Peppard 198-6
Zia 2-23
RUASCC 199-6
Eagle 59, Ward 28
RUASCC won by 4 wickets
On a cool and cloudy day in Peppard a strong RUASCC side recorded another hugely satisfying win, successfully chasing down almost 200 in 35 overs in the dark after the home side had won the toss and batted first.
It was a victory that had looked unlikely after Main and Withers shared the first 14 overs and Peppard were 80-0. While it’s true to say there were a few streaky shots, it is also true that the opening batsmen, Legg and Vines, were in complete control - yes, they played and missed, but far more often they played and hit. It started to look like the breakthrough would never come, but these days RUASCC have the ideal man to turn to: Zia came on to bowl Legg with a tasty off-break.
At the other end Jagesh replaced Main and, despite an expensive first over, he found his line and soon the batsmen struggled to get the ball away. A handful of consecutive tight overs paid off when Vines looked to launch Jagesh over long-off and only succeeded in finding Bruce Main who took the catch easily. 102-2.
Peppard’s number three, Asquith, a man of considerable presence, played Zia with caution as the spinner racked up a spell of seven consecutive maidens, which included one wicket when Asquith’s partner was trapped bang in front. The next man, a young left-hander, didn’t last long as he launched a Baker delivery high in the air and much too close to Bruce Main. And Bruce Main never drops them.
At the other end Asquith was lucky to survive when a powerful drive was dropped by Bruce Main. With the RUASCC players scratching their heads trying to work out what had just happened, it was pointed out that Main must have deliberately put it down because the bowler, Baker, had earlier dropped a chance off him. However this logic couldn’t explain why Dip dropped one off Zia and Chan refused to hold onto one at slip having done the difficult part diving to his left.
As the Peppard innings drew to a stuttering conclusion Main and Withers returned to take a wicket each and thus at least partly justify their selection, but in the final over Main came in for some hammer from a 14-year-old with a long-handled Mongoose. As well as hitting a massive six and a four the young batsman was also dropped twice by a generous Jagesh who immediately phoned everyone to tell them about it. At the end of the over Peppard closed on 198-6 from 45 overs - a strong recovery from RUASCC’s change bowlers.
Peppard, who earlier in the season were awarded with the “Most Improved Tea 2010” accolade, consolidated their superb work by bringing out the pizza and sausages at about 4.15pm. A fantastic effort highly approved of by the visiting judges.
The RUASCC innings began with the controversial displacement of Withers from the score box (Peppard had their own scorer), a troubling experience for Withers who spent the next few hours signalling randomly at strangers and etching numbers into the pavilion wall. On the pitch, Ward and Eagle perhaps drew inspiration from the Peppard opening pair and set about building an attacking fifty-plus partnership of their own – Eagle confidently lofted Tim Vines over the six slip fielders while Ward hit some exquisite drives into the offside of all places.
The run rate was boosted considerably by a large number of byes, effectively acting as a third batsman, and once Vines finished his bowling spell he took over the gloves in an attempt to stop the flow behind the stumps. This move achieved only limited success, however the bowling change worked wonders as Ward was bowled by Vernon for 28. 72-1.
Dip began comfortably enough but before too long he chipped a catch straight to Roy Hayden at square leg, then Baker joined Eagle and the pair added more useful runs meaning the required rate never rose too high. It was all going swimmingly for Eagle (despite Peppard’s use of two third men to cut off his favourite shot) and he drove another boundary through the covers to bring up both his fourth fifty and pass the milestone of 500 runs for the season.
When Eagle had reached 59 he was given out LBW (“possibly outside the line and I put a bloody big stride in”) and soon Baker went the same way, equally if not more dubious about the decision. Zia hammered his first ball for a straight four and he had moved quickly to 13 when he was bowled trying to hit to the leg side and it seemed that some of the good work was being undone. With five wickets down and 50 runs short of victory the first murmurs of “doing a RUASCC” began to surface, while Jagesh took some time out from phoning everyone in order to send someone a text.
