Chigwell Cricket Club

It's a fair cop..... but the batsmen (not society) were to blame.

Sunday 10th May 2009 Chigwell v Met Police.

It was a lovely sunny day (check out the new pics from the camera of RobbieO in the gallery area) as I pulled up at the Met Police ground on Sunday and most of the chaps were already gathered at the little changing room in the hope of another nice day out and another win for CCC.
Hmmm.....well, at least we got the nice day out.
The pitch looked its usual uneven surface when I went out to toss up with the Met skipper. He fancied a 40 over match, which I didn't really resist, so we made an agreement as he wanted to bat first and I wanted to chase (not knowing what's a good score on that pitch).
The Met batted pretty well for their home conditions , although weirdly they didn't look that good but the final total of 181 was totally decent.
Roger and James S took the new ball and after James settled they both bowled nicely (as did most of our team - only Richard (the sun god) and Adam (the keeper) didn't bowl!)
Highlights were Zarg's return - right on the money after a long winter, Owen once again in the wickets ...and Graham S bowling late on taking 3 wickets for 7 off 2 overs!!  Welcome to Chigwell, G!
Overall we did the bowling right and fielded well and energetically and we all seemed to have a nice time:-)

Onto the batting:  To summarise, I would say we didn't really adapt our batting to the local conditions and paid the price.  Several of us fell early on playing the way we would on a good surface (this strip was very two-paced and the bounce extremely variable) and gradually we slipped further behind the required rate, lost more wickets and finished 50 short of the total.
It was fun to watch the late order playing some aggresive shots as there was no draw possible.
181 was a completely realistic target so it's a shame that as a batting unit we didn't really have our act fully together.
If I hadn't tinkered with the basics of the batting order (as someone suggested) we might have done better, but it's also clear that us in the top order should have employed a more sensible shot selection given the conditions!!
I reckon that we could have pushed the field much more than we did too and picked up more singles?

Anyways, the Met were a decent bunch and it was good to see lots of supporters on the boundary...... and we had an interesting tea - deep-fried sausages and chips!

Seeya.

R.x

League news

South Loughton recorded an emphatic win against Chaseville on Sunday. They must be stopped! Report by Andy Battle on the Middlesex and Essex Invitation League website here.

Early season report... Top of the league!

Chigwell's Cricket season has well and truly started... and we're currently top of the league! We've played 2 friendly matches and 2 league matches already with no problems from the weather so far.

Ok, so we started the season off with our first Middlesex & Essex Invitation League match against South Loughton. This lot always seem to be a bit difficult to beat and this time was no exception. We lost the toss and were inserted by SL on an overcast afternoon and began our innings with, for me at least, a sense of early season unpreparedness. Anyways, we perhaps under-achieved as a batting unit as we mostly seem to do on the SL ground and only managed to post 128 by the end of the 45 overs (I felt little chance of gaining a win by batting on over the 45 - and risk losing our 2 batting points in the process). SL duly knocked the runs off and the win was theirs... We managed a couple of bonus points out of it.  Showers were not working!!!

2nd match we were on our way to North Mymms (just north of South Mimms;-)  a charming ground very well appointed and looked after beautifully. Lovely outfield to dive around on if necessary!  Very nice tea also.

I lost the toss and NM decided to bat.  Wrong decision for them I'm pleased to say as some tidy bowling (props to Richard) kept them out of the runs for long enough to make them forget how to score any and the scoring moved extremely slowly. Owen was also brought into the 'attack' later on and notably took 2 wickets (caught by RobO and the sadly missed Imran). NM had to declare on 130 as time was moving on and, after stuffing ourselves on the fulsome spread we had no real problems achieving the win. Dave got a half-century and Chas a breezy 20 odd...   The showers were working well!!

Next up was Pacific - a team I play for regularly so I hoped we would be able to put up a good battle! 
We won the toss and I decided to bowl as I thought the chase would give us the best chance of winning. As a team I would say we didn't bowl our best but Pacific had some very good batsmen out that day so we did well to do as well as we did!  They declared on 248 for 8, squeezing us a little for time.
Tea was a rustic affair served from the galley and eaten outside on the benches. No cup of tea available!!!
We went about the chase with intent and all in all we did pretty well as a unit (I made a punchy ton, ensuring some free beer for my team-mates!) finishing up on 200 for 9.

Now here's the thing....... if we hadn't gone for 56 extras including 39 wides we could very easily have won the match.  39 wides???!!!!!!  Ridiculous. Get a grip Chigs.

Which brings us on to our 2nd League match and season debut on our home ground - the beloved Old Chigs.  We were playing Hadley Wood Green and hoped that this match could provide us with the league win we desperately needed after our loss to SL.  .... It did!

I won the toss and had no hesitation in putting HWG in to bat (as they have been known to stodge the draw on more than one occasion;-) on a decent looking wicket. It all went nicely to plan with all our bowlers doing the business and keeping any runs at bay. In fact, we did so well that HWG decided to bat over the 45 overs as they hadn't reached the 125 required for the first batting points. I've only ever seen that once before in a league match...  RobO took a decent 5-for (ensuring some free beer for this week!).

After another crap Old Chigs tea, myself and Dave bashed out the 133 required without much drama (apart from a bit of a comedy catch attempt apparently?).  It was a shame no one else was required to bat as we had both Harvey and Ross in the side for a nice change, and we still haven't had a chance to really see what Ahsan can do yet.  The showers stayed hot just long enough, and beers at the Chigs were followed by beers at the Nightingale (which were followed by beers at Bipasha ...and a very fine Vindaloo strength Dhansak). 

This match, win, and social was, and is, dedicated to our cricket and football buddy Imran, who's not around anymore..... 

Strength&Honour

R.x

A win vs Hadley Wood Green!

The Squad
Originally uploaded by Chigwell Cricket Club

A picture of the winning squad (+ a couple of little extras). There are one or two more new photos by Rob Orange in the Flickr gallery too.