Scorecard

Eversley III v Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 3XI- Saturday on Sat 09 Sep 2006 at 12.30
Match was Drawn

Match report Thatcham Town 3rd XI travelled away to play Eversley 3rd XI, at the picturesque Aborfield Garrison. Still with hopes of promotion, Thatcham were pleased when Eversley won the toss and put Thatcham into bat, giving them a chance of scoring the maximum 25 points, required to give them a shout of going up to Division 5 next year.

Thatcham Town opened the batting with the successful pairing of Stuart Gregory and Bob Gadsden. Having previously averaged 93.5 for the opening partnership, Thatcham were disappointed to see Stuart Gregory play a some what lazy shot, to be caught for 5 off the last ball of the 4th over. Steve Bartholomew came in at number three and immediately looked to get after the bowling, driving at every opportunity, frustrated on occasion that the large boundaries meant he had to do a lot of running, rather than watch the ball go over the rope. The pair of Gadsden and Bartholomew looked supremely comfortable, hitting boundaries and running well between the wickets to rack up a partnership of 94, before Gadsden fell in a similar manner to his opening partner. Not going through with his shot, he lobbed up an easy catch to extra cover, gone for a fine 43. Bartholomew followed soon after for 44, dismissed by a sharp caught and bowled. Andy Stephenson (TTCC 4th Team Captain) came into bat at number 4 and was joined by Nathan Redmond at number 5. Sadly Nathan Redmond capped of a frustrating second half of the season by going for a golden duck, caught at square leg off a top edge.

The score now on 107-4, Thatcham knew they had to steady the ship, while still making an effort to score quickly enough to make a declaration and give themselves the maximum number of overs to bowl out the opposition. Paul Westbrook came in at number 6 and looked solid with partner Stephenson, who together added a quick fire 25 in 5 overs, before Westbrook also offered a lazy shot to be caught for only 15. With the score now on 132-5, Chris Bird strode to the wicket to join Stephenson. Bird look ill at ease with the lack of pace from the Eversley bowling attack, being more used to the facing bowling of a higher standard in the Thatcham Town 1st and 2nd teams. He settled though and after 4 overs or so, the pair of Stephenson and Bird began to gel, running well between the wickets thanks to some excellent calling from both men. Soon after, they looked to get after the Eversley bowling and the runs began to flow, both men hitting the ball with superb timing, between the two of them, hitting a total of 17 fours and a six in their partnership of 120. That was before Stephenson was a little early through his shot, having still timed the ball well, he saw the Eversley captain (Ken Ryder) take an excellent low catch at deep mid-on. Stephenson went for a superb 65 and with the score on 252-6 from 41.5 overs, the declaration would be coming soon. Liam Redmond came out at number 8 to join Bird at the crease, only to see his partner get bowled for a much needed 58 and the declaration be made at 259-7 from 42.5 overs. Redmond was not out on 2.


Eversley had been given 57 overs to chase 260, meaning they had to score 4.56rpo. Due to the early finish of the Thatcham inning, the captains decided to play 10 overs of the Eversley innings before tea was taken and Thatcham knew that would have to get 1/2 wickets during that time to have a realistic chance of bowling out a side. Sadly this did not come and the home side were 32-0 when tea was taken at the 10 over stage.

Returning after tea, Thatcham went with the spin of Chris Bird and the medium pace of Gavin Ansell, both bowler bowled tightly, Bird in particular. Thatcham saw 2 catches dropped, 1 off each bowler during their short spells. Thatcham needed to take wickets fast, so rotated their bowlers, giving each bowler only a few overs to take a wicket or face being replaced. Bird was replaced by Nick Voller while Ansell was replaced by Liam Redmond. Redmond taking a wicket with his third ball of this spell, bowling the Eversley number 2, Breakspear for 15. Redmond's pace proving too much for the youngster, who had played the quiet role in an opening partnership of 78 with P. Maclaverty, who departed soon after, caught and bowled by Nick Voller for a fine 57. The third wicket fell soon after, also to Voller, as P. Gallagher batting at number three was out LBW for only 2. These three quick wickets gave Thatcham real hope and with the score on 83-3, Eversley looked to consolidate with the batting of G. Hammond and I. Heard.

Both Eversley batsmen settled well and looked comfortable, playing good balls with watchful defence and hitting the bad ball hard, for 4 on several occasions. They put together a 50 partnership in 10 overs and did well to bring Eversley back into the game. Thatcham again needed to make a change and looked to Nathan Redmond and Paul Westbrook to make the breakthrough. The change worked as Westbrook took a wicket with his first ball, Steve Bartholomew taking a fine catch standing up, to dismiss G. Hammond for 22. Westbrook struck again in his next over, bowling the Eversley captain, Ken Ryder for a duck. Nathan Redmond also came to the party, bowling T. Whitlock for only a single. This brought M. Martin to the crease to join I. Heard. With the Eversley score now on 138-6 from 39 of their 57 overs, Martin had been given instructions to play dead bat and simply not get out, in an effort to force a draw. A role he had played to great effect earlier in the season, when Thatcham drew with Eversley at Henwick Sportfield. Though it was also clear that I. Heard would look to continue to play his shots.

