Scorecard

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 2XI- Saturday v Kidmore End CC 2nd XI on Sat 15 Jun 2024 at 13:00
Thatcham Town Cricket Club Won by 82

Match report Trouts Like it Wet at Gloomy Brownsfield
The Silver Trouts have a dismal record in recent years of traditional cricket, after a run of nearly 3 years of failing to bowl the opposition out in the second innings of 48 overs. But, as traditional cricket rules returned for the middle part of the 2024 season, we finally managed to finish the job at the first time of asking, after losing the toss and being inserted.
Saturday morning was a story of heavy rain showers and a group chat with mixed opinions and many hinting that a rain card may have been played the previous night, updating the chat with every drop of rain from Inkpen to Wantage. At base, the wicket, reused from last week (still fresh), was hard under cover, and the outfield was draining well. A few wet patches here and there, but generally the ground in good condition. After quick preparation of the rope, live stream and a careful removal of the covers, an on-time start was on the cards. Tommy decided he would use a fair coin this week and like a true Trout, he lost the toss and was forced to return to the dressing room to pad up. Unfortunately, there was no “oi is everyone ‘ere?!” from the skipper this week, with GL called up to represent the 1s. After a team talk for the ages, he passed the baton over to an all but indecent Simon Lewis, who told the whole team how to bat against the new ball, despite himself and Tommy being the only ones who needed to know.
Lewis started by crunching a trademark cut for four before missing a full bunger. Dropped for discipline, and early to bed the previous night, Klichowicz joined Mather at the crease and the left handed pair ran well (ish) with Tommy taking the more aggressive option over the top of mid-off with a couple of boundaries. A combination of a long boundary and a drying outfield limited the number of boundaries throughout the day, and certainly increased the number of twos and threes. It would be the introduction of Chib that was the undoing for Mather, guiding a short ball into the mits of square leg. Thorne joined Klichowicz and punished some loose bowling as the left-right combination – the effectiveness of which at this level is underestimated - was reintroduced. The two ran superbly with shots into the long boundary, as de Klick took the grass out of the equation planting a dinger with the wind into the trees. Thorne made it to 46 before finally being caught with the third chance he gave away. Truth is he didn’t have enough money to buy a jug on top of his match fee, and the replay will show him gifting catching practice to mid on. De Klick would make it bang-bang for Kidmore End and he got bowled(?) for 32 with a lot of controversy around the dismissal. Not even the camera makes things clear but let’s explain: Klichy miscued a sweep, and from that crouched position the ball looped up over his head whereupon the wicketkeeper attempted a catch right in front of his face. After inexplicably appearing to miss the catch, the ball landed on the leg stump bail, apparently without the wicketkeeper touching it. Either this was deliberate, or the worst attempt at a catch seen in many a year at Brownsfield Road, but de Klich found himself trundling back to the hutch. Ringer BDP, down from the 1s to strengthen the Silver Trout promotion chase, strode in to join Hemming. Looking to build a partnership, Hemming clipped one off his hip and in possibly the most entertaining moment of the day, Denton Powell – who was momentarily absent humming ABBA’s ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (a man after midnight)’ – comically sent Hemmo back in the worst bit of cricket of the day. Hemming survived due to a misfield and anchored the middle overs once again. Badger struggled to find the middle, chewing for some time and particularly against Sadhwani, during which battle he was now humming to Diana Ross’ ‘upside down, boy you turn me, inside out, and round and round’ and eventually missed a straight one trying to use his dancing shoes. Silence at the clubhouse was disrupted by a shattering of glass from the home changing room as Ben – evidently wanting a new aquarium for the trouts - deflected his bat off the floor and into a window. (* see DOTD, don’t think there’s any need to explain this one*). North tried to clean up the mess he had made in the middle with Hemming, and again the two tried to run each other out, as North accelerated the innings with a run-a-ball 24, unleashing his deadly slog sweep which is an absolute pleasure to see back at HQ. And in proper Trout fashion, the lower order collapsed as Northy played one-too-many slog sweeps and Hemming fell for 28, as 197-5 became 214 all out. An above par score after being inserted with rain around.
The first innings was only interrupted for 10 minutes due to a brief shower, and tea came at the right time, with a sensible call to put the covers on, followed by a heavy shower. The second innings would be delayed by 15 minutes as the ground dried up and the covers were drained.
Tommy ordered a huddle before OT and Josh Reeves, returning from a broken toenail, opened up with the ball. Thorne would get the early breakthrough as Wilkinson’s timber fell. Reeves would be on the wrong end of a dropped catch by keeper North, as the other opener would be dismissed in a comical run out, as he slipped coming back for two, the outstanding Klichowicz proving his worth. The cordon would proceed to become rattled by a 16 year old taking his time, undoing his gloves every ball and checking for a field change (there obviously hadn’t been). He would also proceed to take centre at the start of every over he faced, and Thorne allowed the Trouts to get on with their lives castling the number three for 3. Reeves again bowled tightly but went wicketless, and it would be the introduction of Denton-Powell and Oscar Reeves (who had earlier spent two hours on his hair) to get the next breakthroughs. A fired up BDP (on the wrong side of some horrible Lewis sledging) would strike with his first ball cannoning into the pads of the number 4, in front of all three. Not sure what it was missing, the Kidmore End batsman refused to walk and complained the whole way back to Reading. O Reeves would strike next taking a brilliant caught and bowled to send the captain back to the pavilion. O Reeves would only go for 8 runs in his five overs (most of them wides he didn’t agree with), as Ben broke the glass ceiling of another partnership by poling the talented number 7. KE would then put on a partnership that Town would find difficult to break, BDP’s spell fading to become little more than window dressing as Hemming and Nair were introduced. Playing the spinners comfortably, only a mistake could let Town in. And in the 30th over it came, a small mix up allowed OT to shy at the bowler’s end, taking aim and hitting the stumps to take the 7th wicket. Hemming then managed to turn one (yes, actually), beating the outside edge of the set number five to take Town within two. The skipper gave himself two overs, to which he created a chance, OT dropping one of the easiest catches ever as he slipped on the edge of the square. Thorne would then return from the drainage end and was not happy with a shot from one of the batsmen, calling it a “dirty hack” to which the number nine replied “as is your face”. Thinking he’s big now, Thorne squared up to the batsman and got dragged away by BDP, firing up the squad. He would get his man caught at gully by Hemming a few balls later putting the Trouts on the brink. The returning Denton Powell, never one to crack under pressure, threatened with every ball from the other end, although it was Thorne with the checkmate to finish with 4-30 from 10.3 overs, Town winning by 87 runs.
A scandalous incident took place during the traditional post match drinks. With DOTD all sewn up long before BDP chucked his Guinness all over the clubhouse wall, there was the matter of voting for Man of the Match. OT, who at his tender age is new to democracy and looking forward to voting for the first time on 4th July, and not knowing much about the election other than candidates can vote for themselves, therefore unabashedly asked if he could vote for Team OT. If BDP wasn’t such a panefully obvious candidate, this would have resulted in DOTD.
MOTM: OT
DOTD: Ben “I didn’t know cricket bats could bounce” Denton Powell
MOTM Leaderboard:
OT – 1
Barty – 1
Rochy – 1
Britter – 1
GL – 1

