Sheldon Marlborough CC Blog

Latest news from Foliot Fields

… that’s obvious, you might say. After reading this, I was particularly glad.

(Thanks to Tom for the tip)

Meet 12.45 at SMCC for 1.30 start.

W Hemming, K Rondeau, M Weir, J Hemming, G Morris, N Rughani, T Hemming, R Singh, J Shirley, T Westwood, V Parmar

Visiting Bentley Leisure Centre to play cricket is not an experience I’d recommend. In fact, I’m not sure any players from either team would really recommend it. Walsall YMF beat us by 6 wickets but several of their players looked like they were struggling after taking blows to the hands. Our main casualty was Jack, as you can see from the picture below! Missing his hook shot was out of character (and painful).

Jack - a few butterfly stitches and some swelling. Nice.

Whilst Walsall were the better team, we should have done better after scoring 60 from the first 8 overs - thanks largely to some poor bowling. Two indifferent shots, a good ball and a blow to the head and we had four batsmen out of the game. Neither of our opening batsmen have gone on to big scores so far this year, and it’s something we need to change in the second half of the season.    Simon Baxter batted very well for his 29, and our lower-middle order grafted hard as the pitch got more difficult to bat on thanks to rain and poor light. 145 all out wasn’t an awful score but was going to be hard to defend. We needed to take any chances which came our way.

It didn’t quite work out that way. We missed a couple of catches and some good batting from Waheed at the top of the order (who took some painful blows) saw Walsall home. After prolonged rain the pitch was pretty terrible, and we were lucky there were no more serious injuries - it did look as though there were some pretty bruised hands/fingers at the end of the YMF innings.

Quite why the fixture was allowed to go ahead at a ground which met almost none of the league standards is beyond me. “Rules are rules” we were told when penalty points were deducted for a slow over rate.

With lots of other games abandoned, the league table is more or less unchanged. Bablake visit us on Saturday so it’s our turn to have a shot at their unbeaten record.

SMCC celebrated 100 years of cricket yesterday with a game against the M.C.C.C representative side. In glorious sunshine a fine crowd witnessed a good game of cricket, that saw the result only decided in the last over of the game as Sheldon lost out by just over 10 runs.

The finer details of the game I cannot recount here as I do not have the scorecard to hand (I’m sure it will appear on the Main Site in due course), however upon winning the toss the MCCC boys took the option of batting first, and as expected got off to a good start. At one stage it looked like they might get 350+ but SMCC picked up wickets at key times and restricted the visitors to 244 of their 45 overs.

In reply, SMCC reached 230 (I think, it might have been 228) all out in the 45th over. Martin Weir and Guy Morris notched up fine half centuries and Jack Hemming and Neal Rughani chipped in too, but we too lost wickets at crucial times and just left ourselves with too much to do.

The result then was not in our favour, but that didn’t matter too much and certainly was forgotten when eyes fell upon the veritable feast of a cricket tea put on after the game. If the crowd had enjoyed the cricket it was nothing compared to the enjoyment of the food, which was first class. The club was rammed till about 11.30 last night and was possibly the busiest I have ever seen the place on a Thursday night.

All in all then a fantastic day for the club - what an achievement eh? - thanks to all of those who made it possible, you all know who you are, and to those who came and put their money behind the bar and cheered on the cricket - good on ya.

(PENDING SELECTION COMMITTEE MEETING)

Likely XI:

W Hemming, K Rondeau, M Weir, J Hemming, N Rughani, T Hemming, R Singh, S Baxter, J Shirley, T Westwood, V Parmar

Meet SMCC @ 12.00. We are travelling to an ‘unknown’ ground so allowing plenty of time for navigational issues.

