CtC’s season started the 2019 season in fine style, recording a dominant victory over The Moose XI, the only game that managed to garner its own match report.
This sent CtC into The Summer Solstice Cup against Dominii in confident mood. Winning the toss and batting first CtC that confidence appeared well placed, as openers Pearson and Rudkin got us off to a fast start. Pearson cruised to 66 before deciding to walk past one, and Rudkin, after so long out the game, made 54, much to the delight of the CtC dug out. With the two falling in quick succession it was left to Ben Cassels (21) and Nick Waller (15), on a very welcome debut, to build on this platform. Perhaps inevitably the scoring rate slowed, but both contributed usefully. From there however, CtC collapsed in spectacular style, as is their occasionally want in T20 cricket. The middle order offered Baggo (2, run out); Shaw (0); Sherwin (1, run out). The lower order therefore needed to contribute… but could only muster Gimson (2*); Fishpool (0); Dean (0, run out) and Hammo – Nil (did not show up – we played with 10). A total of [190] whilst good we knew was not as many as we perhaps should have had, and probably below par on a wicket famous for it’s high scores. We were however in confident mood, confident Tom Sherwin could atone for his shambolic performance in the fixture last year [0-40] and bowl us to victory. Sadly it was not the case. Gimson bowled well, including a nice catch at gully by Pearson to dismiss one opener, but without luck, three separate fours from Chinese cuts, leading to a small disagreement between the burly opening bowler and the skipper, who refused to set a filed for such a shot. Defeat to Dominii in the summer solstice cup, and a heavy defeat in the in 2018 of this fixture, left somewhat nervous about the Dominii Sunday fixture, particularly as the opposition counted both Tom Sherwin and the dangerous Baggo in their line-up. Things were not looking promising when, in a moment of pure theatre, Sherwin clean bowled Skinner first ball of the game. This bought Leary in at 3, who, as Leary does, immediately began to stoke the ball around, ‘to the manor born’; as Blowers would say. Having made it totally untroubled to 25 Leary departed and was soon followed by Dillon (0) and Conway also (0) first ball leaving CtC 40-4 and in some trouble. Hammond, trying to watch the England vs. India world cup semi-final on his laptop in the shade of the pavilion, was now required at the crease, and only just padded up in time to make it to the wicket before he was timed out. He now joined the DoC and together they set about rebuilding the CtC innings. And rebuild they did, putting on a huge partnership. Rudkin was the first to depart, but not before he had scored 106. It was good to have him back. There was no century for Hammo, left on 87* when the 40th over was completed, Shaw having added a useful 23 against a tiring fielding side to propel CtC to an imposing 273. CtC had a big score on the board, but were conscious they didn’t have the strongest bowling line-up (no Rutt, Davidson, Fairbank or Sherwin) and that the track was good for batting. Worry they needn’t, what followed was probably the best bowling performance this correspondence has witnessed from the club. Rupert opened up with Gimson, but with the ball immediately showing signs of swing, was replaced by Conway. Together they ran through the top-order of Dominii, Gimson bowling delightful away swing, that belonged and a much higher level, his figures of 8-1-4-16 not flattering his performance in the slightest. Conway was almost as effective with 5-1-2-17. There was no let up from the change bowlers either, Rob Hazleton, a bustling medium pacer showing great promise in taking 1-11 from his 5 overs, and Rupert picking up 2-29. There was even the chance for Skinner (0-7) and Leary (0-0.3) to have a bowl before Skinner took the final wicket with a run out, giving CtC a 192 run victory, and, an early finish in time to see England secure their spot in the world cup final. Next up for CtC was The Optimists who had beaten us the previous year in a rain-affected unofficial farce. This year arguably should also be declared an unofficial game, such was the low standard of cricket on display. We batted first and somehow, one by one, meekly surrendered our wickets to some very mediocre bowling. Cass jnr, drunk, Nunez, Carew and Cassels E all hit the ball straight to fielders, and Hammond was cleaned bowled. Rutt (52), as ever, was the only one to show much application, showing the bowling for what it was, and putting a partnership of X with Dean (16); to eventually get CtC to a very scrappy 175 (thanks largely to extras counting for 3). In reply The Optimists were never in it. CtC used 9 bowlers with one wicket each for Carew, Mclellan, The Cat and Hammo and two for Dean and Stephens. Champagne moment undoubtedly went to Ryan for taking a miraculous one handed diving catch whilst holding, and not spilling, a drop of beer. CtC won by 110 runs and hopefully this will never be spoken of again. The final game of the domestic season was against Trinity Old Boys a new fixture that had been several years in the planning. Unfortunately CtC struggled with availability, and it was a minor miracle we managed to get an XI on the field. XI we got though, including a very welcome return for John McNaught, and debuts for Gunn, Calvert and Thompson. Comically, for a club with a surfeit of keepers, Dean was pressed into emergency duties, which would have been costly had a long outfield and popgun attack not combined to limit byes to a maximum of one at a time. In a defensive move CtC selected to bowl, and worked hard to keep TOB to 173-5. In total CtC used 8 bowlers to varying degrees of effectiveness, Hammond’s 2-24 from 7 the stand out, but debutant Thompson (0-47) also bowled well. In reply CtC never quite looked like chasing the total down. Davidson had a chance up the order but, his mind perhaps addled by a summer in Silicom Valley, was out leaving one and only McNaught, a fine 20, and Hammond, 46, made it to double figures, in a pretty insipid total of 119 all out. Most disappointingly Rutty was not even called upon to bowl. A proper champing. And so season 2019 (domestic, non-LMS) ended with a somewhat mixed bag of three wins, two losses, a wash-out against ATL and questions asked about the quality of match reporting.
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AuthorGeorge Dean. Archives
October 2023
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