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Stanford le Hope CC – Match Reports 12^th Auguat 2006

Shepherd Neame League

Stanford  168ao  (51.5 overs)                          Harold Wood  16-0  (2 overs)

Bill Poskitt Jnr 39, Hitesh Sharma 7-33

The eagerly anticipated clash between the top two in Division 3 was ultimately ruined by the weather. Having elected to bat, Stanford openers Bill Poskitt Jnr (39) and Duncan Page (28) progressed the score to 70 with few alarms, on either side of a two hour break for rain. Hitesh Sharma made the initial breakthrough for the visitors, when he dismissed Poskitt and he went on from there to wreck the rest of the Stanford batting, returning figures of 7-33 from 19 overs. To give Stanford credit, they battled away in difficult conditions, to use up all but one ball of their allocated 52 overs. The rain break meant that Harold Wood had only 16 overs of the last hour’s play left to make an impression and they lashed the first couple of overs for 16. However, rain and bad light brought proceedings to a close after that, leaving both clubs frustrated – especially as the two Southend clubs completed their game. Both of them overhauled Harold Wood and crept closer to Stanford who remain clear at the top by 6 points.

Match abandoned. Stanford 4 points  Harold Wood 4 points

Basildon II 41-0 (12 overs)                                      Stanford II

The 2^nd team game was abandoned after 12 overs. The teams took 4 points each

Old Southendians III 194-7  (42 overs)                    Stanford III 194-5  (40 overs)

G.Bray 59, M.Andrews 40, Geoff Lake 5-33              Peter Victory 66, Clive Ballard 40

Stanford were agonisingly short of victory in this rain-affected match. Requiring two to win from the last ball, they could only manage a single and had to settle for a same-score draw. Old Southendians batted first and Ian Sanderson struck early to remove opener O’Connor. However, this only brought together Bray (59) and Andrews (40) who added a century partnership for the 2^nd wicket. Clive Ballsrd toiled away for 21 overs for a single wicket, but it was Stanford skipper Geoff Lake who returned the best figures. Taking all the pace of the ball, he trapped 5 of the home team at a cost of 33 runs. Two rain interruptions saw the Old Boys declare early after 42 overs.

Stanford also had a crucial stoppage in their innings, which certainly cost them the win. Having also lost an early wicket, it was a 2^nd wicket partnership of 68 between Peter Victory (66) and Colin Easter (20) that set them on their way. Pressure mounted as the overs slipped away, but Ballard (40) and Lake (26no), kept them in the hunt            . With 12 needed from the last over, Ballard  was bowled from the first ball, going for a mighty swipe. Sanderson then hit 10 from the next 4, giving Stanford hope, but a bye to the keeper from the last ball was just not enough.

Stanford  III 6 points  Old Southendians III 8 points

Stanford IV  105ao  (30.2 overs)              Old Southendians 45ao (11.1 overs)

Adrian Page 26, John Timcke 20                    Laura Knight 5-19

Ricky Stevenson 5-28

Essex U17 Laura Knight, picked up 5 Old Southendian wickets in her first 3 devastatingly accurate overs, to effectively end the match as a contest. However, it was a tribute to Old Southendians and particularly their captain, Ricky Stevenson, that the match was played at all. Having scraped together 9 players to bring down to the Billet, he was determined to get a game in – and his team fielded through some pretty atrocious conditions to make sure it happened. They did have Stanford on the rack however, with wickets falling steadily – mostly to Stevenson (5-28) himself. Only Adrian Page (26) and John Timcke (20) made scores out of the teens.

Hopes the Old Boys may have harboured of challenging the fairly paltry 105 that Stanford had posted were dashed as soon as Laura Knight got the ball in her hands. She picked up two wickets in her first over, two in her second and one in her third, to register her first five-for in any form of cricket. John Harris, returning that morning from his Barbados sojourn, also accounted for a couple and Stanford ran out winners by 60 runs. Stanford IV  20 points, Old Southendians IV  4 points

The Sunday Match v Maylands Green was cancelled due to the weather.