Another double bowling change was enforced and on came the pair of Sabberton and Voller again. Again the change worked, as Sabberton dismissed the stonewall Martin LBW for 9, putting the score on 158-7. Sabberton also created further opportunities, as he saw I. Heard dropped on the boundary twice in the same over. Sabberton didn't have to wait long to get his man though, flighting one up to Heard, the batsman came out of his crease and saw the ball turn passed his outside edge, into Bartholomew's gloves allowing the keeper to take the bails off in double quick time to stump Heard for an excellent 58. The Eversley total had now reached 173-8 with 10 overs remaining. The win for Eversley now looked out of reach, needing 8.7rpo, the Eversley batsmen shut up shot, playing defensive shot after defensive shot, only attacking the ball when it was bowled well wide of the off stump. The Eversley batmen took the score to 204-8 with only 3 overs left and Thatcham suspected their efforts to win the game may go in vein. Andy Stephenson came into the attack at one end to bowl 2 overs and Nathan Redmond would return to bowl the sole over from the other end. The 55th and 56th overs went by without real incident, though both batsmen played each ball with a certain amount of unease, knowing they just had to stay there.

The 57th and final over saw Andy Stephenson beat A. Baker with the first ball of the over, as the batsman chipped up a catch to Nathan Redmond, the batsman gone for 31. This gave Stephenson 5 balls at the Eversley number 11, J. Guy. The second ball of the over was bowled outside the off stump and was left by the number 11 bat, a wide followed that. The next ball however, bowled at the stumps, was also left by the batsman, the bowler left amazed that the ball had seamed away to miss the off stump by a nat's proverbial! With only 3 balls remaining, Stephenson did everything he could to get the wicket, the Thatcham field set to take a catch given any opportunity. Sadly though the Eversley innings closed on 213-9 from 57 overs, with both batsmen not out.


This gave Thatcham Town 15 points and meant, regardless of the result between Kew and Teddington Town, they would not be able to reach either of the 2 promotion places, as they had started the day in third place, 17 points behind Kew in second spot. This rapped up a frustrating season in some ways, having had the worst of the weather this season, being rained off while others played, having weeks with poor availabilities and failing to bowl out Eversley twice. All in all though, this has been an encouraging year. All players involved with the 3's have made good contributions, either with the bat, ball or fielding and all should be congratulated for their efforts.

Special praise should go to the following people:

Bob Gadsden - Having had a difficult year with work commitments and family illness, Bob has excelled to score 514 runs at an average of 73.43. Added to that he put in 100% in the field during every game, despite at time feeling drained after batting for such long periods of Thatcham's batting innings.

Nathan Redmond - Nathan started the season superbly, with both bat and ball, and despite 5 weeks in the 2nd XI and not being in his best form towards the end of the season, he amassed a total of 243 runs at an average of 34.71 and taken 18 wickets at an average of 17.89 with an economy rate of 3.47. Despite his claims that he is a batsman who bowls a bit, I think he can now truly class himself as an all rounder. He will certainly look at next season with the hopes of doing well at a higher level.

Nick Voller - Following knee surgery last year, Nick has come back this season rejuvenated. He averaged 15.67 with the bat, but took 23 wickets in 9 games at an average of just 13.35 and an economy rate of 2.98. An absolutely top notch performance!

Jon Sabberton - Following a broken hand in a preseason friendly, Jon took a while to get back to playing this year, once part of the team though, he took the role of front line spinner. His seemingly innocuous deliveries saw good batsmen struggle all year against him, meaning he took 19 wickets at only 11.26 and an economy rate of 2.52. Superb!!

Steve Bartholomew - Steve has progressed superbly through the season, both with the bat and the gloves. After a few low scores early on, he improved through the season to total 290 runs at an average of 32.22. With further improvement likely, with bat and gloves, next year, he will certainly be joining Nathan Redmond in playing a large part in the future of the club at a higher level.

Other mentions should also go to Will Clarke, Jamie Young, Kieran Lynch, Tom Mahoney and Michael Hobbs. All 5 players are under 18 and although didn't play in the 3's all season, have shown tremendous promise and improvement, all putting in match changing performances and will no doubt look to cement their future at the club next year by playing more regularly in senior teams.

This has been my first year as captain of TTCC 3rd XI and I would like to say how much I have enjoyed the experience and I, along with my Vice Captain Liam Redmond, would like to thank and congratulate everyone for making our job so enjoyable. We're both looking forward to next season, when hopefully we'll be able to go one step further and win promotion to division 5.


Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 3XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
259		        
Stuart Gregory Caught  5
Bob Gadsden Caught  43
Steve Bartholomew Caught  44 1 1
Andy Stephenson Caught  65
Nathan Redmond Caught  0 1
Paul Westbrook Caught  15
Chris Bird Bowled  58
Liam Redmond Not Out  2
Nick Voller   1
Gavin Ansell  
Jon Sabberton  

Eversley III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Eversley III Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
213 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 3XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jon Sabberton9.0234217.003.78
Nathan Redmond11.0139139.003.55
Chris Bird9.032800.003.11
Liam Redmond7.0240140.005.71
Gavin Ansell7.012500.003.57
Nick Voller9.0126213.002.89
Paul Westbrook3.01221.000.67
Andy Stephenson2.00414.002.00

  • Umpire :
  • Scorer :
    Ian Redmond