Chan arrived at the wicket and set his stall out immediately with a confident pull shot at a short ball from the young spinner. Unfortunately the ball didn’t cooperate and bowled him for a duck, but everyone agreed it was a pleasingly positive and aggressive duck.
Fortunately, with Ken Stewart absent, the RUASCC batting order had strength in depth and a seventh wicket partnership of skipper Carpenter and Bruce Main is certainly a very capable one. In increasing darkness Main, who enjoys thrashing young boys through the covers, brought back memories of his innings in Portsmouth with some firmly struck boundaries and there was more to celebrate as Extras reached their first fifty of the season with yet another bye. Carpenter kept a cool head to hit the winning boundary at the end of the 35th over and suddenly it all seemed surprisingly easy.
RUASCC Highlight: The batting gave plenty to choose from – classy straight drives from Ward and Zia, plus Eagle’s numerous controlled edges.
RUASCC Man of the Match: Andrew Eagle - a pleasing return to form.
RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle, Dip (wkt), Baker, Zia, Malde, Carpenter (capt), Main, Tranter, Jagesh, Withers
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Saturday 18 September 2010
Hambleden (at Leighton Park) – 12.9.10
Hambleden 118 all out
Withers 3-20, Stewart 2-17
RUASCC 121-2
Carpenter 39 not out, Zia 38 not out
RUASCC won by 8 wickets
After a week of filthy weather and Saturday’s cancellation it was something of a relief to get a warm, sunny day at Leighton Park. RUASCC, captained for the first time by Michael Ward, sealed their third win in five matches and their second inside a month against Hambleden.
With Tranter away on a kayaking holiday in southern Japan, Ward did at least give a subtle nod to the Silver Fox by losing the toss in his honour. Hambleden opted to bat first on a green wicket and RUASCC, featuring not one, but two ten-year-olds, took to the field.
Evidence from the first half hour suggested someone has finally mentioned to Keith Withers that the season has started: after two tight overs the opening bowler was rewarded with a nick to the keeper for the first wicket. Several more edges followed, one almost held by the diving Baker at second slip, and the second wicket duly arrived shortly after as Arnold creamed a straight drive back at the bowler’s face. Withers, presented with a straightforward choice of “catch it or die” somehow clung onto the ball and it was 14-2.
Zia, bowling another insultingly economical spell, also bagged an early wicket as Hambleden’s top order crumbled. And Withers hadn’t finished yet – a full, slower ball on leg-stump found a way through to give his best return of the season: 3-20 from eight overs.
Baker replaced Zia and he was frustrated very early on as new batsman Winchester popped the ball up nicely to Ward at cover only to see the chance put down. Ashman, bowling from the other end, had better luck when his first ball was slashed horribly to Carpenter at slip who grabbed it like it was the last cheese sandwich. Realising he wasn’t getting any help from the fielders, Baker decided to go it alone and cleaned up the stumps instead leaving Hambleden six wickets down with only one batsman, Winchester, standing in RUASCC’s way. His confident driving and clouts towards mid-wicket, as well as his consistent success at keeping the strike, pushed the Hambleden score up towards 100.
Then, as Winchester played a square cut to bring up his fifty, Baker’s return throw from the deep cover boundary managed to evade Dip’s gloves for an overthrow, at which point Eagle helpfully asked whether there was anything the wicketkeeper might like to differently in future. Dip, after a moment’s considered thought, calmly enquired as to whether perhaps Dr Eagle might like to assist him by taking over behind the stumps for the rest of the innings. While Eagle pondered this from the mid-wicket boundary, a short but productive meeting with the captain resulted in Dip deciding that he simply loves keeping too much to let someone else do it, and just a few minutes later he was ready to receive the next ball. It’s one of the most rewarding things about playing for RUASCC – seeing these infrequent episodes of potential disagreement being dealt with in such a mature and positive way. It sets an excellent example for the ten-year-olds.
