B&PCC 4th XI v Belhus cc 5th Sept 2015

B&PCC 4th XI v Belhus cc 5th Sept 2015

This was always going to be a good game, we like Belhus, they're great bunch of blokes who play the game in the right spirit. This was the last game of the season, they were mid table of the league and safe in their position and we were at the bottom heading for a league below. To be honest this league for the last two years was always a league too far and we only just scraped into it this year through some weird process that I don't actually recall, but we should have gone down last year. So this year we've had a season of games where we were mullered most of the time. We won one game - don't know how and again as with last year it was while we were on holiday?

Leading up to the game with weather as usual was bad - NW winds, heavy rain mid-week, temperature in the 18 degree centigrade region. Friday it stayed dry and it was a bit breezy, so a chance for the wicket to dry out. Saturday morning which was forecast to be sunny with blue sky, ended up being grey with drizzle every now and then.

The good news was that both sons were playing - so Ben played his 2nd game this season.

Dutton had a plan if he won the toss - we'd bowl first - the wicket was wet and grassy and they had a plan too if they won the toss - they'd bat, so they didn't even bother to toss. Dutton had a plan - we were all going to bowl in 4 over spells irrespective of what happened.

Harry Davie and Joe Thompson both bowled from this end (Estate End).

So, on a very damp wicket under leaden skies younger son Joe was set the task of getting their batsmen back in the sheds. He's our opener (14 years old). His older brother Ben (17) who's not played cricket now for a while because he's got himself a "Silvirkrin" played for only the 2nd time this season and so had to bowl 2nd change.
Joe and Liam Harms got off to a good start, Liam especially...


Liam Harms left hand medium fast - Joe Thompson right hand medium fast.



With two wickets for 2 runs off of his first spell of 4 overs 4-2-2-2 one of the maidens being a wicket maiden. Joe was struggling at the other end with new cricket shoes, but still kept it tight going for 4-2-5-0 at the end of the 8th over only seven runs had been conceded which we needed desperately to be the case as we once again had no batting of any real significance other than John Bedford with potential in the form of Lee Dutton and Tony Harms.

1st change brought on older son Ben and Harry Davie. Harry was first up from the Estate End and bowled a superb four overs for only 3 runs including 2 maidens... 4-2-3-0 keeping us very much in the game. Ben coming in not having played any cricket for months went for more... 4-0-13-0, but that still left us in a very good position with the Belhus run rate kept at a ridiculously low rate with only 24 runs made after 16 overs.

Then Dutton got himself and me into the action with me bowling from the Estate End. Dutton speculated that they were giving the younger players a go up front and as the batting went on we'd see the better ones come through with 3 down care of Liam me and Lee were confronted by the first of the better batsmen it seemed. Not that good a situation when this was the first instance where I'd be rolling out my new approach to the crease .

Apart from a couple of wides I did okay coming away with 4-1-4-0 off my first spell. Dutton at the other end with his Finger spin went for more runs but came away with wickets... 4-1-13-2, so despite the fact that we'd gone to slow bowlers the run rate was still low giving us a glimmer of hope, but we knew they had a lot more in the locker including their bloke who we call 'Sidebottom'.

The Sidebottom bloke didn't get to bat that much in the end, but Ruck, Sullivan and Wilson all made valuable contributions that got their score moving towards one whereby we'd struggle to chase it down. Ben Took a wicket hitting Rucks off stump and he was well chuffed as this was the only game this season that he's bowled in. Liam took the wicket of Long (Sidebottom) which was a result because he can hit the ball over the boundary here at Langdon hills for sixes.

But Joe and Liam came back on at the end and both bowled tightly and managed to keep the score respectable.

We then had a lovely tea and came back on to the field to chase 144. With John Bedford, Lee Dutton, Tony Harms and Nick Brown in the team, assisted by Steve Bonnett, there was a chance that this might be do-able. All we had to do was somehow negotiate R.Long (AKA Ryan Sidebottom).

It didn't happen...



