Chalfont St. Peter Cricket Club Newsletter: 2003/15

With Neil Turner away on holiday, it's just newspaper reports this week, I'm afraid. If you're not playing in the match, or otherwise engaged, please come along and support the 1st XI on Sunday in the County Cup Quarter Final match against Chesham, it's the first time we have reached this stage of the competition.

The Saturday 1st XI recorded a vital victory against fellow strugglers, Aldershot, in a TVL Division 2B match against Chalfont Park. Aldershot batted first and made 232-3 in 50 overs. With only Jason Page to bowl seamers, our spin based attack failed to make any inroads into the Aldershot batting, and some dropped catches in the field did not help matters.
Zamir
Khan was the pick of our bowlers, taking 3-55 from 15 overs. In reply, we had a disastrous start, with Andy Parsons and Shahid Din dismissed in the first two overs, leaving us tottering at 6-2. But this brought Safi Ahmed and Gavin Mander together for a superb, record breaking partnership of 220, the highest partnership for the club in TVL matches. Safi Ahmed completed his second ton of the season, and went on to make 124 before being given out lbw with just seven runs required for victory, while Gavin Mander carried his bat for 87 not out. Author: Matthew Stevenson.

The Saturday 2nd XI played an away match against High Wycombe III. We won the toss and put Wycombe in on a wet looking track. They had been strengthened by one or two second teamers including one of the opening bats who proceeded to hit 49 before skying a hook shot and being expertly caught by Simon Gooch running towards fine leg from his 'keeping spot.
The
openers had ridden their luck to reach 59 without loss after 20 overs.
However, despite some good bowling from all the seamers, they had wickets in hand to increase the scoring rate and finish on 222 for 4 off 52 overs.

Our reply was initially steady as the first wicket put on 18 but then wickets tumbled and we were soon 29 for 5 in the 13th over ! Their opening bowling was suspiciously called James Anderson and he took 5 wickets in all!

Kevin Braithwaite (18) and Mike Burge (26) helped repair the innings to a degree by putting on 48. Asif Raza hit a quick 20 to help us reach 100 for 6 but with less than 8 overs to go, the last 4 wickets fell for no additional runs in the space of 12 balls! Defeat by 122 runs. Author:
David Peters.

The Sunday 1st XI recorded a comfortable victory in an MASL match away to Marlow. Rahul Punj was a very popular captain when he won the toss on a hot afternoon and decided to bat. Jason Page led the way with 81 not out as we reached 245-6 in our 40 overs, well supported by Safi Ahmed, who made 48.
Marlow's overseas player, Justin Kreush, from South Africa, then briefly had us on the back foot as they reached 77-1 in the eleventh over in reply.
But
a good catch from Rhys Mander sent him on his way, and Raf Mughal then ripped through Marlow's middle order, taking 4 wickets for just 5 runs, and they were finally bowled out for 159 in 36.2 overs, leaving us the victors by 86 runs. Author: Matthew Stevenson.

The Sunday 2nd XI entertained Yeading Cavaliers at Chalfont Park. The visitors won the toss and unsurprisingly elected to bat in a 40 overs game.
With us electing to let each person bowl four overs each, Yeading made a quick start, reaching 100 in 12 overs! The opening batsmen were both dropped a couple of times - one skied catch came down so far that it split Gareth Noot's hand open and he had to be rushed to hospital for 4 stitches.
Which
left us down to 10 men, a not unusual situation this year. When the openers were finally dismissed (for 64 and 109), we made short work of the remaining batsmen. Neal Collins(5-0-17-3), Pat Nagle(2-0-7-2) and John
Woods(4-0-18-2)
- his first ever wickets in adult cricket - were the pick of the crop, and Yeading were all out for a massive 266 in 36 overs.

In reply, we got off to a slow but steady start, but when Chris Yoxall
Jnr(24) was out, Neal Collins arrived at the crease determined to put the run rate back on track and made 50 from about 20 deliveries. Whilst Collins raced to 75 and was then caught on the boundary, Steve Baker was still making progress at the other end, and was rewarded for his two hour stint by a fine ton - and then promptly ran himself out, for exactly 100! Martin White flicked the ball around the field for 19, but it was once again left to Dave Andersen to smash 14 from 3 balls to put us within touching distance. Webb and Andersen then ran 5 byes in one over (much to the bowlers
chagrin) as well as adding another six runs off the bat. With eight runs required for victory, we still had three overs left when Webb watched two wides go past then smashed the next ball for six to complete yet another remarkable run chase by the Sunday 2XI - 267-4 from 37.2 overs. Our record this season now reads: Won 8, Drawn 4, Lost 2! Author: Dan Webb.

Performance of the week: There were three outstanding performances this weekend, and it is hard to split them. Gavin Mander (87 not out) and Safi Ahmed (124), for their match winning and club record partnership of 220 for the Saturday 1st XI against Aldershot. And Steve Baker, who scored exactly 100 as the Sunday 2nd XI successfully chased a mammoth 266 against Yeading Cavaliers.

Forthcoming fixtures:

Saturday, 9th August: 1st XI: Chenies & Latimer, TVL2B, away, 1.30pm Saturday, 9th August: 2nd XI v. Kidmore End II, TVL4B, home, 1.30pm Saturday, 9th August: 3rd XI v. Headstone St. George, friendly, away, 2.00pm Sunday, 10th August: 1st XI v. Chesham, Skinner Cup Quarter Final, home, 1.30pm Sunday, 10th August: 2nd XI v. Octopus, friendly, away, 2.00pm