Scorecard

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday v Newbury on Sat 28 Jul 2012 at 1:00pm
Thatcham Town Cricket Club Won by seven wickets

Match report Thatcham recorded their first back to back victories of the season to close the gap on Chesham as the top of Division 2B continues to draw parallels to central London during the Olympics; more and more congested as the weeks go by…

Following last weeks performances both teams were probably banking on the match being finished by half 2, and given the respective team line ups you’d be more than forgiven for agreeing. Sadly the only thing accomplished by half two was a drinks break. Last weeks new ball heroics rapidly became a distant memory as Newbury negotiated the first 15 overs without any real scares. Mind you, they weren’t really going anywhere in too much of a hurry. Good for us as someone had decided to redirect the A4 smack through the middle of Brownsfield. Half way house and the Newbury duo had made their way to 80 odd without loss.

The innings began to lack direction and soon played right in to our hands, well actually Willow’s to be honest as his introduction made the welcome breakthrough. Having seen our first two left arm offerings Anstey decided three was just too much to handle and duly lofted the ball to Stoney, mainly out of pure disgust in that a team would dare bowl three left arm off spinners at his side. Soon afterwards Uden followed and the wheels very much started to come off. Having been so handily placed with an opening century stand Newbury middle order tried their best to undo all the hard work of Anstey 43 and Uden 71. To an extent they did. Willow continued to chip away at the Newbury line-up and with the reintroduction of Gibbo six wickets fell in a match turning 14 over spell.

Birdy returned from the Tantrum End to pick up his customary, but equally well deserved, wicket for his efforts. However it was Willow who took full advantage of some pretty inept batting to collect four wickets with Gibbo weighing in with two of his own. Despite the overwhelming delight of pinning Newbury back to just 185 from their 52 overs we can also be slightly frustrated as aside from the top two there really wasn’t much else to prop up the scoreboard…

Still, given our previous chasing exploits 185 might as well have been 385. But not this time. 12 overs in and 185 really wasn’t going to be enough; Capi-tan Ross and Den wisely avoided tea and instead helped themselves to the buffet Newbury kindly served up. In previous weeks the old ball - slow bowler tactic has worked wonders at Brownsfield but with Capi-tan Ross in a hurry to catch a plan to Afghanistan, nothing was going to stop him. Or Den for that. By the time the new ball was taken both were handily set and Newbury really were facing an uphill battle. Capi-tan blasted his way past 50 and with Den not too far behind the occasional mumbling of ‘well, we can do this without losing a wicket’ could be heard rumbling around the boundary.

In a day of century opening partnerships Capi-tan and Den had guided us safely to 135 before both sportingly decided that it was time to let someone else have a bat. That’s fine, but do you really have to do it within four balls of each other? Capi-tan was the first to perish, not knowing whether to stick or twist and pinpointed mid-on to be caught for 79. Den miscalculating a stroll down the pitch removed leg before for 47. Stoney wasn’t able to carry on the intense scoring rate but with his mind probably on slightly more important matters than cricket I don’t think any of us could blame him for not being completely focused. Thankfully though Flynny and Jonno steadied things out; although not scoring a run for five overs made the home support a bit tetchy. With just 35 needed to win, we were still pretty much favourites to break our duck of home victories; and in a moment of pure Scotty Styrisesque batting Jonno brought us to within one run of victory. Having contrived to loft the ball to mid off and get Felix in at the non-strikers end Flynny just got far too much of it, about fifty yards too much of it really…and that was it, Thatcham home by seven wickets with the best part of ten overs remaining.

It might not be as straight forward for us next week as we head across the county to firm promotion favourites Chesham and it’s going to be a tough day of cricket for us. The way this season has gone so far, I daren’t begin to predict what might happen…

And remember kids; Trust in Schreiber…even if he is unavailable for the rest of the season.

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 3 wickets
0
188		        
Ross Schreiber Caught  79 13
Matthew Denness Lbw  47 7
Dan Stone Caught  3 1
Josh O'Flynn Not Out  9 1 1
Duncan Johnson Not Out  35 6 2
Felix Hartley Russell   1
Paul Jenkins  
Jack Young  
Chris Bird  
Scott Gibson   1
John Williams  

Newbury Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Newbury Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
184 (52.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Scott Gibson14.0133216.502.36
Paul Jenkins6.012400.004.00
Duncan Johnson10.033800.003.80
Chris Bird12.0050150.004.17
John Williams10.003448.503.40

  • Umpire :
    Panel
  • Scorer :
    TBC