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 2XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
10w 13b 6lb 
for 10 wickets
29
214		        
Simon Lewis b T Branch 8 20 1 40.0
Tommy Mather ct Unsure b V Chib 21 28 1 75.00
Michael Klichowicz b S Sadhwani 32 64 2 1 50.0
Olly Thorne ct T Wilkinson b R Paul Frost 46 60 6 76.67
Ben Denton-Powell b S Sadhwani 16 31 2 51.61
Paul Hemming b A Ulhaq 28 63 2 44.44 1
Jack North b A Ulhaq 24 29 2 82.76
Henry Britter ct A Holland b V Chib 5 6 1 83.33
Joshua Reeves Not Out  2 4 50.0
Oscar Reeves b V Chib 3 3 100 1
Vinit Nair b V Chib 0 4 0

Kidmore End CC 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joshua Finch7.002600.003.71
Tom Branch6.0031131.005.17
Vikas Chib14.0150412.503.57
Assad Ulhaq10.0042221.004.20
Sanay Sadhwani8.021628.002.00
Richard Paul Frost7.0130130.004.29

Kidmore End CC 2nd XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 15w 3b  
for 10 wickets
21
132 (42.3 overs)		     
Abhishek Chatterjee run out  (M Klichowicz) 11 25 1 44.00
Thomas Wilkinson b O Thorne 7 15 1 46.67
Sanay Sadhwani b O Thorne 3 18 16.67
Shail Ram lbw B Denton-Powell 3 17 17.65
Shehzad Ahmed b P Hemming 22 67 2 32.84
Anthony Holland ct O Reeves b O Reeves 4 7 57.14
Joshua Finch b B Denton-Powell 7 14 1 50.0
Richard Paul Frost run out  (O Thorne) 11 28 1 39.29
Vikas Chib ct P Hemming b O Thorne 32 26 6 1 123.08
Tom Branch Not Out  11 28 1 39.29
Assad Ulhaq b O Thorne 0 14 0

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 2XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Olly Thorne10.333047.502.86
Joshua Reeves7.011800.002.57
Ben Denton-Powell8.0135217.504.38
Oscar Reeves5.02818.001.60
Paul Hemming7.0215115.002.14
Vinit Nair3.011600.005.33
Tommy Mather2.00700.003.50