Match Report: Chalfont St Peter C.C. vs. H.C. Trotters C.C. (40 overs)
Sunday 19th August 2012
Trotters Line Up: Ed Wolfenden (C); Andrew Freshney; Rich Lambert; Kris Macnamara; Stuart McCann; Patrick Mellors; Charlie Radclyffe; Amitabh Sachdeva; Tommy Smith; James Wolfenden; John Wolfenden.
There are few more perfect settings for a game of cricket than Chalfont Park, with its lush, green surroundings, the Gerrards Cross Golf Club next door and its superb pavilion. Throw in some stunning weather once the clouds had passed and this was Sunday cricket at its laidback, enjoyable best.
Fresh from their fine victory against a rather less laidback Prescold side, Trotters were looking to carry on where they left off and after winning the toss, decided to bat first with Tommy and Rich lambert opening. John Wolfenden took up position at the scorer’s desk, assisted by Mellors on scoreboard duties.
It was Chalfont that fared better in the early exchanges taking Lambert for 3 and Tommy for 6. No matter, however, as McCann and skipper, Ted Wolfenden, stepped in to put on an exquisite partnership of 105 - McCann the more aggressive of the two. The partnership was eventually broken with McCann on 51. A very good 50 indeed.
With Ed toiling away towards the 100 mark, he was joined by the ‘hero of Prescold’, Amitabh, but there would be no repeat of the heroics this time as he fell for 6…. The first of 3 successive wickets taken by Devlin. It was ‘duck time’ next with Kris and Charlie unable to add to the score. Macnamara in particular will have been disappointed not to have put on a better show at the club of his newly adopted home town. The middle order collapse was stopped in its tracks as Freshney marched in and clubbed his way to an impressive 41, including a trio of 6’s. Ted eventually went for 82 and Jumbo and John added 23 and 2 respectively, before the 40 over mark was reached with 2 wickets still to spare and impressive total of 238 on the board.
There were a few more noughts on the score sheet than the Trotters would have liked, but the total looked good. Would it be good enough though…
Tea was a disappointing affair, reportedly down to a broken fridge but our hosts did a reasonable job under the circumstances.
A combination of hijinks, clowning around and plain old bad luck had seen a few of the Chalfont team leave the pitch injured during the Trotters’ innings; so veteran (sorry Keith, if you read this!) Keith Neave retrieved his kit from the car and stepped up to perform opening duties alongside Neave Jr. The Father-Son pairing proved to be a formidable one with Jr. in particular, smashing the ball around Chalfont Park for fun.
The Trotters toiled away with the ball, but to no avail. There was some threat from Radclyffe who kept it fairly tight but in his haste to leave early for another engagement, failed to find the killer breakthrough. Ted did manage to take the wicket of Neave Jr., caught agonisingly close to his tonne on 98 and John and Andrew also took one each, but it was not enough. With Chalfont needing just 5 runs from the remaining 3 overs and all his options exhausted, Ted (perhaps suffering from heatstroke by this point) turned to Mellors to try and conjure something. But it was never going to be and the Chalfont passed the 238 mark comfortably.
For a friendly, Sunday 40-over game this was some pretty impressive scoring from both sides and the beers enjoyed afterwards had been well earned. We will no doubt be back at Chalfont Park next year and hoping for an equally enjoyable match…. and a win!
Man of the Match: Ted Wolfenden was the unanimous winner with the majority of the votes. A disciplined knock with the bat and a key wicket taken to give The Trotters some hope just when a breakthrough was needed.
Special Mentions: Andrew Freshney for another fine display with bat and ball.
Tea Score: There were mitigating circumstances, however, this was a poor tea by the standards set elsewhere and the most generous score was 4/10, the average being about 2/10.
Next up: We have Dropmore C.C. on Sunday 9th September and as things stand, this will be our last fixture of 2012.
Keep on Trotting!
There are few more perfect settings for a game of cricket than Chalfont Park, with its lush, green surroundings, the Gerrards Cross Golf Club next door and its superb pavilion. Throw in some stunning weather once the clouds had passed and this was Sunday cricket at its laidback, enjoyable best.
Fresh from their fine victory against a rather less laidback Prescold side, Trotters were looking to carry on where they left off and after winning the toss, decided to bat first with Tommy and Rich lambert opening. John Wolfenden took up position at the scorer’s desk, assisted by Mellors on scoreboard duties.
It was Chalfont that fared better in the early exchanges taking Lambert for 3 and Tommy for 6. No matter, however, as McCann and skipper, Ted Wolfenden, stepped in to put on an exquisite partnership of 105 - McCann the more aggressive of the two. The partnership was eventually broken with McCann on 51. A very good 50 indeed.
With Ed toiling away towards the 100 mark, he was joined by the ‘hero of Prescold’, Amitabh, but there would be no repeat of the heroics this time as he fell for 6…. The first of 3 successive wickets taken by Devlin. It was ‘duck time’ next with Kris and Charlie unable to add to the score. Macnamara in particular will have been disappointed not to have put on a better show at the club of his newly adopted home town. The middle order collapse was stopped in its tracks as Freshney marched in and clubbed his way to an impressive 41, including a trio of 6’s. Ted eventually went for 82 and Jumbo and John added 23 and 2 respectively, before the 40 over mark was reached with 2 wickets still to spare and impressive total of 238 on the board.
There were a few more noughts on the score sheet than the Trotters would have liked, but the total looked good. Would it be good enough though…
Tea was a disappointing affair, reportedly down to a broken fridge but our hosts did a reasonable job under the circumstances.
A combination of hijinks, clowning around and plain old bad luck had seen a few of the Chalfont team leave the pitch injured during the Trotters’ innings; so veteran (sorry Keith, if you read this!) Keith Neave retrieved his kit from the car and stepped up to perform opening duties alongside Neave Jr. The Father-Son pairing proved to be a formidable one with Jr. in particular, smashing the ball around Chalfont Park for fun.
The Trotters toiled away with the ball, but to no avail. There was some threat from Radclyffe who kept it fairly tight but in his haste to leave early for another engagement, failed to find the killer breakthrough. Ted did manage to take the wicket of Neave Jr., caught agonisingly close to his tonne on 98 and John and Andrew also took one each, but it was not enough. With Chalfont needing just 5 runs from the remaining 3 overs and all his options exhausted, Ted (perhaps suffering from heatstroke by this point) turned to Mellors to try and conjure something. But it was never going to be and the Chalfont passed the 238 mark comfortably.
For a friendly, Sunday 40-over game this was some pretty impressive scoring from both sides and the beers enjoyed afterwards had been well earned. We will no doubt be back at Chalfont Park next year and hoping for an equally enjoyable match…. and a win!
Man of the Match: Ted Wolfenden was the unanimous winner with the majority of the votes. A disciplined knock with the bat and a key wicket taken to give The Trotters some hope just when a breakthrough was needed.
Special Mentions: Andrew Freshney for another fine display with bat and ball.
Tea Score: There were mitigating circumstances, however, this was a poor tea by the standards set elsewhere and the most generous score was 4/10, the average being about 2/10.
Next up: We have Dropmore C.C. on Sunday 9th September and as things stand, this will be our last fixture of 2012.
Keep on Trotting!
