Print

[richthekeeper]

Bit of a weird day on Saturday.

We lost the toss and bowled on a pretty decent-looking track, away at one of our fellow-relegation strugglers. Their opener tried to smash his first ball out of the ground and we thought he wouldn't be around long! He wasn't - he departed after about 15 overs having scored 71. Basically anything full he just threw his hands at and it rained boundaries. Dropping him on single figures didn't help. Number 3 was also dropped as he helped himself to 87* Ultimately they racked up 235-6 in their 50 overs, giving us 45 overs to chase it down. I'm still not used to these weird timed games.

So we go out to bat, thinking that the pitch had been reasonably good throughout their innings. They open up with the old ball and spin from both ends, starting with 4 men on the boundary. The pitch actually deteriorated quite badly, getting more and more difficult to bat on. From one end, their excellent leg spinner returned figures of 22-2-62-6 which essentially gained them the lion's share of a drawn game as we reached 175-7. The other wicket was a run out.

In essence I was just disappointed at the spirit in which they chose to play. They made no attempt to win the game and simply protected the boundaries, bowling with the old ball. It's just not cricket!

Personally I scored 32, calmly milking the spinners for 1s and 2s before the leggie got one to spit out of the rough and claim my edge.

[WalkingWicket37]

So excited for tonight.
Playing in the Evening League Cup Semi Final.

If we win the final is played on the Ageas Bowl nursery ground, which will (assuming we get there) almost certainly be the best ground I'll ever play on!

[Seniorplayer]

Bit of a weird day on Saturday.

We lost the toss and bowled on a pretty decent-looking track, away at one of our fellow-relegation strugglers. Their opener tried to smash his first ball out of the ground and we thought he wouldn't be around long! He wasn't - he departed after about 15 overs having scored 71. Basically anything full he just threw his hands at and it rained boundaries. Dropping him on single figures didn't help. Number 3 was also dropped as he helped himself to 87* Ultimately they racked up 235-6 in their 50 overs, giving us 45 overs to chase it down. I'm still not used to these weird timed games.

So we go out to bat, thinking that the pitch had been reasonably good throughout their innings. They open up with the old ball and spin from both ends, starting with 4 men on the boundary. The pitch actually deteriorated quite badly, getting more and more difficult to bat on. From one end, their excellent leg spinner returned figures of 22-2-62-6 which essentially gained them the lion's share of a drawn game as we reached 175-7. The other wicket was a run out.

In essence I was just disappointed at the spirit in which they chose to play. They made no attempt to win the game and simply protected the boundaries, bowling with the old ball. It's just not cricket!

Personally I scored 32, calmly milking the spinners for 1s and 2s before the leggie got one to spit out of the rough and claim my edge.

Found thie its just not cricket comment iinteresting as playing for a draw or making no attempt  to win the game is somthing I've been thinking about as we are due next Sat to play a club who have  1 possibly 2  prem  players playing in Div 6  who score a large percentage of there clubs runs as  we are currently top with a decent points lead and 6 league matches left if we cant win a draw would be a good result as it would stop them getting 24 points and closing the gap.

[NT50]

Played my first game back in 2 months after getting injured, an it wasn't a pleasant one.

Upon arrival at their ground, their pitch didn't look anything out of the ordinary, until we played on it. Their medium pacer who struggled to get it above stump height on our pitch last season saw his first ball bounce about 3 feet over our openers head and straight over the keeper for 4. This was to be the trend for the game. They also decided to call up their first team bowler to play a second team Division 5 game. Bowling 70mph on that pitch was outright dangerous, it's a good job he didn't bowl to any of the 3 under 13's we had or we would have probably called the game off. My first ball (coming in at number 9) from this my guy shot off a good length and i had to fend it off my face with my arm, which didn't help as it pushed it into my helmet which produced a very nice rattling sound off my grill. We somehow made 146 off 35-ish overs.

It was much of the same for their innings, our 4'11 13 year-old opening bowler was carrying through to the keeper at head height about 15 yards back to add to the bizarreness of the game. Their first team bowler also opened the batting, having much fun smacking 13 year-olds for sixes over cow corner before our leggie came on and cleaned him up. He also had a pop at our young keeper for clapping his gloves as the bowler runs in, fair enough if it is distracting, but shouting at a kid was way out of line. They chased it down with 7 wickets in hands. They also had 4 kids under the age of 16, only two got a bowl and none got a bat. As a team we felt it was a bit pathetic for them to invite 4 kids to play and not even give them a chance to have a game. The entire point of our team is to help bring through the club's youngsters, hence why we gave them all a bowl and all a bat above their usual position, unfortunately it wasn't the same for them. I just can't imagine going into work on a Monday morning and being as proud as they were that they smacked some youngsters around the park.

