Scorecard

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday v Royal Ascot on Sat 01 Aug 2015 at 1.00
Match was Drawn

Match report Thatcham were on the wrong end of a draw on Saturday at Brownsfield as they entertained 2nd placed Royal Ascot in a game where, once again, the toss proved pivotal and far too much of an advantage on the day.

Ascot made up 8 points on the leaders and with five games to go just the one point separates the top two sides with third placed Aldershot 18 points further back awaiting any potential slip up.

Once Royal Ascot skipper Nick Sweetman called correctly he was always going to bat first, knowing a score of 200+ would bring his side an immediate 10 points, so even if they lost, Thatcham could only get 20 points for chasing down a total successfully.

Openers Jack Kendall and James Gamble made a steady, if unspectacular, start against the young Thatcham seam attack of Callum Johnson and Des Hartley Russell and it was Hartley Russell who struck in the 6th over as Kendall tried to hook a quick bouncer and could only glove behind to Jack Young for 7. Skipper Sweetman and Gamble then combined in a 67 run stand from the next 15 overs until Sweetman played all round a full length delivery from Scott Gibson and was clean bowled for 38. Gamble had reached 39 when he called Warren Miller through for a quick single only for Miller to leave him 'high and dry' and a powerful throw from Chris Bird saw Gamble short of his ground and Jack Young whipped the bails off to dismiss the opener. Jack Lunghusen joined Miller and it was clear that dealing in boundaries was his only agenda as he cleared the ropes for three 6's and three 4's in a brief cameo of 36 before he tried one shot too many and found the safe hands of Callum Johnson at deep midwicket, John Williams the successful bowler. Ascot were 168-4 through 44 overs and with wickets in hand would surely push hard for the last few overs. Skipper Duncan Johnson introduced himself into the attack with a view to taking the pace off the ball and with Chris Bird bowling tightly from the other end, Ascot would have to put bat to ball to set a challenging target. Johnson struck twice in quick succession as he bowled Robert Try for 18 and trapped Will Ellison lbw for 6. Bird then snapped up two quick wickets in the final over as Anderson was brilliantly caught by John Williams for 10 and then Nick Wiggett was stumped for 0 from the final delivery of the 52nd over. Ascot had only added a further 36 runs from the last 8 overs as they closed on 204-8 with Warren Miller, who had come in to bat in the 22nd over, unbeaten on 41 from 89 balls.

Chris Bird was the pick of the home attack, returning 2-32 from 13 overs and he was well supported by Duncan Johnson 2-20, John Williams 1-77, Scott Gibson 1-33, Des Hartley Russell 1-14 and Callum Johnson 0-21.

The home side would have fancied chasing 204 with a decent pitch and a lightning outfield but, once again, the top order crumbled as Ascot took the old ball and opened with the spin of Kevin May. May took the first 4 wickets to fall, Scott Gibson had hit the very first ball of the reply to the boundary, but when May floated one up outside Gibson's off stump the very next ball, he aimed an extravagant drive and edged to slip. Tom Mahoney was then bowled for 2 and with Peter Spriggs edging to slip for 12 and Jack Young following shortly after, also for 12, the Thatcham reply was in tatters at 30-4 from 13 'car crash' overs and suddenly 204 looked a long way away. The reply needed some real application and it took the experienced heads of Duncan Johnson and Stephen Bird to first rebuild and then try and get their side in a position to win the game. They added 70 in 22 overs in an excellent effort as they took the score from 30-4 to 100-4 before Bird edged Wiggett through to Miller for 27. It was now down to Johnson to try and win the game but as so often in cricket 'one brings two' and he fell in the very next over, tamely guiding Brown to Anderson at point and the Thatcham skipper had to go for 43. Ascot now knew they were in with a real shout of 25 points and when Brown struck a double blow to dismiss Hartley Russell for 0 and John Williams for 4, Thatcham were 116-8 with 10 overs still left in the game. Callum Johnson joined Matthew Denness and it was Johnson who then took the game to the visitors, smashing 18 off one over from Wiggett as the pair looked to still try and pull off an unlikely victory. The score had reached 151-8 from 44 overs when Johnson perished, the returning Will Ellison taking his wicket for a brave 23. Last man Chris Bird joined Denness and with just the 4 overs remaining and a further 50 runs required with just the one wicket left, the pair took the decision of making sure they drew the game and not gift the visitors a maximum 25 point haul. They successfully negotiated the 4 overs left and Thatcham finished 42 runs short at 162-9 at the close. With Ascot taking the old ball and having a further 4 overs to bat, it's a tough task chasing a 200 plus score in the TVCL, especially when you make such a poor start to the reply.

Kevin May was the pick of the Ascot attack as he returned 4-48 from 14 overs with Mike Brown 3-43, Will Ellison 1-32 and Nick Wiggett 1-21 the other bowling successes.

Thatcham now face the bottom four sides in succession, a trip to Purley this weekend is next on the agenda as they look to bounce back in style and get back to winning ways.

Royal Ascot Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2w 2b 5lb 
for 8 wickets
9
204 (52.0 overs)		     
Jack Kendall ct  D Hartley Russell 7
James Gamble Run out  39
Nick Sweetman b  S Gibson 38
Warren Miller Not Out  41
Jack Lunghusen ct  J Williams 36
Robert Try b  D Johnson 18
Will Ellison lbw  D Johnson 6
Miles Anderson ct  C Bird 10
Nick Wiggett st  C Bird 0
Kevin May  
Mike Brown  

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Callum Johnson7.022100.003.00
Des Hartley Russell6.0214114.002.33
Scott Gibson7.0033133.004.71
John Williams15.0177177.005.13
Chris Bird13.0332216.002.46
Duncan Johnson4.0020210.005.00

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
5w 2b 5lb 
for 9 wickets
12
162		        
Scott Gibson ct  K May 4 2 1 200
Peter Spriggs ct  K May 12 30 1 40.0
Tom Mahoney b  K May 2 3 66.67
Jack Young lbw  K May 12 32 2 37.50 1 1
Duncan Johnson ct  M Brown 43 68 8 63.24
Stephen Bird ct  N Wiggett 27 71 3 38.03
Des Hartley Russell ct  M Brown 0 9 0
John Williams ct  M Brown 4 5 1 80.0 1
Matthew Denness Not Out  18 30 3 60.0
Callum Johnson ct  W Ellison 23 24 4 95.83 1
Chris Bird Not Out  5 13 1 38.46 1

Royal Ascot Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Kevin May14.0348412.003.43
Will Ellison14.0232132.002.29
Miles Anderson5.011100.002.20
Mike Brown10.0143314.334.30
Nick Wiggett5.0121121.004.20

  • Umpire :
    TVCL Panel
  • Scorer :
    Ian Martin