Printer-friendly page
Dave Nanton had a tidy 2-20 bowling spell, with Speedtwin and Trevor Mayhew on form with runs
Monday, June 26, 2006
London Saints 223 – 14 ( Mayhew 41 , Pearce 34 , Burrell 24 )
West XI 224 – 12 ( Berkeley 3 -11 , Nanton 2 – 20 )
Match report by Dave Thomas
Read West XI's version of the match
This year’s three-team round robin Nelson Cup tournament was reduced to a 2 team head to head affair when Walthamstow Horizontals withdrew during the week suffering from shellshock following last weeks stuffing at the hands of London Saints.
This caused much consternation in the ranks of both teams as to what format of game could be dreamed up in which The Lord Nelson Cup could be contested between 2 teams whilst still keeping to the spirit of the competition and satisfying the ideals of the founders some 15 years ago (hence text messages to Steve Bignell from West XI who was at Durham watching England getting stuffed by Sri Lanka) and more importantly the landlady of The Lord Nelson whose cup it actually is. Some of the finest cricket brains in the land pondered for many a minute drawing up a format (the experiences of compiling ‘The Art of Captaincy Volume 2‘ came to the fore) which following a few revisions (still not sure we fully understood what was going on at all at times) came down in effect to a 40 over per side game played over 2 innings with restrictions on batsmen and bowlers too numerous and complicated to mention here. The match also became a 12 a side game as West XI had 13 players and lent us Martin Drake (hope I’ve got Martin’s surname correct) who despite not playing for 6 years turned it to be the only outfield player on our side who could catch (more later).
West XI won the toss and inserted The Saints obviously wanting to avoid giving the new ball to Little John having heard on the worldwide web about his searing pace of the previous weekend. The Saints opened with Trevor Mayhew (who appeared relaxed having been let out for the weekend) and Andy Jones (who appeared troubled after his wife, a few hours earlier, had been questioning how much time he had left on this earth)! Nevertheless Andy battled through the early overs looking outwardly fairly steady but inwardly mulling over the contents of his life insurance and whether he could afford the services of a food taster! Once a troubled Andy was out, Trevor, Pete and Neil at 6 runs per over with some particularly punishing shots from Trev. He looked dead set for a 50 (and retirement) when he was caught in the deep going for a 6. We lost momentum for a while before Paul Pearce (and his new bat) produced some good strikes and Garry Burrell (picking up where he left off in Sri Lanka) maximised the benefits of running quickly between the wickets. I’m not sure Paul would agree on this latter point as he almost did ‘a Beckham‘, but just stopped short from delivering the contents of his breakfast on a good length after another of Garry’s quick calls! A score of 112 -7 off our 1st Innings 20 overs was a good effort.
West XI set off in reply at a rapid rate of 7 an over until 2 wickets each from Peter Berkeley and the Skipper pegged them back. Our out-cricket fielding was particularly good at this stage (probably as no balls were hit in the air for us to drop) and Paul Pearce seized the moment to ram some doubting comments by the Skipper down his throat to claim his first 2 wickets of the season – the first one a stumping by Gary Speedtwin (Gary’s 98th dismissal of his career) almost appeared to be in slow motion as the ball only just reached the stumps but the batsman was so far down the pitch that he was still out by some 3 yards. The ‘Westies’ regained the momentum towards the end of their innings when their excellent batsman and Skipper Chris Wright stepped up the pace. We dropped Chris 3 times though in this time which ultimately proved to be decisive. They were temporarily halted in their tracks though by a catch from our stand-in Martin which rivalled Lui’s in the previous match as the best seen for many a year as he took the ball over his head running backwards. West X1 ended up on 114–7, only 2 runs ahead at the tea interval.
The rules of the competition meant that the batsmen who were not out at the end of the first innings opened the batting in the 2nd innings with anyone who hadn’t batted in the 1st innings, next in, to be followed by the batsmen who had batted in the 1st innings batting again – but not necessarily in the same order – follow that – a system so complicated that it must only be a matter of time before the ICC adopt it! Although notionally our ‘lesser‘ batsmen occupied the first 5 positions – what they lacked in finesse they made up for in their running between the wickets and we maintained a rate of 5 an over for the first 7 overs. We then got a bit bogged down but thanks to some classical leg side pulls from Gary Speedtwin we picked up the pace and then when some of the batsmen who had batted in the 1st innings eventually batted again we scored 61 off the last 8 overs to score 111–8; almost exactly the same as the 1st innings which just goes to prove what a team of all-rounders we have – and no ducks today in 18 innings which must be a club record.
