Scorecard

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 3XI- Saturday v Chiswick & Latymer IV on Sat 17 Jun 2006 at 1.30pm
Thatcham Town Cricket Club Won 134 runs

Match report Thatcham Town 3rd XI played hosts to Chiswick & Latymer 4th XI at Henwick Sportsground. With it yet again being a hot and clear day, both captains were like;y to want to bat first, to avoid fielding during the hottest part of the day. The toss was won by the Thatcham Town skipper, Gavin Ansell, who dually elected to bat first, putting the 10 men of Chiswick in the field.

Thatcham opened with the pair of Chris Barnes and Bob Gadsden, both looked comfortable at the start, looking to push 1's and 2's, realising that with only 10 men, gaps were bound to appear in the field. The score moved to 22, with both batsmen having hit a boundary each, when Barnes was trapped L.B.W. to the young Dassani of Chiswick. Tom Donnelly came in at three, but went 3 balls later for a duck, when bowled by Dassani in the same over. With the score on 22-2, Thatcham nerves needed to be steadied some what. Martin Keep at number four went a long way to doing just that, clubbing his first 3 balls for 4. The next 2 were less convincing, on both occasions, Keep failed to control his shots and just evaded the hands of the fielders.

With the aggressive Keep partnering with the well set Gadsden, the scoring rate began to climb as boundaries were being hit with regularity, the 50 being brought up in the 11th over. Seeing the score progress nicely for Thatcham, the Chiswick skipper, Matt Aggett, brought himself on to bowl his flighted off-spin. Most balls were going on with the arm, but Aggett did get the odd one to bounce and turn extravagantly as the ball started to go through the top. It was with the score on 81, that Aggett bowled one of these sharp turning deliveries and beat Keep, who left one that turned onto his off stump, bowling him for 36. Nathan Redmond replaced Keep and followed on where he left off last week (scoring 47 not out), playing the Chiswick bowlers with ease, ably supporting the opener Gadsden.

Redmond and Gadsden swiftly took the score past the 100 mark in the 19th over, until with his score on 17, Redmond made the same mistake as Keep, leaving one from Aggett that turned sharply into his stumps. With the score on 105-4, it was still anyone's game and with Thatcham looking to get to atleast 200 on a good strip, Chiswick could feel happy that they'd taken as many wickets as they had. The middle order of John Williams (10), Gavin Ansell (0) and Nick Voller (4) came and went with far more speed that Thatcham would have liked!! The score now on 126-7 in the 25th over, Thatcham began to think they may fall short of a defendable target and wondered if perhaps they had tried to score too quickly.

Gadsden and his new partner Jamie Bishop, had other ideas though, with Gadsden now looking to be more aggressive and Bishop looking to run well and feed him the strike, the score began to climb again and in the 30th over, with 15 runs coming from it, the 150 was brought up. Unfortunately, 2 overs later, Bishop was caught off the bowling of Aziz for 8. Not his biggest ever score by a long way, but certainly one of the more crucial in the context of the match. Nick Stewart, the Thatcham Keeper, joined Gadsden and added 13 for the 9th wicket. That gave Aggett is fifth wicket.

The specialist bowler, Jon Sabberton, came in at 11 and looked to give the strike to Gadsden. They had 2 targets in mind, getting the total up to 200 and Gadsden's personal tally to three figures. Sadly neither happened, as with the score on 198, Sabberton was bowled by the sharp turning leg-spin of Hayes and that ended the Thatcham innings. Gadsden finished on 93 not out having carried his bat through 40 overs, in very hot conditions! Aggett was the pick of the Chiswick bowlers, finishing with 12-0-5-54.

Thatcham came out after tea, confident that their strong bowling attack had a total to bowl at. Having seen some of the extravagant turn on offer, Thatcham stuck with the old ball and opened with the spin of John Williams and Jon Sabberton. The decision to do so paying off immediately, John Williams getting his first ball to spin big and find the outside edge of Glover, the opening Chiswick bat. Chris Barnes snaffled the chance at point. With that early loss, the Chiswick batsmen played watchfully, almost as if they were playing for the draw from the word go, the fist 9 overs only yielding 14 runs. The 10th over, bowled by Sabberton, saw the second Chiswick wicket fall as the number three, Hayes, was caught behind by Nick Stewart off a fine edge for 15. The score on 18-2, Chiswick looked in trouble, but having seen the Thatcham recovery earlier in the day, must have thought they still had a chance. The score continued to trickle along, until John Williams got another one to turn huge and the Chiswick number 4, Lyon, caught by Nick Voller at gully. Sabberton took his second wicket the very next over, bowling the opener, Comery for 7. The score now on 28-4 in the 18th over, Thatcham sensed victory should be theirs.

Again, the scoring rate failed to get above a trickle, and it was 6 overs later when Sabberton moved ahead of Williams in the wicket column, having Aziz at 5, caught by Jamie Bishop at mid off for 15. Veysey came in at 7, but was bowled by Sabberton for a duck 2 overs later. Williams, now directly competing with Sabberton for the best wicket tally, had Yakoob caught and bowled for 2.

4-3 to Sabberton at this point. The Chiswick skipper was now in, with his partner Fletcher. The pair having sensed that both the draw and a win were out of reach, began to hit out and scored boundaries with a couple of lusty blows. It was when Fletcher was attempting another aerial straight drive, when Sabberton claimed his 5th, bowling the Chiswick number eight for 5 runs. With both Thatcham opening bowlers having bowled 16 overs each, they were understandably tired. John Williams was brought off, having bowled 16-4-3-37. He was replaced by Nick Voller, more used to opening the bowling with the new ball. He took only 3 balls to take the final Chiswick wicket, having them all out for 64.

Jon Sabberton was the pick of the Thatcham attack, finishing with fine figures of 16-8-5-24.

Thatcham won by 134 runs. An important result, as they try to regain the lead in Division 6B of the Thames Valley League. The maximum 25 points for this win though could not take them up the table though, as Datchet 3's and the leaders, Kew 3's, also both scored a maximum. Kew 3's remain 9 points in front of Thatcham and Datchet on 114 points. It's now beginning to look like it could be the top of the table clashes that decide this league

Thatcham travel to Burnham next week, and will feel again that, anything less than the maximum 25 points, could mean losing ground on either team currently in front.

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 3XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
198		        
Chris Barnes Lbw  8 1
Bob Gadsden Not Out  93
Tom Donnelly Bowled  0
Martin Keep Bowled  36
Nathan Redmond Bowled  17
John Williams Caught  10 1
Gavin Ansell Bowled  0
Nick Voller Caught  4 1
Jamie Bishop Caught  8 1
Nik Stewart Caught  4 1
Jon Sabberton Bowled  2

Chiswick & Latymer IV Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Chiswick & Latymer IV Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
64 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 3XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
John Williams16.0437312.332.31
Jon Sabberton16.082454.801.50
Nick Voller0.30111.002.00