I batted at 11 as usual, but went out with positive intent and hit three fours and a single and was looking to go on to beat my all time highest score of 16. But Squires had other ideas and got Ben's wicket caught again by that bloke Long who'd already taken 6 wickets with his bowling and now finished us off with a catch curtailing any chance of me setting a new PB.

Steve Bonnett batted well scoring the highest score with 31 and I came in 2nd with 13 runs.

Despite losing and being cleaned up by R.Long it had been a very good game which it always is with the Belhus boys. Ben enjoyed it despite the loss and hopefully next year he'll play more frequently?  This game being another loss meant that all season we'd won only one game so we'll be moving out of this league back down to a level we might win a few games in! I for one will be looking forward to that, especially as the wickets are often a little ropey and spin friendly.

 

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Jamie Britton Maiden Hundred B&PCC v Old Southendians

I've now got myself a proper website, check it out at www.wristspinbowling.com there's a blog on there that is frequently updated.

22nd  Aug 2015 - Langdon Hills Rec
Basildon & Pitsea CC v Old Southendians - Jamie Brittons maiden 100.

Lovely sunny day was on the cards albeit probably not as warm as it should be given the date, but since early July here in the UK what with it being an El Nino we've had consistent Northerly winds blowing down from the Arctic. Places like Norway and Denmark have had far better weather than we have!

The toss was conducted and as I recall Dutton was looking to bat first for some reason and we lost the toss and the opposition decided to bat first. The wicket looked good and I'd been over the night before and had bowled on the adjacent wickets in trainers and the ball as usual was turning nicely.
I shot some images of the wicket this week to show a point I've made previously on other posts about the position of the wicket in relation to the sun.

This is looking down the wicket at midday from the 'Estate End' my preferred end and you can see the angle of the shadow running left to right, so as the sun moves during the afternoon it eventually ends up over your shoulder from this end. So for me as a batsman and everyone else at batting at the end of the match your looking up the wicket from the other end in this image straight into the sun!

The sun ends up just above the houses in this shot from the other end, so it's an advantage to bat first in some respects.

My younger son Joe Thompson bowled first (14 years old) and bowled really well after an average performance with the SECDB U15's just before our holiday. Liam bowled from the 'Park End' and bowled really well having had a torrid time for most of the season, but in the game he came good taking 4 wickets for 44.

All I was hoping for was to land the ball in reasonable areas and to be able to get some spin on the ball and to have some idea of an approach to the crease that would help all that some together. All season I've been faffing about with my run-up, partly hindered by my Achilles injury which is still there lurking. I'd played so little cricket whilst on holiday whereas normally we play loads of cricket and I end the season with a bit of a flourish, so I came into this game with a plan to just come off of one or two steps and just put loads of spin on the ball. It worked okay as I got to bowl 13 overs and produced 3 maidens and took two wickets, both were edges caught in the slips by Tony Harms, one of them as I recall was pretty spectacular. As usual there were 3 or 4 chances that went awry for some reason or another, but writing this a few weeks later, I can't remember them now.

Although reasonably happy with that I went home thinking that the 2 step Terry Jenner approach wasn't how I wanted to bowl - yeah ,maybe in another 5 years or hopefully longer, but not now while I'm only 55.

The opposition declared on 49 overs leaving us a target of 184 to win. On previous form and given our players a pretty difficult task, but if Tony Harms in particular made a good start and word was that recently he'd had a couple of good knocks, there was an outside chance. Tony and Liam Harms made their way out to the crease as openers (Father and son).

Unfortunately the start we hoped for didn't happen and Tony was back having scored a duck. Liam soon followed only having hit two runs. Jamie Britton had replaced Tony and was now out there with Tim Brown. Tim was bowled for a duck by Amir. Lee Dutton (Captain), Steve Bonnett and Dave 'Quick 50' Ayres were our only hope. They all went cheaply and Dave Ayres who on previous form this month looked like a fair chance of hitting a quick 50, went for naught. But, Jamie when on strike was hitting the ball cleanly and the blokes at the other end were getting him on strike as soon as they could to enable him to continue.

The afternoon plodded on and Jamie continued to swing the bat and get the ball over the boundary and he edged close and close towards his first century. Batsman all around him fell by the wayside supporting him as well as they could.