Back to the game, and as so often tends to happen, the introduction of Ken Stewart into the bowling attack earned RUASCC the key breakthrough – Winchester again chipping the ball into the covers and this time Ward taking it safely running to his right. After that there was minimal resistance as RUASCC swiftly mopped up the tail. Such was the visiting side’s dismal fate that they even suffered the indignity of succumbing to a run out from “good arm” Withers (deadly from silly mid-off). Carpenter took another slip catch to give Stewart (2-17) another wicket and the final scalp went to Rahul Patel whose uncle Dip took the stumping. 118 all out.
It would be remiss of me here if I failed to offer a big thank you to the visiting members of the Patel family for an excellent tea.
RUASCC’s innings began with a left-right partnership for both sides: Ward and Eagle doing their best to nullify the threat of two quick, aggressive bowlers including the main batsman Winchester. Thanks to some generous wicketkeeping it was byes that set the early pace, reaching ten before either batsman had got off the mark. Eagle, despite being 6’5” tall, was peppered with bouncers by the left-armer - he attempted to hook one and allowed the others to pass before sending a message to the pavilion that perhaps a helmet might be a good idea. He didn’t need it though, for in the next over he was done by a quick, full one and was out LBW for 2.
Having seen off the quicker bowlers things got easier for Ward and Carpenter. When presented with several short balls down the leg side Ward proved adept at finding the backward square leg boundary, and when Winchester unwisely chose to start bowling spin Ward spanked him for two consecutive fours thus swiftly putting an end to that experiment. Carpenter slashed hard over gully to get off the mark and never looked in any trouble at all while, for the second consecutive match, he took control of the run chase.
Having put on more than fifty for the second wicket Ward went for 29, bowled attempting another big shot, but that was to be Hambleden’s last success. Zia (38 not out) and Carpenter (39 not out) played cuts, drives and pulls all over the park and made light work of polishing off the last fifty runs. RUASCC won by 8 wickets with more than 12 overs to spare.
RUASCC Highlight: The enormous fight.
RUASCC Man of the Match: Not for the first time this season - Zia. Economical with the ball, devastating with the bat, he was well-supported by Withers (3-20) and Carpenter (39 not out).
RUASCC Team: Ward (capt), Eagle, Carpenter, Zia, Dip (wkt... not wkt... wkt), J Baker, W Baker, Stewart, R Patel, Withers, Ashman
Withers 3-20, Stewart 2-17
RUASCC 121-2
Carpenter 39 not out, Zia 38 not out
RUASCC won by 8 wickets
After a week of filthy weather and Saturday’s cancellation it was something of a relief to get a warm, sunny day at Leighton Park. RUASCC, captained for the first time by Michael Ward, sealed their third win in five matches and their second inside a month against Hambleden.
With Tranter away on a kayaking holiday in southern Japan, Ward did at least give a subtle nod to the Silver Fox by losing the toss in his honour. Hambleden opted to bat first on a green wicket and RUASCC, featuring not one, but two ten-year-olds, took to the field.
Evidence from the first half hour suggested someone has finally mentioned to Keith Withers that the season has started: after two tight overs the opening bowler was rewarded with a nick to the keeper for the first wicket. Several more edges followed, one almost held by the diving Baker at second slip, and the second wicket duly arrived shortly after as Arnold creamed a straight drive back at the bowler’s face. Withers, presented with a straightforward choice of “catch it or die” somehow clung onto the ball and it was 14-2.
Zia, bowling another insultingly economical spell, also bagged an early wicket as Hambleden’s top order crumbled. And Withers hadn’t finished yet – a full, slower ball on leg-stump found a way through to give his best return of the season: 3-20 from eight overs.
Baker replaced Zia and he was frustrated very early on as new batsman Winchester popped the ball up nicely to Ward at cover only to see the chance put down. Ashman, bowling from the other end, had better luck when his first ball was slashed horribly to Carpenter at slip who grabbed it like it was the last cheese sandwich. Realising he wasn’t getting any help from the fielders, Baker decided to go it alone and cleaned up the stumps instead leaving Hambleden six wickets down with only one batsman, Winchester, standing in RUASCC’s way. His confident driving and clouts towards mid-wicket, as well as his consistent success at keeping the strike, pushed the Hambleden score up towards 100.
