Chelmsford earned three wins to go alongside three defeats on the notoriously difficult V Weekend.

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1 Chelmsford Cricket Club Report for 20 and 21 August Chelmsford earned three wins to go alongside three defeats on the notoriously difficult V Weekend. The first team followed up an impressive display in the field with a meek batting performance, the result of which being a disappointing defeat to Brentwood. Karamat Ali (five for 63) and James Clifford (three for 58) bowled unchanged throughout most of the Brentwood innings and, allied with good fielding, they restricted the home team to 189. This proved to be significantly too many runs for Chelmsford however, who folded tamely for 127. Nick Prowting top scored with 44 and only two other players made double figures. The second team kept hopes of a Chelmsford Saturday League title alive with victory over leaders Wanstead. A good bowling performance, including four wickets for Harry Green, restricted Wanstead to 193, importantly seven runs short of two extra batting points. An unbeaten century from Rob Catchpole ensured that this target was achieved for the loss of five wickets. Chelmsford now trail Wanstead by just two points with two games remaining. The third team were the other team to win on Saturday. They endured a fairly difficult time in the field with a depleted bowling attack and only ten men as Loughton racked up 244 for seven. However an excellent unbeaten century from David Thrift and 67 from Charles Garrard meant that actually Loughton s total was overcome with considerable ease. The fourth team lost away at Wanstead. There were five wickets for Phil Arnold in Wanstead s total of 224, but Chelmsford never really looked like obtaining the runs required. Jordan Campion topscored with 44 but no-one could go on to play a match winning innings. In a virtual reverse of the third team game, Chelmsford s fifth team lost comfortably despite a decent score batting first. Paul Tremelling and Matt Cook both passed 50 as Chelmsford totalled 231 for five. John Northwood scored 118* as Basildon & Pitsea chased this down for the loss of just three wickets in just 34 overs. The Sunday first team completed their league campaign by beating Bardoli with some ease. Azaz Khalil bowled an excellent opening spell, taking three for 8, from which Bardoli never fully recovered. They did eventually total 161 but on a flat pitch with a fast outfield and one very short boundary it always looked below par. Karamat Ali with 90 and Ed Cole with 51 ensured that such appearances were not deceiving. Reports & Scores Saturday 6 August 1st Team Played at Old County Ground Brentwood 189 all out Chelmsford 127 all out (Brentwood won by 62 runs) After a one hour delay due to rain, Chelmsford won the toss and elected to bowl. Oliver Devenish provided the breakthrough with the wicket of opener Oakley, but it soon became apparent that

2 there was little to assist the seamers in the pitch, with West beginning to play some confident strokes. The introduction of spin twins James Clifford and Karamat Ali began to first take control of the scoring and then began to work their way through the Brentwood middle order, with only opener West continuing to accumulate runs, albeit at a fairly slow pace. Some excellent fielding and a buzz around the field managed to maintain constant pressure on the incoming batsmen, as many partners came and went without troubling the fielding side. West finally fell for the 7th wicket for a composed 98, which was the backbone of the innings. The final few wickets fell fairly quickly after that to Ali (5-63). Clifford bowled with outstanding control and rhythm to return 3-58 from 21 overs. A final total of 189 looked to be achievable on a reasonable batting track, whilst an impressive over rate earned Chelmsford an extra 8 overs with which to score the runs. After the disappointment of last week a solid start was required, which sadly failed to materialise as, despite an excellent start from Nick Prowting, wickets continued to fall at the other end at a worrying rate. After the fall of Prowting for a promising 44 with the score at 66-5, the required solid start had definitely not been achieved. Although James Clifford (25) and skipper Nick Bailey (24) showed some fight, their demise to the returning Osborne (4-23) led to a rather quick end to proceedings. The innings closed in a bizarre (some would say incredibly unfortunate) fashion, with number 11 Tom Halsey being caught short leg after a deflection from the shoulder of the fielder at silly point. A disappointing total of 127 was the result, and Chelmsford will need to improve with two games to go in the league, as well as a League Cup final against league leaders Wanstead on the Bank Holiday Monday. 2nd Team Played at Chelmer Park Wanstead 193 all out Chelmsford (Chelmsford won by five wickets) The 2s produced one of their best performances of an inconsistent season to comprehensively beat league leaders Wanstead, making them look very ordinary in the process. An excellent all-round bowling and fielding performance was followed by a masterful unbeaten century from Rob Catchpole which carried Chelmsford to victory. This result cuts Wanstead s lead from 14 points to 2 points and rekindles possibilities of the championship for Chelmsford. 2 wins from the last 2 games would be enough, were Wanstead to fail to win both of their remaining games. Wanstead won the toss and decided to bat first, no doubt hoping to post a challenging target which Chelmsford would have to chase at all costs to stay in the championship race. Liam Keaney and James Arnold bowled economically in the first sixteen overs restricting Wanstead to 53-2, both openers having been claimed by Keaney ( ) with a catch behind by Miles Clark and a stunning goalkeeping catch by Harry Green at mid-off. Jimmy returned ( ).