They tried the slow bowlers bowling out of the sun tactic - you can see here in these images the angle of the sun by observing the shadows. It didn't work.

Slowly with Jamie hitting the ball so consistently and cleanly we edged our way towards their score and Jamie his maiden century. He looked absolutely knackered especially when running between the wickets.

Tim's (Seen here at the scoring table closest the camera) Dad Nick played a brilliant first knock for us having not picked up a bat in the last 30 years. (He said today 2 weeks later that he was still recovering from this game)! He held up his end and scored a useful 16 runs during which time Jamie hit the runs taking him to his maiden century. The crowd clapped in appreciation of this fantastic 100 and Jamie took the plaudits raising his bat to his fans and team on the boundary.

As happens so many times in these situations, Jamie didn't last that much longer and was bowled by Goodwin having scored 103.

My son Joe makes his way out as No.9 congratulating Jamie on his 103.

Jamie looking well chuffed makes his way back to the boundary and the applause of the crowd and team mates.

 Dave Ayres congratulates an exhausted Jamie Britton.

The combination of my son Joe and Nick gradually saw us draw closer to a positive outcome. Joe took us all by surprise and posted his all time PB score of 14 in any format of the game and given a little longer would have gone past my all time PB of 16. Unfortunately Nick was bowled on 16 LBW leaving me as the last man at no.10 which was always going to be a big ask. With 170 on the scoreboard and still three overs left to reach 184, with Joe hitting the ball as well as he was there was the chance of Joe being the 3rd hero of the day after Liam with his 4 fer and Jamie's 103, but it wasn't to be as I was bowled having only faced 4 balls for 0. Joe was pretty disappointed, but as I said to him - Joe you could have batted up the order instead of saying "I don't like batting - I'll bat at no.10.

There were a couple of win scenarios here if things had panned out differently...
1. If Joe had batted further up the order and not been stranded with me, he may have gone on to score a fair few more runs, he looked more than comfortable out there, but had sold himself short as usual when being asked where do you want to bat? He'd said at 10 and I said no you go 9.
2. If we'd have had that 11th man - the outcome may have been different?

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B&PCC v Harlow 4th XI at the Rec Langdon Hills

More to come tomorrow...

It looks as though tomorrows game may include Ben (older son). Weather at the moment isn't looking too clever - raining now (Midday) and is expected to continue raining for the rest of the day. The team as usual looks to be a good bowling unit, but not so good when it comes to the batting. I was hoping that Joe would be able to get to the nets today at Mopsies for some practice, but the rain has put paid to that idea. At least the upshot of the batting situation is that we'll all get the chance to bat!

Looking at XC weather it looks as though the weather is going to improve substantially before the game - rain stops at 04.00 and thereafter there's sunshine and wind so hopefully it'll be ready to play on. The weather's been so dry over the last few weeks that the rain that we've got at the moment will easily be absorbed and will easily dry I reckon by 1pm tomorrow.

 

On arrival at the ground we were met with a new sight, a few our blokes dragging covers off of the pitch. Seems the club has purchased covers for the wicket at Langdon Hills and yesterday during the rain Dave Ayres and his son Anthony had been over there and put the new covers on preventing it from getting totally soaked. On arrival Tim, Liam, Tony and Jamie removed them. In an ideal world Dave could have went over there at about 08.00hrs and removed them allowing the wicket to have a an extra 4 hours drying in the sun (Joking). Joking aside though maybe there should be some kind of shared responsibility for removing the covers as soon as possible or putting them on the wicket as there are a few of us that do live near the ground. But that would involve issues around who has the key to the changing rooms/clubhouse I suppose.

 

Another issue is that this is a massively high risk strategy, what with the Rec being quite secluded there's a good chance that the covers could be nicked, so in a way the sooner someone gets over there in the morning of the match and gets them off and put away, the better the prospects of the wicket drying out and the covers not being nicked. We'll have to see how long they last.

 

Today with the covers not coming off till midday and the sun being out the moisture in the wicket was then drawn from the ground ending up as condensation on the inside not allowing the wicket to dry to the extent that it could have done. Despite this, the difference in comparison to the surrounding wickets was quite marked. Once off though and with an hour to play, what with the Rec's quick drying attributes the covers had done their job.

