Scorecard

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham XI- Wednesday v Wolley Badgers on Wed 11 Jul 2012 at 6.10
Thatcham Town Cricket Club Won by 6 wickets

Match report Mighty Trouts leave Woolly Badgers dead on the highway to Div 2 promotion dreamland

Thatcham Mighty Trouts made up for their early season reverse by Yattendon-based Woolly Badgers with an important victory over their title rivals that makes Town strong favourites for the Div 3 title, in the 3 horse race also featuring Cold Ash. The win puts Town in joint second on 18 points but with 2 games in hand on the Badgers and 3 games in hand on Cold Ash who have 1 win more.
The fact that any cricket was played was a small miracle in view of the covers remaining over the Saturday wicket, leaving the Mighty Trout’s track at the mercy of the elements all week. This left a green, squidgy, damp track on the eastern end of the square just about satisfying a less-than-convinced groundsman Chris Brown.

With Town bowling first it was with some relief that Monger Jnr turned up in the Nick of time, having taken a mid-afternoon nap after all the excitement of the olympic torch relay.
Aaron Voller (3-0-15-1) and Shiva Kartikayen (3-0-23-2) opened the bowling and with Voller in particular in fine form the visitors were badgered to death with consistent line and length.
At first change Tom Allison bowled an excellent first over, with a disciplined line 2 feet outside off-stump protecting the short leg-side boundary. Their umpire warned Tom that he was bowling a defensive line and that he would wide him if he did it again. Despite this warning it was with some disbelief that next ball a wide was actually signalled. A furious skipper Rochy walked over to the umpire and made it clear in no uncertain terms that this was meant to be a friendly midweek league and no such rule existed in any form of cricket and he was not to call a wide for any such delivery again. But with a new umpire coming on anyway, a scene was fortunately avoided and Rochy did not have to resort to using Ballbag as a doorman or alternatively bringing Tom on from the northern end where his old man was umpiring and common sense and an LBW might be more likely.
The other incident involving Tom Allison was a nasty blow – via the top edge - to the eyebrow for helmetless no. 3 batsman Wali who, despite insisting he was fine, was promptly escorted off the pitch to the West Berks Community Hospital with Town keen to demonstrate that we do not tolerate blood sports. Rochy was left feeling sheepish after earlier laughing at Wali when he asked for “medium” instead of “middle” when he took his guard.
Only Harry Warburton (14) looked comfortable and with the Badgers burrowing deeper into their sett, it was Town on top with a terrier at the visitors’ throats. They could barely scrape together 4 an over with Willo, Allison (3-0-23-1) and Monger regularly reloading cartridges in the shotgun. With no pace on the ball the Badgers were made to swing hard to score runs, a dangerous prospect with spin duo Willo (3-0-15-1) and Mongman exploiting the predominantly low bounce and sticky surface.
But it’s not a black and white world as the Badgers struck some lusty late blows courtesy of another familiar face to the TTCC faithful – James Theunison (14). Based on their impressive Falkland CC ringers, but taking into account their overall lethargic batting performance and poor shot selection, the Woolly Badgers may as well be called the Woolly Mammoths – some big tusks on display but small brains all-round.
Once the dust settled it was Mongman who emerged the happiest, realising that he needed to resort to darts rather than flight to take maximum advantage of the surface, collecting 4/8 from 2.5 overs.

With the Mighty Trouts chasing the small target of 82, some steady heads were needed with barely 5 an 8-ball over needed. But the batting turned out to be a bit wild and woolly as the diurnal Badgers, awakening from their slumber at the gathering dusk, started to up their game. Warburton, Akhtar (3-0-18-2) and Theunison all bowled zippy, probing spells with a few jaffers going unrewarded but wickets tumbling nonetheless. Andy Rishton was the first to be snuffled, but he could not blame the pitch (he was undone by a yorker). This brought Simon Rider out to partner Des Hartley-Russell and the Bone Collector looked comfortable accelerating the scoring which included a deft swat for 6 to the short boundary. But both perished soon after and with new pairing James O’Connor and Josh Winfield finding the scoring harder to come by, the Badgers spied an unlikely comeback, especially when O’Connor departed for 4.
That brought captain Rochy in, and with the senior duo at the crease an element of calm was restored that included the pair running a 4 on a ball that only went as far as the opposite end of the square.
With Theunison (3-0-10-1) kept at bay and just 5 needed Rochy (20*) pulled the leggie Attoe for a 4 and a 6 through mid wicket to see his side home, careful not to lose the ball in the process to keep Graham Till, the official TTCC Keeper-of-the-Balls happy. So the Mighty Trouts eye the summit of Div 3, leaving the Badgers dead on the highway to Div 2 promotion dreamland.


Wolley Badgers Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 19w  
for 9 wickets
22
82 (14.5 overs)		     
Pope lbw  Karthikeyan 9
Eden b  Karthikeyan 9
Wali Retired Not Out  8
Warburton ct  (Winfield) b. Allison 14
Norris ct  (Rider) b. Williams 0
Slatford b  Monger 1
Akhtar ct  (Rishton) b. Monger 4
Theunison st  (Rochfort) b. Voller 14
Ambler lbw  Monger 1
Attoe b  Monger 0
Elkington Not Out  1

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham XI- Wednesday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Aaron Voller3.0015115.005.00
Shiva Karthikeyan3.0023211.507.67
John Williams3.0015115.005.00
Tom Allison3.0023123.007.67
Nick Monger2.50842.002.82

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham XI- Wednesday Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 12w 1b 2lb 
for 4 wickets
17
88		        
Andy Rishton b  Akhtar 10 1 1
Des Hartley Russell ct  Akhtar 8
Simon Rider b  Warburton 13 1 1 1
James O'Connor lbw  Theunison 4
Josh Winfield Not Out  16 1 1
Chris Rochfort Not Out  20 1 1 1
John Williams  
Nick Monger  
Aaron Voller  
Shiva Karthikeyan  
Tom Allison  

Wolley Badgers Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Warburton3.0026126.008.67
Akhtar3.001829.006.00
Theunison3.0010110.003.33
Slatford3.001400.004.67
Attoe1.001500.0015.00