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Weekend Review, May 11

Weekend Review, May 11

James Wheeler14 May 2019 - 21:20
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https://www.tringcricket.co.uk

The opening League weekend of the season saw defeats for the First, Third & Fourth teams and a brilliant win for the Second Team.

HORSPATH WIN OPENER

The 2019 League season got underway on Saturday but not without the challenge from the wet weather affecting matches up and down the country. Our ground on matchday was looking a picture and all down to the hard word of our groundsman David Doyle.

Our visitors Horspath won the toss and decided to bat first. Shelvin Gumbs gave three League debuts to players who joined the club over the winter, allrounder Steve Clark, opening bowler Tom Weymes and young spinner Sanjoy Bassi.

Horspath started very steadily scoring 25 for the opening partnership, which only brokeb by a brilliant left hand diving catch at slips by Charlie Macdonell to give Simon Stanway his first League wicket of the summer. Stanway was extremely economical with figures of 2 for 19 off his 10 overs. Our bowlers contained Horspath very well chipping away at the wickets at regular intervals until the 7th wicket partnership which composed 67, the best of the match by far. The innings was interrupted twice with rain and cut short by three overs.

With seven overs left of the Horspath innings, wicket keeper Steve Dutch suffered a horrific Achilles tendon injury which not only ruled him out of the game, but also the whole 2019 season. Everybody at the club wishes him the best in the recovery.

Andy Harris was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4 for 41 from his 9.4 overs. Clark picked up two and one each for Weymes and Gumbs with Horspath ending on 191 after 47 overs.

Based on Duckworth-Lewis, our target was reset to 194. We saw a steady start from Macdonell and Clark until the 10th over when Clark was LBW for 10 in an opening stand of 32. AJ Woodland and Macdonell put on a further 37 before Macdonell was bowled for 28.

Woodland occupied the crease well but with little support from the other end until young Solly Woodall joined him after the quick loss of Michael Payne and captain Gumbs. The pair put on 52 before Woodland eventually fell for 61 leaving Bassi to join Woodall.

The finishing line was now looking out of range but some early season time at the crease was achieved by all as we ended on 160 – 9 in the 44th over.

Next weeks’ game will be away to current holders Henley. This match will be an ideal opportunity to truly establish where we are at as a team, although we will be one batter light and Gumbs standing in as keeper. The team however, is well up for the challenge.

GRANT BOWLS SECOND TEAM TO UNLIKELY VICTORY

Following rain in the week and showers on the morning of the game this was a sub standard batting pitch at Kidmore End demonstrated by the fall of 20 wickets for just 160 runs.

Kidmore End were set the very small target of 86 for victory but were thwarted by Nick Grant with 6 for 23 and Paul Orton with 3 for 29 who exploited the conditions to full advantage.

Grant found swing in the fourth over to dismiss Guy Ashby LBW for his first League wicket in England. Orton swung the first ball of the next over to bowl Tom Sheldon. Abid Ul Wahib lofted Orton to be caught by Ed Pike and at 18 for 3 in the seventh over there was the thought of an unlikely victory for Tring Park.

The fifth wicket went down as Robbie Grout took the best of the six catches on the deep mid wicket boundary. The most pivotal moment came in the twelfth over as Grant struck again to reduce the score to 39-7 as he had Oscar Fountain caught by Jake Seagrave and then bowled Dan Simmons.

When Peter Healy turned Grant into Ant McCormack’s hands fielding short on the leg side the score was 49 for 9 and the game seemed all but over. But captain James Frost and number 11 James Walker had other ideas and realising they still had 32 overs to score 37 runs that nothing extravagant was required. They batted out four maiden overs and the score plodded along as 26 were scored in 15 overs and with eleven runs needed they were well on the way to seeing their side home. But then Frost chipped Seagrave for Grant to have the last word as he safely pouched the catch at cover.

After losing the toss and being put in, Tring Park certainly had the worst of the batting conditions as they had to deal with very uncertain bounce and the ball popping unexpectedly. By the end of the eighth over with 12 scored the top three were all back in the pavilion. There was a distinct contrast of styles in how to try to resolve this position. Chris Curry decided that playing shots was the answer as he scored 15 at nearly a run a ball but succumbed as he was caught at mid off. But Ant McCormack adopted a very different approach with a gutsy seven from 49 balls. Although only single figures, 56 were scored while he was at the crease and it’s doubtful if victory would have been achieved without his dogged resilience. He eventually perished when he thought there was a quick single, but Orton didn’t and he found himself stranded half way down the pitch. After coming in at 49 for 7, Orton was responsible for guiding the lower order through to the final total of 85 with 17 from 52 balls.

THIRD TEAM BEATEN AT HAYES

Mark Bater’s Third Team started life in Division 5A with a heavy defeat against highly fancied Hayes on the opening weekend of the season. The hosts won the toss and had no hesitation in batting on lovely afternoon in West London. The opening attack of Toby Seagrave and Tom Powell-Williams made a solid start with the new ball, and it was left arm seamer Powell-Williams who picked up the opening two wickets of the season. He first dismissed Rajkaran Singh who was caught at short midwicket by captain Bater before having Bajit Singh caught behind by Dave Crane for nought.

Hayes counter attacked with Rajinder Singh and Arshad Mohamad both posting half centuries as our hosts looked towards posting a large total. Debutant Ian Ridley, who joined last week after being recruited by former Bessborough team-mate James Wheeler, bowled a decent spell in the middle of the innings and was unfortunate to not pick up a wicket after a couple of catches went down. With our hosts pushing towards 200, Seagrave returned to the attack and dismissed Rajinder Singh who was well caught at mid off by Ridley.

Despite the dismissal of Rajinder Singh, Hayes continued to attack our bowling and despite the best efforts of our bowlers, Hayes finished on 320-5 off their 45 overs. The pick of the bowling was teenager Tom Powell-Williams who picked up 4-55 from his 10 overs.

After the early dismissal of James Wheeler, who’s innings was ended with a great catch at gully, Adam Goldberg and Benn Kempster looked to rebuild the innings by taking the attack to the Hayes bowlers. Kempster was typically brutal with his driving between cover and mid off as he got the innings going, while Goldberg who was making his League debut accumulated his runs and looked especially strong off his legs.

Kempster, who looked well set for a big score, unfortunately dragged on spinner Surinderpal Sharma for a well made 34 and was replaced by Alan Sheppard. Sheppard along with captain Bater offered good support to Goldberg who registered his first half century for the club.

With the run-rate rising, Bater then Goldberg were dismissed and while the tail did offer some resistance, we were eventually bowled out for 177 runs.

FOURTH TEAM BEATEN BY HAREFIELD

Andy Grout's Fourth Team were beaten on the opening day of the season by Harefield who were relegated from Division 6 last summer. Harefield elected to bat first and scored 184-9 off their 45 overs. John Graham was the pick of our bowlers picking up four wickets, while Andy Grout and debutant Ryan James picked up two wickets each.

With the conditions difficult, The Fourth Team needed a couple of batsman to make a big score to keep them in the chase. Opening batsman and chairman Nick Wake struck a fine half century, but Harefield bowled well and boundaries were tough to come by. Wickets fell at regular intervals with the Fourth Team ending on 130-8 and were defeated by 54 runs.

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