3 Spin was then deployed against Wanstead s middle order with Stuart Everard and Rob Hayto both bowling long spells which not only frustrated Wanstead s run scoring intentions, but also produced 3 wickets. Stuey dismissed numbers 3 and 4, both for 25, the first skied big-time to short cover which seemed to result in a committee meeting to decide who was best placed of Milo, Stuey, and Cran before the latter stuck his hands up, as it were, to resolve the matter. Stuey s other wicket was a stumping by Miles, which, I am reliably informed produced a verbal imprecation from the batsman, along the lines of Oh ****! as the ball spun past the bat. Rob H also invoked a stumping dismissal of the number 5 for off 36 overs with their top 5 gone, all having got into double figures, but not gone on past 25, and realisation dawning (1) on Wanstead that their hopes of a really big total were diminishing by the over. Chids, no doubt, reasoning that Wanstead would have to try up the scoring rate and go for their shots, then unleashed Harry ( The Young Assassin ). Two good catches by Rob Catchpole at long-off and two more stumpings enabled Harry to return ( ) and a further wicket for Rob Hayto, inducing a regulation catch by Gazza at mid-wicket, saw the innings terminated for 193 in the last over (50), somewhat short of perceived par and their intention of posting a challenging total. Everard s figures were ( ) and Hayto s ( ), with Clark claiming 5 victims (4 stumpings and a catch). Nabeel Aziz was left on 59 not out for Wanstead. Chelmsford s reply began brightly with Miles (39) being especially positive, and by the twelfth over, Chelmsford had 50 on the board and were well ahead of the asking rate. Unfortunately on 69, Rob called for 2 and ran and turned head-down, Miles ran 1 and hesitated, but came back anyway and only got to 1 and a half as the wicket was put down for the runout. Chids (12) joined Rob and, as Wanstead by now had the field out, pushed 12 singles in a second wicket partnership of 44 before being caught behind. By now Catchy had moved to 54. During this partnership the realisation finally dawned (2) on Wanstead that because Chelmsford had bowled their 50 overs in 2 hours 40 minutes and they themselves had bowled half and half pace and spin, they were in danger of having to bowl more than 50 overs back. Cue comical time-wasting for a few overs! Even with that Chelmsford would have got 48 back The 2 s customary batting wobble then ensued with Hayto and Chris ThanOZ being bowled cheaply in successive overs - Rob because he missed the ball - Chris because HE WASN T READY! - bit lame that, mate! Jimmy went in with 64 required from 16 and played very sensibly in contributing 14 to a stand of 57 during which Catchy completed a very fine match-winning century, not apparently good enough, however, to warrant the Man of the Match ranking from Total Cricket Scorer (which went for Miles! - go figure! - perhaps it has a sympathy algorithm? - for the runout?) Enter Cran the Closer with 7 required - Biff, Biff - job done with 6 overs to spare - bring on the beers! (just to clarify - that s Closer as in Clozer not as in Move Closer Darling) Rob s ton (105*) came in 121 balls with 14 fours - top effort!

4 2 big performances required next 2 weeks, chaps, and who knows? 3 rd Team Played at Chelmer Park Loughton Chelmsford (Chelmsford won by eight wickets) A superb opening partnership between David Thrift and Charles Garrard gained Chelmsford what was ultimately a comfortable win. Thrift's unbeaten century completed the win just before a downpour. It was hard going in the field with only ten men, three of those under-14s making their debuts at this level. A lack of bowling options with no spinners further hampered Chelmsford's cause. With constant interruptions for the bails being blown off, no spinners and many unnecessary meetings for the batsmen, the innings lasted a ridiculous amount of time. Choudry and Jani played well to set up the innings but both fell for 35. The batsmen played fairly aggressively and prospered with Ash making a very useful 63 not out to take the score well past 200. Fabian Bright bowled a decent spell on his debut, whilst Matt Davis, Craig Thompson and Alistair Fergus had more or less identical figures, each taking two wickets. The target looked like it would be very challenging but Thrift and Garrard played very well. The scoreboard was never allowed to stand still and some of the change bowling was put to the sword. Garrard reached his half century first but after he passed his landmark, Thrift really started to score freely whilst Garrard picked up singles. It was a bit of a surprise when Garrard holed out for 67 with the score at 184. Thrift completed his century in the next over but after that another wicket fell and there were still just over 50 needed. Jay Smith came in and played with great confidence, striking the ball well including a superb sweep for six in an innings of 30 not out. Fittingly it was Thrift who closed things out with three boundaries to finish 123 not out. 4 th Team Shepherd Neame Essex League 3 rd XI Division One Played at Nutter Lane Wanstead 224 all out Chelmsford 140 all out (Wanstead won by 84 runs)

5 5 th Team Shepherd Neame Essex League 4 th XI Premier League East Played at Langdon Hills Recreation Ground Chelmsford Basildon (Basildon won by seven wickets) Sunday 24 July 1st Team Essex Sunday League Played at Sylvestrian Leisure Centre Bardoli 161 all out Chelmsford (Chelmsford won by six wickets) After a difficult selection week, Chelmsford recorded a win in their final game of the regular Sunday League season. Bardoli won the toss and elected to bat but immediately ran into difficulties, particularly with Azaz Khalil, who claimed three for 8. Bardoli did manage to effect a slight recovery from a perilous 50 for five. Budi and captain Hafesji both batted fairly sensibly for 53 and 43* respectively and helped drag Bardoli up to a total of 161 all out, aided and abetted by some unsatisfactory wicket-keeping. An early wicket was lost in Chelmsford s response but after this, Ed Cole and Karamat Ali batted very well. Karamat launched some large blows, losing a number of balls, before attempting to pull a short ball for another six to the longest boundary and being held at deep square leg for 90. Cole went on to complete a half-century before, thanks to the guidance of Ben Clifford, attempting to reverse ramp the opening bowler. He failed in this attempt but had played well nevertheless. Khalil went in and struck the winning runs. APP