When they come to our place, once of our older player's may potentially ask his minor county opening bowler son to come and prove a point to them if we're short on players. All in all a bit of a joke of a day.

One last note about the pitch, it's the first time we've ever given a pitch below 3/10 as a club. I think giving it a 1/10 is enough of a statement!

[meats]

In essence I was just disappointed at the spirit in which they chose to play. They made no attempt to win the game and simply protected the boundaries, bowling with the old ball. It's just not cricket!

Personally I scored 32, calmly milking the spinners for 1s and 2s before the leggie got one to spit out of the rough and claim my edge.

At my previous club we would take the old ball 9 times out of 10, predominantly because the pitch turned square and we had 2 very good spinners for that level. We never had 4 men sweeping mind and used the old ball as an attacking option. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't and the new ball would be taken.

My season is more or less over due to having a young family but I turned up for a bit at our game. The oppo had 7 men sweeping from the 35th over which I would be embarrassed about in a Sunday game let alone in first innings of a league match. Admittedly we racked up 280 odd for 2. Ironically at tea they thought it was a generous declaration and then proceeded to block the proverbial out of it on an absolute road with a lightning outfield.

[calcurtis98]

Another win for us sees us stay top of the league by 4 points.

Lost the toss and were put in to bat, scored 189-8 off our 50. A middle order collapse where 5 had a diamond duck and me at six had a golden duck (don't want to talk about it)

We managed to get them out for 183 in the 48th over, was getting way too close for comfort! Took a catch and was pretty solid in the field but that's about it on my part!

[jamielsn15]

I'll gloss over my lack of runs this season to update on our firsts,  who hit 394-9 off 45 overs, with two of our players hitting their first tons for the club.

Absolutely awesome effort, highest ever club score,  unsurprisingly!

[WalkingWicket37]

Cup semi final, job done.
Next stop the Ageas Bowl

[ppccopener]

Cup semi final, job done.
Next stop the Ageas Bowl

See....it is a wonderful game after all 

[richthekeeper]

Found thie its just not cricket comment iinteresting as playing for a draw or making no attempt  to win the game is somthing I've been thinking about as we are due next Sat to play a club who have  1 possibly 2  prem  players playing in Div 6  who score a large percentage of there clubs runs as  we are currently top with a decent points lead and 6 league matches left if we cant win a draw would be a good result as it would stop them getting 24 points and closing the gap.

to be honest @Seniorplayer it was just frustrating! in theory we could have ticked along at 5/6 an over and won the game in singles, as their field was so spread. unfortunately we lacked the ability to do so, not helped by their leg spinner taking 6-fer. i'm so used to bowling restrictions - if he could have only bowled 9 overs we would definitely have won!

[Seniorplayer]

to be honest @Seniorplayer it was just frustrating! in theory we could have ticked along at 5/6 an over and won the game in singles, as their field was so spread. unfortunately we lacked the ability to do so, not helped by their leg spinner taking 6-fer. i'm so used to bowling restrictions - if he could have only bowled 9 overs we would definitely have won!

I know what you mean
Cricket can be so frustrating our league only allows you to bowl nine overs  and only having seven or eight players we are looking most matches for someone willing to have a bowl we conceded 47 extras last match.

[WalkingWicket37]

And it's finally happened!

Just had a game rained (well, weather forecasted) off. Not a bad run to get to the 11th July before losing a game to the weather I suppose...

[Lumsden]

Had an interesting evening playing a T20 in the grounds of Harewood House.

I decided to open the batting myself thinking I had the freedom to play some shots given how much batting depth we had. After a couple of sighters. I chipped the third delivery into the offside and called for what should have been an easy single. I must have got around three quarters down the wicket and suddenly realised I have not passed the non-striker so looked up to see him sitting on his bat having not moved an inch.  Needless to say I wasn't best pleased being run out, especially as I had spent between 3.30pm-4.30pm this afternoon at Stumps having a bowling machine session, focusing exclusively on hammering back of a length bowling. 

Anyhow the match went down to the final over with the opposition needing 10 to win. I bowled it and managed to keep them down to 6 which included me taking a skyer of a caught and bowled. I've had a few of these this season but this is the first one I have held.

[Seniorplayer]

Playing tomorrow having  missed last Saturday due to an engagement dinner also missed four out of the last five matches not ideal but if I can get a couple out of the middle early on I should be fine.
Also doubt If I will be opening as the the guys who have been doing it have been scoring big runs.

[calcurtis98]

Tonight sees the start of our U19's T20 Blast group start, we're missing a few which isn't ideal but think we've got enough to make it!

Then tomorrow see's 1st vs 2nd in our 2nd XI league, we're at home for both thankfully.