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K Rondeau, N Munir, M Weir, G Morris, J Hemming, N Rughani, T Hemming, S Baxter, J Shirley, T Westwood, V Parmar

1.00pm start for the rest of our fixtures in August. Meet at SMCC 12.15.

Poor form. Fear of fast bowlers. Family commitments prevent me from playing in this one, but I’ll be there later on hoping to see us take revenge for the defeat at Fillongley.

We were pretty close to getting an outright win over Stockton at their ground on Saturday. If I’d hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end off the last ball of the 49th over we would have had a run out and 24 points. Nevertheless, another excellent performance against good opposition.

Keith Rondeau finally got the half-century he deserved at the top of the order, Nasir Munir looked good on debut until he missed a straight one, and Guy Morris made a solid 30, whilst Jack Hemming’s unbeaten 80 supported by Neal Rughani’s 37 provided the partnership that took us from a decent score to a matchwinning one - aided by some indifferent fielding, it has to be said.

In the field we were pretty good but not perfect, with a few misfields and a couple of (difficult) missed chances. Tom Hemming’s pick up to run out opener Hughes was an outstanding moment. The bowling was good and there were very few wides. Viz Parmar ran uphill and into the wind, adding another wicket to his season’s tally - and then three excellent catches. Good spells from Simon Baxter, Jim Shirley and Tim Westwood saw them all take wickets, and often just as batsmen looked like they might settle. Keith Rondeau picked up a couple to secure the man of the match award, the umpires giving a special mention to Jack - who had a tough time behind the stumps on a track that looked very good but offered indifferent bounce.

In terms of the league table, we move level with Stockton in 6th place - but within reach of 4th and 5th (we are also mounting a formal appeal regarding our penalty points). Next week’s visitors are Fillongley who narrowly beat us on their own patch - one of the games this season we should have won. They lost to Bablake yesterday (as everyone has), whilst the following week’s opponents - Wishaw - thrashed Walsall YMF. Possibly the only surprise of the day was Southam beating Camp Hill, which gives them a cushion over relegation-threatened Bournville, and keeps Camp Hill only four points ahead of us in 5th.

Another win for the 2nd XI (by the small margin of 159 runs) sees them open up a 37 point lead in their division - and they travel to their nearest rivals next week and so can improve upon this.

It looks likely that the Sunday fixtures have been rained out as the weather reminds us there’s really not long to go until the end of another campaign. Make the most of it, everyone.

[UPDATED: So I got the Jack/Ronnie story about the Man of the Match the wrong way round. Oops.]

All of the bails have gone missing, as far as we know they are not particularly valuable for any other purpose than being on top of cricket stumps, however someone appears to have a particular fancy for them. We had to “borrow” some from the opposition for today’s U17 game. There safe return would be appreciated, although the budget for the reward will need to be spent on a replacement set, so gratitude will have to suffice. 

Meet 11:45 @ SMCC.

W Hemming, K Rondeau, G Morris, J Hemming, N Munir, N Rughani, T Hemming, S Baxter, J Shirley, T Westwood, V Parmar

Our first of two consecutive away fixtures saw a 153 run victory against Hampton who finished on 62-8 with one batsmen retired hurt, and the other having driven him to hospital. Clearly they are struggling for players which is a great shame given the superb facility they have available to them at their Solihull ground.

Whilst the top of our order struggled, we were treated to a fine stand between Guy Morris (now a 1st XI veteran at 26) and new boy Kamil Munir (16, playing his second 1st XI game). Kam’s nerveless 50 included a couple of big sixes - as ex-Warwickshire spinner Harold Turner saw the ball bounce off his groundsman’s shed. Guy batted as steadily as ever, and only fell as he tried to push the score on - something that Jim Shirley did spectacularly well with his 29* at the end comprising some great boundaries.

We wrapped up the Hampton batting in just over 23 overs - Jim Shirley found pace and bounce and would no doubt fancy bowling on that track regularly. Good catching in the slips and from Jack behind the wicket - our only miss was from Kam, who unfortunately fractured his thumb doing so.

