself turns up at 3pm, excuses about traffic and being stuck in Hammersmith. VC was fairly livid to say the least and he could only apologise to me about it and that it doesn't look good to a potential new player. Secretly I wasn't too bothered but in the back of my mind considered it to be really poor conduct; we had two players who had come all the way from Ilford and made it way ahead of schedule. Forfeit the toss and put in to field. Took a catch at midwicket early on to make a decent impression and fielded OK but the ball just followed by on a fairly rapid outfield. They put up 244 in 30 overs and we got to 150 odd. Batted at #6 and bowled for 2, so poor form continues.

Only me, the VC and the fixture secretary hung around for a drink afterwards, again slightly disappointing, the others were all Pakistani so part of me understands it but one Coke doesn't hurt at all. VC seemed like a really decent bloke though, loves the game and clearly does a lot for the club and I asked on the train back why is isn't skipper in the first place as he was calling the field, encouraging players and so on, so forth, but he's only just finished uni properly and got a job. I'll play away for them next week and then they're at home for the season, so we'll see how it winds up...

[Vitas Cricket]

Witnessed something quite remarkable yesterday.

We were asked to bowl against a team who on paper we always think should be doing much better than their league position suggests. As we thought might be the case they appeared to raise their game against us (an opportunity to break our 12 wins from 12 games run on Sundays as well as one of our boys being a former player of theirs probably contributed) and were cruising at 6+ an over, at 74/1 things looked bleak especially when our opening bowler rolled his ankle and we faced the rest of the innings with 10 and a half fielders at best. 

Then it came, first of all our other opening bowler took a hat-trick with the last three balls of an over, special but not massively unusual. The first ball of the next over was also a wicket, so as a team we had taken 4 in 4 balls. Our opening bowler then continued his next over as he ended the previous, by taking 2 wickets with the first 2 balls, 5 wickets in 5 balls for him! Shortly after the oppo were all out for 81!

We chased it no wickets down inside 10 overs.

[TGB1997]

From batting number 11 on Saturday, my Sunday couldn't of been even better. Batted number 5 in a development game chasing a small total of 176 which on our grounds fairly small as the track is usually very good to bat on and the outfield is big so there's plenty of 2s and 3s. My main role is a bowler so I bat down the order on Saturdays but occasionally bat up the order on Sunday's. We had a solid start with our opener getting 60 odd but our numbers 2 and 3 struggled. Our number 4 was batting well, I joined him when he was on 20 odd needing between 60-70 to win (I don't recall the exact scores). After taking a couple of balls to set my self I then started thinking of my scoring opportunities. I have hardly spent anytime in the middle this season so I haven't had to build an innings for a little while but it all came back to me, playing straight drives and flicks/flamingo's through the leg side and eventually being able to play a decent cover drive (it's my get me out shot when I'm in bad form) but I played this one through the gap at extra cover for 4 which was my highlight of the innings. I eventually lost my partner at number 4 for 47 but we only needed 15 to win or so and myself and number 6 knocked them off with ease. I think everyone was shocked as normally I like to play shots as batting down the order that's normally what I need to do but I spaced myself out and just waited for the bad balls which felt fantastic as a bowler batting like a top order batsmen, my favourite part of the season

[Twelfth Man]

Made my new highest score on the weekend of 162* off 132. Managed to bring up my 150 in the last over of our innings taking it for 24. Won on top, happy days! 

[SOULMAN1012]

Made my new highest score on the weekend of 162* off 132. Managed to bring up my 150 in the last over of our innings taking it for 24. Won on top, happy days! 

Well batted mate that's a good score to get at any level on any day

[NT50]

Played on Saturday against @Calzehbhoy second team. We had them something like 19-4 off 13 overs, before eventually getting them for about 110. Chased it down within about 20 overs. 3rd TFC in a row for me, football season starts next week so that's me done for Saturday's, as i much prefer football over a TFC every week!

Got called up to play for my Sunday sides first team yesterday (normally play for the 2') We had a very young side (me being the 4th oldest at 19!) but managed to set 330 off our 45. Our overseas Saffa opened the batting and hit 80 off 50, with our 16 year-old WK getting 125. They got close with 280. Bowled 4 overs 1-38, think our sunday 1's may be a step above me especially when we play on a road.

[edge]

Was a Saturday of contributing little for me, got sold down the river and run out for the second week in a row. To make things worse, got batted behind and didn't bowl in favour of a bloke who got called up from the 2nd XI the day before the game. He's a good player and would have been fine if he'd been selected ahead of me, especially as we're both batting all-rounders who bowl seam, but makes you wonder why you got selected in the first place! Less than excited for Saturday cricket at the moment, need a few runs to distract me from other issues I think.

[Lumsden]

@mohawks94 and @dcullen8

You don't just need an opposition skipper who has roughly the same ethos (as yourself) in regards to Sunday cricket, very importantly you need your own team to buy into it too and I am very fortunate in that respect.