Scorecard

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham XI- Wednesday v Sutton Courtenay on Thu 16 Aug 2012 at 6.00
Thatcham Town Cricket Club Won by 7 wickets

Match report Batsmen stand up as Trouts chase 155 to beat Sutton Courtenay

Another late season rearranged game due to the summer ‘drought’ and the Trouts found themselves wallowing in unfamiliar waters – back to back defeats against local rivals Kennet Pirates and title rivals Cold Ash had taken some of the gloss off the season but not the spirit, on both occasions a Trouts team full of young colts were beaten by adults littered with ringers capable of taking the game away from you, and in the Williams brothers and Jim Ettridge, that is exactly what came to pass.

Looking to recover and win the game to secure 2nd spot, the SC batters opened and with no immediate breakthrough from opening pair Aaron Voller and Will Rowsell, steadily laid a potentially dangerous platform. Ben Denton Powell (BDP) eventually snaffled a catch at mid on to dismiss Hilless (21) off Rowsell (1/25). A Jona Spriggs loopy delivery deceived Patel whose slog sweep was about 10 minutes too early and left the front gate wide open. However that only allowed the destructive Mahadevan to join Matthews, and the pair set about demolishing the Trouts bowling, Mahadevan particularly effective taking on Spriggsy and Tom Allison, scoring 2 towering 6s. Shiva Karthikeyan was introduced and got one through Matthews' defences and he departed for 29. This was to bring about the most entertaining part of the evening as Mooring came to the wicket. He wasn’t to last long as the excellent BDP came on to bowl at the death from the pavilion end, and his first over only went for 4 and included the wicket of Mooring, who after being caught, began walking off in a huff, and (get this) removed his helmet and THEN clubbed himself over the head with his bat (you don’t learn from your mistakes without PAIN). Before exiting the field, he also proceeded to chuck his helmet and his bat 10 yards and then stomped about kicking his pads and gloves like Sir Alex Ferguson in a half-time team-talk. The only thing he didn’t do was smash up one of our plastic chairs with his bat.
BDP and Shiva both finished with figures of 1/17 as the oppo posted a challenging 155 to win, Mahadevan finishing 62*.

The conventional approach to the run chase might have resulted in promotions up the order for the likes of Arthur Edwards but Rochy trusted that youngsters Jacko and Peter Spriggs could play the scoreboard and up their usual strike rate accordingly. And so they did, with both batsmen playing some scintillating shots to the long boundaries, keeping up with the required run rate, and bringing up the 100 partnership in the 9th over.
Mooring, not content with having smashed his own face with his bat after his earlier dismissal, continued the theme whilst fielding and after hurtling toward the ropes and failing to stop a boundary his momentum took him into the hedge and he emerged bedraggled, ball in hand, and proceeded calmly to punch himself in the face like it was the most natural thing in the world (a gesture to the captain that he realised he should have done better?) before returning the ball to the keeper. The stunned onlooker Rochy immediately regretted the quip “your bat’s over here if you’d prefer to use that”. I don’t think any of us had ever seen anything like it before.

After Youngy departed for a superb 56 that included a towering 6 over long on, Edwards was sent in to finish the job but for the second consecutive evening defied his Saturday form and got dismissed cheaply (this time stumped after a huge mong down the track). Rochy joined Spriggsy and took on the attacking role whilst tasking Spriggsy with batting through. Despite missing out on easy boundaries to some shocking deliveries Rochy (32*) hit the good balls for 4 instead as Sprigger fed him the strike and after Peter eventually fell for a quality 47 (jug avoidance?) Eddie Wylie took 1 ball to hit the required runs.
We shook hands, drank a couple of pints, ate some nice pizza, and Rochy told a circumspect Mooring that he shouldn’t take himself so seriously in midweek cricket.

Going into the game the aim was to secure second spot and hope that would be enough for promotion as a league reshuffle is likely owing to an imbalance in the number of teams in Div 1 and 2. Second spot was duly secured however eleventh hour discussions, which may one day be infamously known amongst Cold Ash players as the Browsfield Pact, resulted in an agreement to stage the reverse fixture at Brownsfield as well (Sutton Courtenay being unable to host matches on their ground now that the footballers have taken over). That game is on Thurs 23/08 and with a fair wind and some stellar home performances the Trouts may yet nick top spot on net run rate (Ed’s note: having just seen the updated table we have a net run rate of 1.36 and Cold Ash have 1.8 – I don’t think it’s possible... mathematics whizz Andy Spriggs might be able to confirm). And if we don’t finish top, well, the pizza and chicken will be tasty no doubt, and Mr Mooring will be back... perhaps he will entertain us by charging our umpire like Stone Cold Steve Austin and flooring him with a clothesline? Perhaps he'll text us insulting his captain and telling us how to get the skipper out? Turn up, have a pint, and find out.

Thanks again to the helpers, especially Nick Voller on the bar and Tommy Mather MBE who at 15 knows more about opening, closing and running the club than most of the players near retirement.

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham XI- Wednesday Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
14w  
for 3 wickets
14
158		        
Jack Young ct Ward 56 7 1 1
Peter Spriggs ct Kelly 47 4
Arthur Edwards st Ward 0
Chris Rochfort Not Out  32 4 1
Eddie Wylie Not Out  4 1
Shiva Karthikeyan  
Tom Allison  
Aaron Voller  
Will Rowsell  
Jona Spriggs  
Ben Denton-Powell   1

Sutton Courtenay Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Woodley1.001500.0015.00
Walker2.002100.0010.50
Hilless3.002900.009.67
Ward3.0027213.509.00
Bilch3.003500.0011.67
Kelly2.0031131.0015.50

Sutton Courtenay Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 29w 1b  
for 5 wickets
32
123 (15.0 overs)		     
Hilless ct BDP b. Rowsell 21
Matthews b Karthikeyan 29
Patel b J Spriggs 2
Mahadevan Not Out  62
Mooring ct Rochfort b. Denton Powell 0
Ward st Young b. Wylie 10
Walker  
Kelly  
Woodley  
Bilch  
TFC  

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham XI- Wednesday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Aaron Voller3.003000.0010.00
Will Rowsell3.0025125.008.33
Jona Spriggs2.0029129.0014.50
Tom Allison2.002600.0013.00
Shiva Karthikeyan2.0017117.008.50
Ben Denton-Powell2.0017117.008.50
Eddie Wylie1.0010110.0010.00