Then, as Winchester played a square cut to bring up his fifty, Baker’s return throw from the deep cover boundary managed to evade Dip’s gloves for an overthrow, at which point Eagle helpfully asked whether there was anything the wicketkeeper might like to differently in future. Dip, after a moment’s considered thought, calmly enquired as to whether perhaps Dr Eagle might like to assist him by taking over behind the stumps for the rest of the innings. While Eagle pondered this from the mid-wicket boundary, a short but productive meeting with the captain resulted in Dip deciding that he simply loves keeping too much to let someone else do it, and just a few minutes later he was ready to receive the next ball. It’s one of the most rewarding things about playing for RUASCC – seeing these infrequent episodes of potential disagreement being dealt with in such a mature and positive way. It sets an excellent example for the ten-year-olds.
Back to the game, and as so often tends to happen, the introduction of Ken Stewart into the bowling attack earned RUASCC the key breakthrough – Winchester again chipping the ball into the covers and this time Ward taking it safely running to his right. After that there was minimal resistance as RUASCC swiftly mopped up the tail. Such was the visiting side’s dismal fate that they even suffered the indignity of succumbing to a run out from “good arm” Withers (deadly from silly mid-off). Carpenter took another slip catch to give Stewart (2-17) another wicket and the final scalp went to Rahul Patel whose uncle Dip took the stumping. 118 all out.
It would be remiss of me here if I failed to offer a big thank you to the visiting members of the Patel family for an excellent tea.
RUASCC’s innings began with a left-right partnership for both sides: Ward and Eagle doing their best to nullify the threat of two quick, aggressive bowlers including the main batsman Winchester. Thanks to some generous wicketkeeping it was byes that set the early pace, reaching ten before either batsman had got off the mark. Eagle, despite being 6’5” tall, was peppered with bouncers by the left-armer - he attempted to hook one and allowed the others to pass before sending a message to the pavilion that perhaps a helmet might be a good idea. He didn’t need it though, for in the next over he was done by a quick, full one and was out LBW for 2.
Having seen off the quicker bowlers things got easier for Ward and Carpenter. When presented with several short balls down the leg side Ward proved adept at finding the backward square leg boundary, and when Winchester unwisely chose to start bowling spin Ward spanked him for two consecutive fours thus swiftly putting an end to that experiment. Carpenter slashed hard over gully to get off the mark and never looked in any trouble at all while, for the second consecutive match, he took control of the run chase.
Having put on more than fifty for the second wicket Ward went for 29, bowled attempting another big shot, but that was to be Hambleden’s last success. Zia (38 not out) and Carpenter (39 not out) played cuts, drives and pulls all over the park and made light work of polishing off the last fifty runs. RUASCC won by 8 wickets with more than 12 overs to spare.
RUASCC Highlight: The enormous fight.
RUASCC Man of the Match: Not for the first time this season - Zia. Economical with the ball, devastating with the bat, he was well-supported by Withers (3-20) and Carpenter (39 not out).
RUASCC Team: Ward (capt), Eagle, Carpenter, Zia, Dip (wkt... not wkt... wkt), J Baker, W Baker, Stewart, R Patel, Withers, Ashman
Sunday 5 September 2010
Greys Green (H) – 4.9.10
Greys Green 116 all out
Zia 3-10, Main 1-7
RUASCC 117-4
Carpenter 34
RUASCC won by 6 wickets
RUASCC’s first home game of the season brought a very welcome win against visiting Greys Green thanks to a much improved bowling performance and, possibly not coincidentally, the return of Main and Zia to the starting eleven.