17 points from a winning draw over Southam was a decent result to start the second half of the season. Given that we were 35-3 after choosing to bat on a hot day, it was a great fightback. Two great partnerships put us on top. Ronnie (30) and Jack (45) added 66 in 11 overs to take us past 100 and take the initiative away from the visitors. Jack was moving into top gear when he got an atrocious umpiring decision - clearly the men in white coats are not our friends! When Ronnie followed almost immediately after we were struggling again at 103-5 with two new batsmen. The stand that followed was probably our best batting of the season. Neal Rughani (85*) and Tom Hemming (66) pushed the ball around and ran brilliantly, combining this with some lusty blows. The stand was worth well over 100 and only ended after a run-out going for an all run four. Tom’s maiden Saturday 1st XI 50 came at a crucial time. Rick and Neal combined well to push us up to 294-7 from our 50.

We put ourselves under pressure by bowling too many extras early-on. Tim Westwood took our first two wickets but bowled many more than 36 balls in his 6 over spell. From then on we were always behind the clock which influenced bowling changes more than the game situation. Viz Parmar picked up three wickets and it was clear by the 30th over that Southam weren’t really interested in chasing the target as they batted out the overs picking up full batting points.

Next week we have a tough fixture away at Walsall YMF (at Bentley Leisure Centre!) as we play the top five teams in the division in the next 6 weeks. This will be a crucial spell in determining whether we can push for the top places. All of the division results went according to league position, so we need to start upsetting this trend in order to move upwards!

In other news, congratulations to Kamil Munir for another Saturday 2nd XI 100, whilst Jim Rasin chalked up another ton as well. Today (Sunday), Rob Jordan hit 97 not out as the 1st XI missed out by 10 runs against Birmingham Civil Service, another Sunday side with an interesting attitude to umpiring.

W Hemming, K Rondeau, M Weir, G Morris, J Hemming, N Rughani, R Singh, T Hemming, J Shirley, T Westwood, V Parmar

 Meet at SMCC 12:45

The first half of the 2006 league season is over, and we finished it in some style by beating Bournville convincingly. A top effort in the field followed by a solid batting effort to win by 7 wickets. Bournville do not look as strong as previous seasons and are clearly missing the bowling of skipper Green, struggling with a knee injury. Plenty of time for them to pull it back though.

Whilst we started well with two early wickets, Bournville were 55-2 from 11 overs and hitting the ball well. Excellent fielding (after Neal Rughani had already effected one run out) and tight bowling brought us back into the game - Jim Shirley bowled an excellent spell, and 4 wickets for Viz Parmar means he finishes the first half as leading wicket taker. Ronnie mopped up the tail, and whilst Simon Baxter only bowled a few overs - having him and Martin Weir in reserve shows the depth of bowling we have built up.

The batting response was not pretty at the very top of the order. I’m not sure I have ever been dropped on the point boundary, let alone off the second ball of the innings - and definitely never been dropped twice in the first 3 balls! However, all five of us who batted got to double figures - with Jack (32*) and Guy (15*) seeing us home by 7 wickets. Jack hit one of the bigger sixes of the season (onto the roof of the flats) and picked up the Man of the Match award for his batting, fine catch, and run out.

Our league record shows we have won two (Streetly, Bournville), lost two (Fillongley, Ansley), drawn four - of which one was a losing draw (YMF) and three winning draws (Stockton, Wishaw, Camp Hill OE), and finally three abandoned (Southam, Hampton, Bablake). In all fixtures played we had a chance of winning - and both losses could/should have been converted into wins.

Southam visit us next week to kick off the second half, and with 48 points covering places 2-10, it’s very difficult to predict who will finish where on 16th September.

On Thursday 20th July SMCC host the Midlands Club Cricket Conference (MCCC) XI to celebrate 100 years of cricket at Foliot Fields. The game will start at 2pm.

Players who are available for this match should let their captains know this weekend so that the selection committee can discuss who will represent SMCC.

Other games which form the week include an evening game against “SMCC Old Boys” on Wednesday 19th, a social game on Friday 21st, and a Junior Day on Monday 24th. If you can make it down during these events, we would be very happy to see you.

Still one result outstanding for the weekend, which was the Sunday 1st XI losing to Weoley Hill off the last ball of the game. From the reports I’ve heard, it was a fractious affair, and the home side’s umpiring left a lot to be desired. The SMCC scorer was particularly unimpressed - here’s hoping we can get a full report when he is back from holidays.