Coldharbour v London Saints – 22nd June 2025 – Coldharbour CC, Dorking, Surrey
London Saints 240 (H. Rogers 92, Jones not out retired 28, Nanton not out 26)
Coldharbour 200 (Thomas 2-12, Leamon 2-27)
On a nice but thankfully not too hot day we turned up at lovely Coldharbour. Again DT won the toss and put us in. John failed to recognise our own player Freddie, who he had captained in his first game for us last year, and frankly the day went rapidly downhill for John from there. Mike opened with Jonesey, and on a lively pitch, we made a predictably slow start. With no great surprise to anyone Jonesey’s first five scoring shots were singles, with the square leg fielder being peppered by nurdles. Mike didn’t walk when everyone thought he had nicked it and then walked when no-one appealed (for a fine solid 18) to leave us 35 for one,
Harry then joined Jonesey, and Harry did what Harry does and Jonesey did what the Jonesey does, the lads particularly enjoyed Jonesey’s olympic torch style of running between the wickets. Jonesey retired on 28 in the 17th over with the score 82-1, just before the drinks interval. Freddie joined Harry to make a quickfire 13, and with Coldharbour spreading the bowling around, all 10 outfielders got a bowl, Harry accelerated at the other end. John came in at 5, and when Harry called him through for a leg bye, was run out for a duck, but that wasn’t his lowest point of the day. There were solid contributions from Ed, Dickie, Pete and Flatliner who got off the mark with a 6, with Harry smacking 4s and another 6 at the other end.
DT inexplicably came in at No.11 in the last over, with Ollie left on the sidelines. He was caught and bowled for a golden duck, and with the young lad being on a hat-trick, and with us only losing 9 wickets, he was begged to bat again. He was then run out for another duck 2 balls later, to bring up his 50th and break the London Saints record. (DT Comment – In my limited defence they wanted to give the bowler a chance for the hat-trick so the plan was for White Viv to go back in as he had retired not out but when they looked at the speed he was moving and the time he would take to get ready they just asked me to bat again. Strictly speaking you can’t bat again and so claim a 2nd duck but I have a feeling that I will be overruled -) -) -) ). With Harry making a fine 92, we reached a very formidable 240 all out.
We enjoyed the usual fantastic Coldharbour tea, Jonesey was replaced by Ollie in the field. Flatliner opened with Gobby, and though both being a little wild, both picked up a wicket. Runs began to flow a bit quicker for Coldharbour, not helped by Judas dropping a viciously swirling dolly at mid-off, resulting in him coming off with a dislocated finger (DT – it has subsequently turned out to be a ‘ shattered ‘ season ending break which is being operated on tomorrow). Dr Lana taped up the infamous trigger finger, with instructions from DT that the bandage was never to be removed. Harry dropped a rare very difficult catch (though he would have been the only one on our side to get near it) but made up for it with a fine tumbling effort to remove their quick scoring no.3. Wickets tumbled regularly after that, with the only danger was that we might run out of balls when Pete was bowling.
In a bold move, I was even given a bowl. With a mixture of flight, guile but mainly natural variation, I removed their very dangerous no.10. Thankyou Ed for a very nonchalant catch, mid roll up, on the boundary, which partially made up for him breaking their boundary fence earlier by sitting on it (Ed’s apology to their watching Committee “If it helps I’m a carpenter “ fell on deaf ears).There were comparisons to erstwhile top spinner Pearcey, but as I went for under 10 runs an over, I felt this was a little unfair. Coldharbour were bowled out for 200, to give us a fairly comfortable victory, in a game played in a very good spirit, in which everyone except John contributed.
Man of the Match – I know it should be Harry, but he can’t win it every week so I’m giving it to Jonesey, for rolling back the years in such fine fashion. Congrats Lazarus.
Terrence Collis Standout Cricketing Champagne Moment – Flatliners first runs of the season courtesy of a 6 was special. Harry’s catch was outstanding but being Harry it was almost expected so it goes to the nonchalant way that Ed put down his roll up, put to the back of his mind that the bill to repair the fence could be £600 and took a great catch on the boundary to give your correspondent a wicket and to go above Tiger in the 2025 bowling averages. Congrats Ed
LSCC Cock-up / Funny (need to think of the title?) Champagne Moment – Ed breaking their boundary fence was a classic. After realising she had borrowed John’s cap by mistake, Lana promptly threw his cap over the fence into the trees, ran back across the pitch to borrow someone else’s. Fair to say not John’s finest hour at the scene of his greatest success. I’m sure Mr Gobby offered him some words of comfort on the way home. The winner though has to go to DT for his double duck in the last over, to overtake Wath on the all-time list and bring up his half century. If teams let him bat 2 or 3 times every week, perhaps he might make the ton, before his body gives out.
London Saints
McIntyre ct / b Marsh 18
Jones not out retired 28
H. Rogers ct and b Mark 92
Leamon ct ? b Mark 13
J. Griffiths run out 0
Price b Sven 16
Cushion ct + b Sven 10
Berkeley ct ? b Clarke 11
Nanton not out 26
Lana b Ford 1
Thomas ct + b Ford 0 (golden)
Thomas (aka Jones) run out 0
Extras 25
Total 240 all out after 34.5 overs
Coldharbour
Marshall ct Cushion b O. Griffiths 1
Van Nierkirk b Nanton 16
Elson ct H. Rogers b Thomas 60
Sumo ct McIntyre b Leamon 26
X. Ford ct Cushion b Berkeley 0
W. Kruis run out 8
Sven b Thomas 25
Marsh ct Leamon b Cushion 4
H. Ford B Leamon 28
Clark ct Price b A. Mayhew 5
G. Kruis not out 11
Extras 16
Total 200 all out after 33 overs
Nanton 4 – 1 – 26 – 1
O. Griffiths 4 – 0 – 27 – 1
Leamon 6 – 1 – 27 – 2
Thomas 5 – 1 – 12 – 2
Berkeley 7 – 0 – 57 – 1
Cushion 5 – 0 – 16 – 1
A.Mayhew 2 – 0 – 18 – 1
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