Tranter won the toss, as he does so frequently these days, and put Greys into bat on a hard, dry university pitch. Main opened up with a maiden before Withers was hit for three fours in his first over prompting thoughts among the fielders that this could be a long afternoon. Fortunately, improvement was imminent as Main and Withers shared five consecutive maidens with a wicket apiece (both openers clean bowled) to leave Greys struggling on 15-2 after the first half hour of play.
Greys worked hard to rebuild their innings and, with the help of a few edges and a few overthrows, formed a useful third wicket stand. Baker almost pulled off a terrific catch in the gully off Main, but he just couldn’t close his left hand around the ball and had to be content with saving a certain four. Main, whose nine-over spell brought him 1-7, and Withers (1-23) were replaced by Baker and Zia but success didn’t come immediately as the partnership passed fifty.
With the score on 71-2, Zia got the double breakthrough trapping Jenkins LBW for 28 and three balls later taking the prize wicket of Skilliter, bowled for a duck. A very important over this for RUASCC as the Greys captain has been known to score big runs in matches over the years. From here the innings never really got going again – another vital wicket came when danger man Shafqat was rapped on the pads and Umpire Sewell’s finger was up before Johnny Baker could turn round to appeal.
Zia clean bowled another to finish with 3-10 from his eight overs (what a difference he would have made at Stonor last week!) and RUASCC were in such a strong position that Captain Tranter felt able to bring himself and Ken Stewart on to mop up the tail. Stewart held onto a return catch from his third ball before Tranter’s straight, good-length delivery found a way through. Then despite a quick cameo from Dersh (4 not out) Stewart and Sewell combined to earn another LBW and end the Greys innings on 116.
RUASCC’s batting order was restored to normality this week as Stewart and Withers dropped back to numbers ten and eleven respectively. Ward and Eagle opened against some tight, wobbly bowling from Shafqat and Skilliter and made slow progress to 15-0 after eight overs. Not many more had been added when Eagle (11) chipped a low full toss back to the bowler and had to go.
The first bowling change saw the return of young leg-spinner Alex McKenzie who many of us remembered from Frieth where he took 2-30 and scored the winning runs. His first ball was short and Wardy pulled it over the rope for six to move to 15; his third ball was a full toss and Wardy pulled it straight to mid-wicket who caught it at something like the twelfth attempt. 31-2.
As with the Greys innings, it was the third wicket stand that steadied RUASCC’s reply. Carpenter and Dip put on 54 in ten overs, skilfully putting away the bad balls and, in Dip’s case, somewhat fortunately surviving some of the better ones. The change bowlers didn’t seem to carry the same threat and Carpenter found the long pavilion boundary with some powerful hitting.
It was McKenzie who dismissed both batsmen in the space of a couple of overs. Dip (16) had a slash at a wide one and nicked it to the keeper while Carpenter (34) left another wide one and momentarily left his crease as the keeper threw down the stumps. 88-4 and 29 runs were needed from the last nine overs. Surely not even RUASCC could mess this one up?
All fears were allayed as Baker (15 not out) cut his first ball for four and hit two more boundaries while, after a quiet start, Chan (14 not out) and his enormous bat clubbed three fours of his own over the mid-on region as RUASCC made it home after 27.3 overs with six to spare – a convincing and well-deserved win.
RUASCC Highlight: Zia’s ripper to remove Skilliter and turn the match in RUASCC’s favour. Ward’s six over mid-wicket and a straight drive from Carpenter were two memorable shots, while Tranter’s wicket was also the cause of much celebration.
RUASCC Man of the Match: Shared between Zia and Carpenter this week. In a low scoring game Carpo’s 34 proved very useful in RUASCC’s successful run chase. Zia’s 3-10 went a significant way to keeping that target down.
RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle, Carpenter, Dip (wkt), Chan, Baker, Zia, Main, Tranter (capt), Stewart, Withers
Zia 3-10, Main 1-7
RUASCC 117-4
Carpenter 34
RUASCC won by 6 wickets
RUASCC’s first home game of the season brought a very welcome win against visiting Greys Green thanks to a much improved bowling performance and, possibly not coincidentally, the return of Main and Zia to the starting eleven.
