Printer-friendly pageFriday, October 19, 2007
The club’s 27th year saw us complete our 300th game and saw us use 4 new players, bringing the total number of players who have represented the club up to 157, two of whom, Mark Barber and Rob Young, will hopefully continue to play for us. In total 28 players (and 1 Umpire) were used, 17 of whom bowled, 15 of those took wickets and 18 players took catches or stumpings.
Our full record was: - Played 13, Won 2, Tied 1 and Lost 10 with 5 games cancelled due to rain – the worst year on record for weather in what was a very disjointed season. Three of our first six games were called off and it had a knock-on effect to our performances with the side chopping and changing with a lack of continuity. In fact we improved as the season progressed and the weather improving, losing only twice after July out of a possible 7 fixtures (OK 2 of those were abandoned). For the first time 2 tours were completed, the usual Somerset experience and a trip to Edinburgh in September which was a great success but rather cold and if repeated perhaps we’ll go earlier in the year.
Our first victory (and Pete Berkeley’s first success as Skipper) was against Old Haberdashers, our first victory against them, and the following week we followed it up by defeating our regular opponents, 'Gents of West London'. Of the 10 defeats, 5 were heavy – Gents, Coldharbour, Norton St Philip, West XI and Ex Blues – all away. The other 5 were close, and some frustratingly so like Cincinnatti, Derby and muddy Witham Friary – a turnaround in these games would have given the season a different complexion.
Dave Thomas won the Player of the Year vote after some surprisingly good knocks with the bat (it certainly wasn’t for his bowling) which he put down to all the practicing in the back garden with his son. Trevor Mayhew was top of the batting averages again and hit the clubs top score with his 58 against Norton St Philip. Unfortunately his appearances were limited to just 4 games and along with Steve Cotton being unavailable all year and Kumar Yogeswaran only playing 5 games we lacked strength in the opening partnerships for many games. What this has done though is give opportunities to others up the order, particularly John Griffiths and Martin Dewhirst, and I feel this helped develop a good all round depth to our batting with 9 regular players getting double figure batting averages. 3 all-time batting landmarks were achieved this year – the best being the all-time record partnership for the 6th wicket by the Skipper and Pete Berkeley who put on 93 undefeated runs in the victory over the Gents.
Pete Berkeley, once again, was top wicket taker (it would have taken a monumental effort for him to get Player of the Year for a third year in a row) with 12 although a special mention should be made to John Quinn whose 8 wickets in 26 overs put him top of the averages at 15.25. Pete also took most catches with 5 and again special mention should be made to Garry Burrrell who filled in excellently behind the stumps with 2 stumpings when our excellent No 1 Damian Chalmers was unavailable.
The Duck Trophy would have gone down to the last game with 3 contenders - Arran Frood and Pete Berkeley with 3 and last years winner Garry Burrell with 4. The abandonment, due to rain, of the last game in Scotland meant that Garry retained his trophy and now overtakes Neil Hotston in the all-time duck stakes with 5 Duck Trophies to his name - he must be proud! Although he will argue (yes still !!) that his duck in Somerset was controversial – his record of a Hilda with the first 3 games of this season, a Deirdre (or is it a Mavis ?) if you also include the final game of last season and his overall record of 6 ducks in 8 games covering both seasons is outstanding – and surely never to be matched.
Some noteable milestones achieved were achieved in 2007: - Pete Berkeley played his 200th game, Neil Hotston his 150th. Paul Wathan scored his 1,500th run and Garry Burrell his 500th. Gavin Van Marle (the Scarecrow) and Little Johnny Loomes had career best knocks of 47 and 40 respectively, both not out. John Quinn took his 50th club wicket and Little John and Arran Frood achieved their best club bowling figures of 3 – 20 and 3 – 30 respectively. Perhaps the best landmark was achieved by Gary Speedtwin who took his 100th career dismissal – 52 catches and 48 stumpings – an excellent effort and I think this will be very hard to be equalled.
So all in all, a very disjointed season, which saw us get off to a very slow start and just when we got onto a roll the season ends. Let’s hope for a drier summer next year when we can build upon this Summer's late success .
DT
