Scorecard

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday v Hurst on Sat 20 Aug 2016 at 12.30
Match was Abandoned

Match report Thatcham were left to rue the weather on Saturday as their game with Hurst was abandoned with the home side in decent shape at 73-3 after 24 overs chasing Hurst's total of 181 all out. Thatcham would have fancied knocking off the remaining 108 runs needed off the overs that were left but it wasn't to be as the umpires decided any further play was not going to be possible.

The 7 points Thatcham claimed from the game did nothing to help their cause to stay in the division, especially as other sides played and completed their games. Burnham 2's beat Wargrave to leap frog over Thatcham into 6th spot, Wargrave picking up 9 points from the loss as they remain in 9th place. Chiswick & Whitton are now relegated, as they have 149 and can only get to 199 with two victories and Beaconsfield in 8th position already have 201 points.

So realistically with 50 points still on offer, it's one from five to go down. High Wycombe 2's and Burnham 2's both have 212 points, Thatcham have 206 points, Beaconsfield have 201 points and Wargrave have 193 points. 19 points separate the five sides in what is going to be a tense couple of weeks as the season draws to a close.

Thatcham travel to Wargrave on Saturday in a real crunch of a game and then on the last week they entertain a Slough 2's side already safe in the knowledge their position in Division 2b is secure.

The details for Saturday's game were that with weather due to come in, skipper Duncan Johnson thought the best way to secure a win was to roll Hurst cheaply and knock the runs off before any rain intervened. The plan started well as the toss was won and opening bowlers Callum Johnson and Josh O'Flynn ripped through the Hurst top order to leave them 27-3 inside the first ten overs. Hurst skipper Lovegrove and opener Sosa then added 87 together in a pivotal partnership that was to determine the course of the game. Once Lovegrove fell to John Williams for 60, only Phil Higgs remained of Hurst's recognised batsmen and he and Sosa added another 50 runs to the total before Sosa finally fell to an excellent catch by Steve Bartholomew off the occasional left arm spin of Duncan Johnson for 52. Higgs now had to marshall the Hurst lower order and at 164-5, the game was in the balance. Head joined Higgs, but he couldn't resist a slog at Johnson and was caught at long on by Peter Spriggs for 0 and when Chris Bird struck with the vital wicket of Higgs for 43, stumped by Chris Wright, the home side smelt blood. Hurst then capitulated as Bird and Johnson took centre stage. Hawkes was stumped by Wright off Bird for 4, the big hitting Reynolds was brilliantly caught by Jack Young on the boundary off Johnson for 1 and when Bird found the outside edge of Brain's bat for 0, Hurst had collapsed from 164-5 to 181 all out with the last five wickets falling for just 17 runs in a crazy 10 over spell at the end of the innings.

Callum Johnson, 2-30 and Josh O'Flynn, 1-24 had started things off brilliantly and then Chris Bird 3-39, John Williams 1-50 and Duncan Johnson 3-24 rounded things off in fine style.

Hurst were missing Phil Higgs fellow spinner Lewis Smith due to unavailability, and it was no surprise when Higgs, who had claimed 8-21 in the previous game between the two sides, opened up with the old ball. Peter Spriggs and Josh O'Flynn had the task of negating Higgs and finding a way to score off him but it wasn't long before the spinner struck. Spriggs trying to tuck a ball away off his pads only to succeed in hitting Kayser at short leg who hung on via his chest to take an excellent close catch and Spriggs was gone for 1. O'Flynn was next as he drove at Higgs only to find Hawkes in the gully as he departed for 7 and at 17-2 through 9 overs Thatcham were going nowhere fast. Jack Young and Tom Mahoney then came together and immediately started to show some attacking intent. Sosa had partnered Higgs in opening the bowling and his occasional seamers needed to be punished and Young did exactly that. Some excellent running between the wickets, watchful batting against Higgs and punishing the bad balls from Sosa meant the pair added 49 together before Reynolds was introduced into the attack and he bowled Mahoney for 12 in his second over. Steve Bartholomew joined Young but the weather had closed in causing the umpires to take the players off the field, Young looking good and unbeaten on 36* and Bartholomew on 4*. Once the rain had subsided, the umpires inspected the square and made a somewhat premature decision to call time on the game. There was still 45 minutes of drying time before the cut off to recommence the game at 6.30 but the umpires minds were made up and that was that, the match finally abandoned at 6.00pm.

Hurst Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 5b  
for 10 wickets
9
181 (51.5 overs)		     
Ruksham Sosa ct  Duncan Johnson 52
Tom Hibbs ct  Callum Johnson 5
Alex Kayser ct  Callum Johnson 0
James Watt ct  Josh O'Flynn 4
Oliver Lovegrove ct  John Williams 60
Phil Higgs st  Chris Bird 43
Roy Head ct  Duncan Johnson 0
Sam Hawkes st  Chris Bird 4
Nick Reynolds ct  Duncan Johnson 1
Tim Walder Not Out  3
Russell Brain ct  Chris Bird 0

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Callum Johnson7.0030215.004.29
Josh O'Flynn8.0024124.003.00
Chris Bird16.5239313.002.32
Jack Andrews1.00900.009.00
John Williams11.0250150.004.55
Duncan Johnson8.012438.003.00

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
6nb 5b 2lb 
for 3 wickets
13
73		        
Peter Spriggs ct  Phil Higgs 1 1
Josh O'Flynn ct  Phil Higgs 7
Jack Young Not Out  36 6 1
Tom Mahoney b  Nick Reynolds 12
Steve Bartholomew Not Out  4 1 2
Duncan Johnson  
Chris Wright   3 2
John Williams  
Jack Andrews  
Callum Johnson   1
Chris Bird  

Hurst Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Phil Higgs12.0232216.002.67
Ruksham Sosa9.022900.003.22
Nick Reynolds3.01515.001.67

  • Umpire :
    Panel
  • Scorer :
    Ian Martin