Tranter won the toss, as he does so frequently these days, and put Greys into bat on a hard, dry university pitch. Main opened up with a maiden before Withers was hit for three fours in his first over prompting thoughts among the fielders that this could be a long afternoon. Fortunately, improvement was imminent as Main and Withers shared five consecutive maidens with a wicket apiece (both openers clean bowled) to leave Greys struggling on 15-2 after the first half hour of play.
Greys worked hard to rebuild their innings and, with the help of a few edges and a few overthrows, formed a useful third wicket stand. Baker almost pulled off a terrific catch in the gully off Main, but he just couldn’t close his left hand around the ball and had to be content with saving a certain four. Main, whose nine-over spell brought him 1-7, and Withers (1-23) were replaced by Baker and Zia but success didn’t come immediately as the partnership passed fifty.
With the score on 71-2, Zia got the double breakthrough trapping Jenkins LBW for 28 and three balls later taking the prize wicket of Skilliter, bowled for a duck. A very important over this for RUASCC as the Greys captain has been known to score big runs in matches over the years. From here the innings never really got going again – another vital wicket came when danger man Shafqat was rapped on the pads and Umpire Sewell’s finger was up before Johnny Baker could turn round to appeal.
Zia clean bowled another to finish with 3-10 from his eight overs (what a difference he would have made at Stonor last week!) and RUASCC were in such a strong position that Captain Tranter felt able to bring himself and Ken Stewart on to mop up the tail. Stewart held onto a return catch from his third ball before Tranter’s straight, good-length delivery found a way through. Then despite a quick cameo from Dersh (4 not out) Stewart and Sewell combined to earn another LBW and end the Greys innings on 116.
RUASCC’s batting order was restored to normality this week as Stewart and Withers dropped back to numbers ten and eleven respectively. Ward and Eagle opened against some tight, wobbly bowling from Shafqat and Skilliter and made slow progress to 15-0 after eight overs. Not many more had been added when Eagle (11) chipped a low full toss back to the bowler and had to go.
The first bowling change saw the return of young leg-spinner Alex McKenzie who many of us remembered from Frieth where he took 2-30 and scored the winning runs. His first ball was short and Wardy pulled it over the rope for six to move to 15; his third ball was a full toss and Wardy pulled it straight to mid-wicket who caught it at something like the twelfth attempt. 31-2.
As with the Greys innings, it was the third wicket stand that steadied RUASCC’s reply. Carpenter and Dip put on 54 in ten overs, skilfully putting away the bad balls and, in Dip’s case, somewhat fortunately surviving some of the better ones. The change bowlers didn’t seem to carry the same threat and Carpenter found the long pavilion boundary with some powerful hitting.
It was McKenzie who dismissed both batsmen in the space of a couple of overs. Dip (16) had a slash at a wide one and nicked it to the keeper while Carpenter (34) left another wide one and momentarily left his crease as the keeper threw down the stumps. 88-4 and 29 runs were needed from the last nine overs. Surely not even RUASCC could mess this one up?
All fears were allayed as Baker (15 not out) cut his first ball for four and hit two more boundaries while, after a quiet start, Chan (14 not out) and his enormous bat clubbed three fours of his own over the mid-on region as RUASCC made it home after 27.3 overs with six to spare – a convincing and well-deserved win.
RUASCC Highlight: Zia’s ripper to remove Skilliter and turn the match in RUASCC’s favour. Ward’s six over mid-wicket and a straight drive from Carpenter were two memorable shots, while Tranter’s wicket was also the cause of much celebration.
RUASCC Man of the Match: Shared between Zia and Carpenter this week. In a low scoring game Carpo’s 34 proved very useful in RUASCC’s successful run chase. Zia’s 3-10 went a significant way to keeping that target down.
RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle, Carpenter, Dip (wkt), Chan, Baker, Zia, Main, Tranter (capt), Stewart, Withers
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