Somerset Cricket Tour 2013 Report

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Peter Berkeley

Last weekend saw LSCC’s brave and true warriors head to the West Country for the annual cricket trip to Frome – our last tour before T&T, makes you think doesn’t it?

First things first! As has become the norm, Friday saw some of us head to Frome Golf Club. The event took on an extra edge as this was to be the 2013 London Saints Open (or Masters, I can’t remember) and with 12 players due to take part, a proper golf competition was promised.

But not to be! Excuses galore reached the clubhouse with work commitments and marriage plans apparently more important (pah!).

So, a mere 7 took part making it the easiest LSSC golf trophy in history to win. The hot dry conditions favoured those players who normally fail to send the ball more than 100 yards (with their driver) whilst the braver, longer competitors continually ran out of yardage.

So all in all, an unsatisfactory event which saw Sheena Quinn finally relinquish her title.

And so Reggie’s long wait for a title is over and if smug levels were recordable, another trophy would have been claimed! Stableford scores were as follows-

Reggie Betts 35
Terry Manning 33 (longest drive winner)
John Quinn 29
Sheena Quinn 28 (nearest the pin, we think)
Pete Berkeley 26
Trigger 21
Andy Hill 18

Incidentally, Sheena & Reg played on Saturday’s – scores were Reg 23, Sheena 35!

Saturday 13th July

Lads and Dads (part 1) – Witham Friary – 35 overs

London Saints 179 – 10 off 35 overs (Extras 54, Griffiths 44, Mayhew 27)
Witham Friary 184 – 5 off 31.4 overs (Nanton 2 – 18)

Without doubt the most anticipated fixture of the season for London Saints Porky Boys but we had to sing for our supper and with Skipper DT winning the toss (so he said) it was batting in the sweltering heat for us – a complete contrast to last year which saw both tour fixtures fall foul to the rain.

DT had managed to negotiate a 13 per side match and persuade the opposition to go for a 35 over game rather than 40 which may well have meant a trip to A&E.

John Griffiths’ participation had been in some doubt. Doctor Lulu had ordered him not to play due to a poorly thumb but being the man’s man that he is he took to the field – complete with Adam Ant style protective glove! JG, Andy Mayhew and Mr Extras set London Saints off to a solid start until Andy decided enough was enough and succumbed to an occasional pulled something.

Damo’s quick fire 16 in his 50th appearance included running out Johnny G, who’s 44 saw him past the 1500 total run mark.

In a weekend that saw the test match dominated by the Stewart Broad controversy, Steve Grant saw fit to follow suit. However, it wasn’t long until he did walk amid the start of a legendary LSCC collapse.

Pearcey was one of several players only allowed to play in the one fixture hence batting up the order. His clean bowled golden duck started a hotting up in the ‘Duck Trophy’ stakes over the weekend with Speedtwin, Quinn and Lord Lucan (golden) on the way to a total of 179 with the team all out on the final ball.

Any tea would have been welcome offering a chance to get out of the sweltering conditions but the Witham spread was as sumptuous as ever – sandwiches, quiches, home-made cakes and strawberry meringues meant the normally lithe LSCC fielding team looked a little immobile!

After seeing off the Witham openers cheaply, our hosts dug in and set themselves on their way to a solid display with Hyde the backbone of the innings. So with around 4 overs to go, it was Steve Keenan that made the mistake of taking a wicket and bringing McComas Junior to the crease; a player that we first came across some 8 years ago as a diminutive 11 year old.

In that time the lad has grown a bit to some 6 feet 8 and a few swishes of his 3lb bat, mainly at the expense of Hilda’s bowling, the game was over.

And so to the delightful Seymour Arms and yet more food…

Champagne moment: A ‘London Saint’ as experienced as Steve Keenan should recognise a collapse when he sees one and should prepare accordingly. However, he kept the fielding team waiting for an extraordinary amount of time while he ponced around sorting pads, gloves, etc and sauntered to the crease, took guard, and was back on his way in a nanosecond with his middle stump uprooted.

Man of the Match: Win or lose, if LSCC score over 150 then it’s usually a batsman that bags MOM; so well done to top scorer Mr Extras – or perhaps JG!