Good game today although we lost, it was at one point quite a close thing, but they held back their ace card till quite late in the game. Loads of catches not taken, I almost got their 'Ace card' man out in one of the final over, which wouldn't have made any difference apart from a miracle, but it would have been nice to have taken his scalp. We had a fielder out at deep square leg - one of our best catchers and the ball was hit perfectly to him and I thought at last after such a bad performance and everything going against me - the wicket of their best bloke...Unfortunately Liam didn't take the catch - being hit so far it parried out of his hand he then had a second bite at it and fumbled it into his chest, from where it bounced forwards and then the 3rd and final one - into his hands just didn't stick and down it went. A ball after that was then smashed through his Dads hands as he jumped up, but that was a really difficult chance. Earlier though I had a dead cert stumping of the big bad bloke, that even the crowd said was out all day long, our blokes all said it was out, but the umpire begged to differ. In my first spell I had almost two dead cert LBW's one of which was on the toe and the other slightly higher and again nothing doing, so as far as I was concerned I had at least 4 wickets denied through either ropey decisions or the ball not sticking! I guess when it comes down to it, they were all close calls and if in doubt the umpire will err on the side of the batsman.

 

 

Joe bowled well again taking 3 wickets meaning in the overall scheme of things he moves above me in the wicket taking and rightly so considering how bad I bowled in the first spell... This now puts Joe equal 4th with the legendary wrist spinner Frank Farrington.

On the subject of the Joe's figures, looking at the tallies taken from their scorebook, their scorers have mixed up Joe's figures with Liam's suggesting that Joe bowled 12 overs when he only bowled 10 and Liam was credited with 5 overs when he actually bowled 7. They've also got Joe as having gone for 65 runs which is mental, especially as I seem to recall he went for 1 or more maidens by my reckoning! Unfortunately I didn't photograph their scorebook and therefore unable to make full sense of the mistakes. I can't really say much about the situation as the kids that were doing the scoring were obviously learning and when you are learning you do make mistakes, so I'm guessing that we'll just have to live with it although it is a real shame because Joe's average and strike rate was exceptional up to this point. I can now see why bowlers used to get really disgruntled when I was learning to score and made a few mistakes.

John Bedford (right) walks off having scored 90 with the Captain Lee Dutton. At the start of the match we only 10 players and John had come over to watch, but was then told to go and get his kit. He suffered a pulled hamstring in the match and Liam Harms had to run for him. John helped us to get to a score of 240.

Dave Ayres who rarely plays and deals with most of the clubs organising, admin and managing put in a brilliant performance out of no-where. He always sells himself short, but today he turned it on smacking the ball for frequent fours adding 34 to the total equal to Duttons score. Jamie Briton made a solid 29 and new bloke Steve Bonnett made a quick 16.

Big Hitting Dave Ayres (batsman).

Neil on his way out.

Neil Williams makes his way out to the middle for a very brief appearance (Duck). I think he face two balls, the second one that got him facing a spinner - was defended. The ball dropped at his feet still spinning and initially looked to be rolling away (Still spinning) towards the covers well wide of the stumps, but then with the spin started to arc back towards the stumps with Neil still looking at it, watching it heading towards the off-stump. I was looking and thought why's he not kicking it away but then it looked to be trickling so slow it was either (a). not going to quite get there or (b). Maybe it'll hit the stump, but there's no way the bails will move. That's probably what Neil thought as he didn't move and the ball trickled onto the stumps the bail fell off

Left to right - Dave Ayres (Scoring), Tim Brown, Joe Thompson (Bowler) Neil Williams (Comedian).

Jamie Britton at the crease.

Joe Thompson waiting in anticipation to bat

The captain - Lee Dutton

Man down - This bloke dived for a ball and landed on his shoulder hurting himself. I love the way that everyone ignored him, not even his team mates approached him! He was okay in the end as far as I can recall.

Joe batting with John Bedford.

Check out my other blog here - this is all about Leg-spin bowling and nothing else. Double click on the image below.