CRICKET
Sat 1XI won by 9 wickets against Chenies and Latimer.
Sat 2XI won by 7 wickets against Kidmore End II.
Sun 2XI drew against Chesham Bois II.

CRICKET
Sat 1st XI, Falkland II, away, 1.30pm start
Sat 2nd XI, Amersham II, home, 1.30pm start
Sun 1st XI, Aston Rowant, home, 1.30pm start
Sun 2nd XI, Woodley, away, 2pm start
 

EURO 2004 QUIZ
The cricket section is promoting a Euro 2004 quiz, £5 to enter and all profits to CPSA. How much money the winner, runner up and third place get depends on how many entries we sell (50% of income to CPSA, 50% in prizes). Please have a go yourself, and sell to friends and family as well. There are two ways to enter:

1) Electronically, by filling in the attached spreadsheet, and sending it to Saqib Ahmed at Saqib.Ahmed@sabre.com
2) the old fashioned method of filling in a form (available from Saqib Ahmed, Matt Stevenson, Zamir Khan, Rahul Punj, David Peters, Dan Webb and Peter & Sandra behind the bar)

The competition is very easy, you just predict the quarter finalists, semi finalists, finalists and winner, and the total number of goals in the tournament as a tie breaker. Closing date is Friday, 11th June. Updates will be posted during the tournament on the club web site (thanks in advance to Nigel Shaw, who will be doing all the hard work behind the scenes).

THE DONG'S ON SONG

Groundhog Day. The opposition (Chenies & Latimer) rolled over cheaply and another early finish. This was a good result!

Chenies won the toss and opted to bat first on their usual prime batting track, a par score here would usually be at least 230. However, a fine bowling performance backed up with a solid fielding display ensured Chenies were bowled out for a mere 80 runs (28.2 overs). Man of the match Saqib Ahmed, A.K.A The King Dong (the answer to your question ladies is yes), bowled with consistent pace and accuracy to earn the first five wicket haul of his 9 year league career - great stuff - finally finishing with 6-40 from 14.2 overs. Another impressive spell from Salman Khan (4-36 from 14 overs) ensured there was no escape for the Chenies batsmen. Saqib's in-swing bowling coupled with Salman's out-swing has the makings of a very capable opening partnership this season. The pre-match ritual of warming up and fielding practice again paying dividends with 4 (that's FOUR - as in four more than last year ) catches held in the slips.

A disappointing tea. The food was fine, it's just that we had to watch Man United win the FA cup. Must be Leicester's turn next year.

Chalfont went out to bat in positive mood, Andy Parsons (29) and Shazi Shaughti (31 not out) put on 54 for the first wicket. Red Ink Raff Moughal (15 not out) finished the job with Shazi (81-1 in 18 overs).

Twenty lovely local derby points for Chalfont. Hang on, I've just thought of another headline THE DONGS TOO HOT TO HANDLE, this is probably a bit inappropriate though.

Chalfont Park Phoenix moved to the top of their league division with a 21-17 win against Waifs and Strays. The Phoenix started the game strongly to take a near double figure lead by the end of the fourth innings. It was in the fifth innings that W&S started a comeback and they pegged the Phoenix back to 21-17 by the end of the sixth, but luckily darkness had fallen just enough for the game to finish to ensure that a nervy seventh innings was not played.

Highlights of the game included Sarah Wood making all three outs in one of the middle innings (by taking a catch, making a tag and making an out on base) and a number of home runs including Alastair Wertheim scoring the teams first ever grand slam (home run with bases loaded).

Next game is away against Thames Valley Rangers on June 3rd.

Here are the best performances of the season so far:

BATTING
Neal Collins, 78, Sun 2XI -v- Dunstable II (25/4)
Andy Parsons, 64, Sat 1XI -v- Wokingham II (08/4)
Martin Cartledge, 59*, Sat 2XI -v- Kidmore End II (22/5)
Alex Hales, 59, Sun 2XI -v- Chesham Bois (23/5)
Neal Collins, 55, Sun 2XI -v- A-o-t-Hill (09/5)

The Saturday 2nd XI secured its first win of the season with a seven wicket triumph against Kidmore End II. Skipper Simon Gooch won a good toss and put the opposition in on a damp wicket which was hard to score freely on. We bowled tightly but Kidmore made steady progress to 73-1 from 26 overs before a spectacular collapse saw them fall back to 97-8 after 45 overs. Their ninth wicket pair then fought back well and got them up to 131-8 from their allotted 52 overs. Sohail Ijaz took the main bowling honours, 4-28 from 15 overs, well supported by Martin Cartledge, who took 2-23 from 11 overs, including a superb catch off his own bowling, and Tom Richardson, who took 2-17 from 8 overs. Asif Raza also deserves a mention, his figures of 0-44 from 18 overs doing him no justice.

In reply, we had a poor start and were struggling badly on 26-3 after 11 overs. Kidmore were bowling well, and 131 was beginning to look a good score, but a superb, unbroken partnership of 106 between the stylish James Mallinder (48 not out) and the Bothamesque Martin Cartledge (59 not out) carried us to victory. The margin of victory was slightly flattering, as it was a close, hard-fought match, but it made up for the previous week at NPL when we got scant reward for our efforts.

Once again the selected few gathered at Newlands, this time to face someone other than the Vansittarts! With a squad size that most American football teams would have been proud of (17 to be precise) it was a tough choice on who to start, after much deliberation and confusion 11 were selected and we got underway. With South Bucks turning up with 3 of their men's first team players we knew it would be a tough game, and from the start it gathered a frantic pace with Chris Blamey doing an excellent job holding our back line. The first half was a very much divided affair with no side really gaining the upper hand, both teams had good chances only for them to be met by equally good saves from both keepers.

Half time came and with a few tactical substitutions we started to see A&C breaking through into Buck's D on many occasions with some good shots at goal. Finally after a short which was well ejected by Ruth Fermor, the ball was flicked into the D and Warren Scott found the space and time to calmly put the ball across the top of the keeper and onto the backboard, 1-0. With 15 minutes to go it was always going to be a tense finish and it did not disappoint, with some fine keeping from Dan Lovelace which saw their No. 5 being constantly denied the goal he was looking for and we managed to hold out for the win.

Thank you to everyone that turned up and played and we look forward to the next game on 4th June.