Next week we travel some distance to Stockton as we start a crucial period in terms of looking to climb the table. Kamil’s brother, Nasir, is in contention for selection after hitting 62 and taking 3 wickets as the Sunday 1st XI beat Warwick.

 Can’t post to main site so… 

The Saturday 2nd XI travelled to Coventry on Saturday to meet unbeaten Bablake. Looking to bounce back after last weeks’ defeat, Steve Mullard won the toss and elected to insert the third placed side on a cool afternoon. SMCC gave a 2nd team debut to Nazir Munir.

From the early overs it was clear that the wicket was very slow and patience was going to be important. After 20 overs, both sides would have been relatively happy with the score of 57-0. The next ten overs saw both Bablake openers bowled, a wicket apeice to Jim Rasin and Nazir. The SMCC cover “swans” then got in the act with Pete Westwood and Craig Hands taking good catches off Steve Mullard and Nazir respectively. With 12 overs remaining Bablake were 134-3, and would have been hopefully of getting 220, but Steve Mullard had other ideas and picked up 5-26. With good support from Pete Westwood, our hosts were restricted to 180-9 off their 50 overs. All of the bowlers performed with credit, whilst the fiedling was also much improved.

In reply, Ansel Pottinger and Jim Rasin made our customary excellent start, putting on 86 before both fell within 4 balls. Tahla and Nazir rebuilt, before another flurry of wickets reduced us to 128-5. Pete Westwood was forced to retire hurt, after a rebound struck him in the eye, but Steve Mullard looked in excellent touch. Unfortunately a shocking piece of cricket saw him run out and Nazir followed soon after, leaving us on 146-7, 35 needed with 19 overs remaining.

Pete returned and with Matt Read took SMCC to within 7 with some stout defence and occasional boundaries. When Pete fell there were still 6 overs remaining. Adrian Maguire was run out, leaving no.11 Craig Hands to attempt the last 3 runs from the 12 balls that remained. A maiden was played out and then Matt Read took a single from the first ball of the last over. 2 needed off 5 balls; a dot followed, then another; ball 4 and a huge shout for caught behind (although mainly from the outfielders) - not out the ball hitting Criag on pad and box. Ball 5 and still 2 required but Pikey squeezed/guided/edged the ball to third man to scamper the winning runs and open up a crucial gap in the table between us and our opponents. A tense afternoon therefore ended in victory, both sides played hard cricket with little quarter given. Matt Read fininshed unbeaten on 10, surely one of his most important innings.

Sunday morning brought further good news as second placed Fillongley were surprisingly beaten by North Warwicks; SMCC are now 22 points clear and with games against the bottom 2 in the next fortnight will be looking to extend that gap before the visit to Fillongley on August 19th.

Meet at SMCC 12:15pm.

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

Anybody looking at league leaders Bablake’s record this season, and comparing it with ours, wouldn’t have been surprised that they beat us on Saturday. After being 55-0 from 11 overs having won the toss and batted, we should have given them more of a game than we did. 156-9 was unlikely to be enough runs, and even when they were 86-4, their no 6 saw them home with skipper Cowley without looking threatened.

Keith Rondeau (36) and Martin Weir (37) both batted very well but will have been disappointed not to get much bigger scores. With the exception of Viz and Jim Shirley who batted out the last 10 overs to get our two batting points, nobody else really got started. The visitors’ bowling and fielding was very good, but we need to bat well for 50 overs, not just the first 10. In contrast, they cruised to the target in 29 overs, despite us getting their top three runscorers this season out cheaply.

Some excellent banter after the game with the Bablake captain being forced to wear a one-piece rowing suit for his crimes, and good discussion about the sanity of fast bowlers, Tim Westwood’s in particular.

With July over, time to forget the last two games and start again on Saturday, as we travel to bottom of the league Hampton. This is followed by games against Stockton, Fillongley, Wishaw, Camp Hill, Streetly, Ansley, Bournville. Our record during this period in the first half of the season was 2 wins, 4 winning draws and 2 losses. We must aim to at least repeat this, or preferably, improve.

… 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