As Chris was not out at the end of their 1st innings he was able to continue in the 2nd innings and those dropped catches in the 1st innings came back to haunt us as he scored 50 not out, when he retired. He was dropped again twice as the long hot day began to take its toll. Our ground fielding became a bit ragged which included the Skipper attempting to reproduce his ‘David Platt‘ run-out of the previous week but this week it cost us 2 runs as his shot missed the ‘woodwork‘ by a couple of yards. Dave Nanton in his first game since last years Nelson Cup bowled well as did Pete Berkeley who again put a break on the scoring just when they looked to be coasting. Their Skipper’s retirement meant that we came back into it, and another spectacular catch by Martin (again the recipient bowler being Garry Burrell) but we couldn’t contain them as they hit the winning runs with 4 overs to spare.
Overall though a great day in brilliant sunshine – hopefully the revised format worked with almost 450 runs scored and 28 wickets falling. The evening was rounded off by a good night in the ‘sponsors lounge’ watching the Argies narrowly defeat Mexico.
Man of the Match A number of candidates with Paul Pearce, Trevor Mayhew, Pete Berkeley and Garry Burrell to the fore although Paul’s overall game just takes it although he would have far better demonstrated his commitment to the team (as Beckham did) by showing us what he’d had for breakfast rather than keeping it in.
Champagne Moment White Viv’s dilemma, some comical fielding and Paul’s displeasure at Psycho’s calling are a few to mention. As was the Skipper shouting at Gavin, about 80 yards away, to come in 20 yards – as “there’s no way the batsman would reach him for a catch that far out“ – only to see the batsman, next ball, hit the ball to the exact spot that Gavin had just left – that’s the last time Gavin listen to the Skipper’s instructions – he is new to the team though and will soon learn to do what everyone else does and ignore him. The winner though is Neil’s missed catch in the deep - for about 5 seconds Neil looked supremely confident, poised to easily snaffle a skier, hands ready in the correct position to take the catch – only for him to miss the ball by 15 yards as the ball sailed over his head and bounce over the boundary – that summed up our catching on the day, but you had to laugh!
London Saints 1st Innings
Mayhew ct 30
Jones ct 7
Berkeley b 9
Hotston ct 12
Nanton ct 1
Burrell 8 no
Drake b 5
Pearce run out 20
Van Marle 1 no
Total 98
Extras 19
Overall 112 - 7 - 20 overs
West XI 1st Innings
Bapu b Berkeley 17
Bhatt ct Speedtwin b Berkeley 28
Barling b Thomas 0
Norcott st Speedtwin b Pearce 4
Zachlod ct Speedtwin b Thomas 1
Langstone not out 32
Vyas ct Drake b Burrell 1
Bender b Pearce 1
Wright not out 19
Total 102
Extras 11
Overall 114 - 7 - 20 overs
London Saints 2nd Innings
Van Marle b 4
Burrell b 16
Thomas ct 6
Loomes st 7
Speedtwin ct 12
Mayhew lbw 12
Hotston st 9
Nanton not out 10
Pearce ct 14
Total 89
Extras 22
Overall 111 - 8 - 20 overs
West XI 2nd Innings
Wright retired 50
Langstone hit wkt b Loomes 0
R Allerton b Nanton 8
K Allerton b Nanton 1
Laing ct Drake b Burrell 7
Bapu b Berkeley 1
Bhatt not out 31
Barling not out 6
Total 104
Extras 8
Overall 112 - 5 - 15.4 overs
West XI win by 5 wkts
L.Saints Bowling 1st Innings
Loomes 3 - 0 - 20 - 0
Van Marle 2 - 0 16 - 0
Berkeley 4 - 0 - 5 - 2
Thomas 4 - 0 - 19 - 2
Pearce 4 - 0 - 32 - 2
Burrell 3 - 0 - 20 - 1
2nd Innings
Loomes 3 - 0 - 21 - 1
Nanton 4 - 0 - 20 - 2
Van Marle 2 - 0 - 21 - 0
Berkeley 2 - 0 - 6 - 1
Thomas 2 - 0 - 12 - 0
Pearce 1.4 - 0 - 20 - 0
Burell 1 - 0 - 12 - 1
Catches
Speedtwin 2
Drake 2
Stumping
Speedtwin 1
