LSCC v Witham Friary CC, 19th July 2025
The night before
View from the scorer
Match Report – LSCC v Witham Friary CC, 19th July 2025
Tour Triumph
London Saints CC 138-9 (30 overs)
Witham Friary CC 98 (27 overs)
Top Batting – Dover (45), Paul P (31), Max (12 no).
Top Bowling – DT (4-5), Max (4- 20), Tom (2-13).
Our first game of the tour was played on a muggy overcast day, and turned out to be a highly entertaining affair.
With an injury hit squad, we started the game with five debutants, Julian an experienced player from Salisbury who hadn’t played for around 10 years, (amazingly he was born on same day as DT, with them both celebrating their 65th birthdays on Aug 17th), and four youngsters Tom Diddams, Tobin Cruise, Gabriel Glover and Oliver Stapleton, with the 5 of them taking squad numbers 228-232.
DT lost the toss so we were asked to bat on a grass wicket, rather than the more regularly used artificial track, and with short boundaries due to the slow outfield.
Dickie and Paul P (after much persuasion) opened the batting, but things didn’t start well, when Dickie was controversially dismissed for a duck LBW, by the trigger happy opposing ex MP umpire, a decision and finger raise, far quicker than even our own esteemed Judas can achieve, with one that seemed to be high and Dickie well out of his crease to boot. Oscar fell soon after for a duck, thankfully the only other one of the innings, to leave us 4-2.
One Liner hit a couple of four’s before he departed at 16-3, but meanwhile at the other end Paul was batting like a seasoned opener and aided by Julian before his hamstring went (yet another London Saints injury) and Rat pushed the innings along, before with the score at 53 he was out for 31 (an innings with 6 fours), just short of his highest ever score, so we, after 18 of our 30 overs, were 57-5.
With Paul’s dismissal Dover entered the stage, and he really turned things around for us hitting a sparkling 45, including 3 sixes and 6 fours, and shared a partnership of 49 with Phil, which included the pair of them hitting 13, 16 and 16 off the 19th, 20th and 21st overs, to provide much needed acceleration to our innings.
Dover looked well set for a fifty, but then Judas (who should know better) uttered the fatal words that he would get to this milestone off the next ball, so that was it, he was clean bowled!
At this point we were 116-7 after 24.2 overs, but the tail enders, most notably Max with 12no, helped us to 138-9 after 30 overs, with DT 2no. and ending his run of ducks.
Special word for the young Janes Jukes who plays for Withams’ under 11 team, who bowled off the full length of the wicket and had figures of 0-12 off 4 overs at the start of our innings.
With both One Liner and now Julian (who did a great job umpiring) unable to field, we ended up with a more youthful than usual team in the field, where Tom, Tobin, Gabriel and especially Oliver (Pirlo), Stapleton our 12th – 14th men, all played their parts.
Phil and Max opened the bowling with a tight spell and Witham were 12 without loss off 5 overs. Max in his next over clean bowled the No’s .2 and 3 batsmen off successive balls, however with the slip cordon in place for the hat-trick ball, Max managed to no ball (jug avoidance?). In his following over he took a further two wickets, another clean bowled then one to a magnificent catch by Pirlo near the boundary, to leave our opponents 29-4 after 8 overs, and things looking good for us.
However Henry, Witham’s other opener and captain was still in and with their No 6 Kellock, rebuilt their innings with the pair adding 61 for the next wicket and seemingly swing the game in our hosts favour, and with 10 overs remaining they were 89-4 needing another 50 for victory.
Cue the great spell of bowling from DT and debutant Tom, to swing back in our favour, especially after El Duce had clean bowled Henry for 49, for his 500th LSCC wicket, Despite a sturdy 23 from Kellock, Witham collapsed losing their last 6 wickets for 9 runs, with DT finishing with figures of 4-5 off 6 overs with 4 maidens including 3 wicket maidens, and Tom 2-13 off 5 overs, with the pair off them aided by some great fielding with catches by Max and Oscar and a stumping from Dickie.
So the end of the day we ended up with an impressive 40 run victory, which looked most unlikely at several points during the game, to make a great start to the cricketing side of the tour weekend and ready for a few post match beers and fish and chip supper.
Man of the Match – several contenders Max for his 12no, good catch, and 4-20, DT for getting 4-5 including his milestone 500th wicket, which was also the one to dismiss Withams’ top scorer, and Tom on debut with 2-13, but my Man of the Match goes to Dover (Paul Calais) for his brilliant innings of 45 which turned our innings around and enabled us to set a reasonable target, which proved too much for Witham.
Terence Collis Excellence Champagne Moment – It has to go the superb catch by Oliver Stapleton (Pirlo), on the boundary to dismiss their dangerous No 5 batsman.
Cock up Champagne moment – Despite not umpiring in our innings, but with their Ex-MP umpire an able replacement, Judas still managed to influence our innings with a fatal foot in mouth moment from, when just after he’d turned up, he informed all and sundry that Dover would get to 50 off the next ball, cue him getting bowled. Thanks John! (again)
London Saints CC (138-9 off 30 overs)
Cushion LBW. B Kellock 0
Pearce Ct B Henry. 31
Sykes Ct B Kellock 0
Nanton LBW B Kellock 8
Edwards(Julian) Retired hurt 2
Rattue Ct B Harris. 5
Rogers B Henry 6
Calais B Carthew 45
Diddams (Tom) B Henry 1
Cohen Not Out 12
Cruise (Tobin) B Pullen. 2
Thomas Not Out 2
EXTRAS 24
Witham Friary CC (98 All out 27 overs)
Henry B Thomas 49
Hyde B Cohen 7
Pullen B Cohen 0
Davies Ct Stapleton B Cohen 0
Juckes B Cohen 0
Kellock Ct Sykes B Diddams 23
Harris Ct Cohen B Thomas 0
Jukes J. Not Out 0
Carthew B Diddams 4
Shepherd St Cushion B Thomas 1
Hyde B Thomas 0
EXTRAS 14
Rogers 4 – 1 – 15 – 0
Cohen 5 – 0 – 20 – 4
Sykes 4 – 0 – 18 – 0
Calais 3 – 0 – 27 – 0
Thomas 6 – 4 – 5 – 4
Diddams 5 – 0 – 13 – 2
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