London Saints

Griffiths run out 44
Mayhew retired hurt (diddums) 27
Chalmers ct bld Woolf 16
Grant ct bld Cullen 11
Wathan bld Cullen 6
Pearce ct bld Cullen 0 (golden duck)
Nanton bld Wood 4
McIntyre st bld Roddick 10
Speedtwin lbw Wood 0
Quinn ct bld Wood 0
Berkeley st bld McComas 6
Keenan bls McComas 0 (golden duck)
Thomas not out 1

Sub Total 125
Extras 54

Total 179 – 10

Witham Friary

Reid ct Speedtwin bld Nanton 6
Healy ct Thonas bld Berkeley 0
Wood lbw Thomas 31
McComas bld Nanton 6
Hyde bld Keenan 54
Roddick not out 26
McComas not out 36

Sub Total 159
Extras 25

Total 184 – 5

Keenan 5 – 1 – 20 – 1
Berkeley 6.4 – 0 – 46 – 1
Nanton 4 – 0 – 18 – 0
Quinn 3 – 0 – 12 – 0
Pearce 5 – 0 – 27 – 0
Thomas 3 – 0 – 13 – 1
McIntyre 3 – 0 – 31 – 0
Wathan 2 – 0 – 10 – 0

Sunday 14th July

Lads and Dads (part 2) – Norton St Phillip Junior School– 30 overs

London Saints 122 all out off 29.4 overs ( Extras 41, Wathan 26, McIntyre 15)
Norton St Philip 123 – 2 off 23.1 overs (Grant 1 – 8, Nanton 1 – 27)

DT didn’t have such a surplus of players at his disposal for the Norton fixture, so Mick Stanley responded to his appeal and hopped on the train from Bath as a 12 a side match, 30 over match had been agreed with an 11am start allowing us to head home in good time.

Norton have undergone a few changes over the past couple of years with a greater emphasis on their youth teams and so a large part of their team was made up of youngsters and some extremely talented teenagers – each year they get better and we, well, don’t!

In a reshuffled line-up, Quinn and Grant opened up with the former taking merciless stick for a negative stance against tight, quick bowling. But it was Grant who was the first to go, clean bowled by a good full length ball.

Damian Chalmers stayed around stubbornly and was the latest to contribute to not-walk-gate! The early overs had seen extremely slow scoring and with wickets falling regularly it was becoming clear that we were not going to post a competitive score. The Wath was the pick of the batsmen with some lusty blows (welcome) backed up by regular singles (not welcome by him) making up his 26. Norton introduced one of the younger of their line-up, 11 year old Finch, to the attack and predictably enough he soon took wickets with Hilda, Terry and Flatliner (with a little help from the trigger-fingered umpire) all sent on their way.

Inevitably there were further contributions to the Duck Trophy, from debutant Terry Trevis and the aforementioned Sister, whose golden duck closed the innings.

A quick turnaround saw the Butchers open up but there scoring also got off to a slow start with tight bowling from Lucan and Hilda.

The third over saw Stanleyman first and only fielding action result in a dislocated finger so off to Bath A&E he went, his contribution was somewhat minimal but he did successfully field the ball more than Steve Keenan!

But before long they soon started finding the short boundaries (that appeared further when we were batting) and with some of our fielders not wanting to get hurt by that nasty hard cricket ball, the task was not made any easier.

A late flurry of wickets, that included a spectacular catch by Mike McIntyre, did not prevent Norton’s comfortable victory and bought a thoroughly enjoyable tour (apart from the golf) to an end!

Champagne moment: Bit harsh issuing the award for an injury and we all have those games when we feel as though we have failed to contribute to a match but Sister Stanley must have broken some sort of record in this respect.

Man of the Match: Mr Extras top scored again so a tricky one but Wath’s innings narrowly edged out Mike McIntyre’s contribution.

London Saints

Quinn bld Cady 6
Grant bld B.Butcher 8
Chalmers bld S.Butcher 13
Mayhew bld Cady 1
Keenan ct bld Cady 1
Wathan run out 26
Berkeley ct bld 11 year old Finch 3
Trevis st bld 11 yr old Finch
Nanton lbw Mayhew 11 yr old Finch 4
McIntyre ct + bld Neal 15
Thomas not out 4
Stanley b Neal 0 – golden

Sub Total 81
Extras 41

Total 122 all out

Norton St Philip

S.Butcher ct Chalmers bld Nanton 42
B.Butcher not out 53
Nicholds ct McIntyre bld Grant 22
Caddywood not out 1

Sub Total 118
Extras 5

Total 123

Keenan 5 – 0 – 15 – 0
Berkeley 4 – 1 – 7 – 0
Quinn 4 – 0 – 32 – 0
Nanton 5 – 0 – 27 – 1
Thomas 3 – 0 – 22 – 0
Grant 1.1 – 0 – 8 – 1
McIntyre 1 – 0 – 11 – 0

2013 Duck Trophy

The event is hotting up (golden in brackets)

Pearce 2 (2)
Keenan 2 (1)
A.Mayhew 2
McIntyre 2
Speedtwin 2
Quinn 2
Burrell 2
Thomas 1 (1)
Stanley 1 (1)
Nanton 1
Grant 1
Price 1
Hotston 1
Trevis 1