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Saturday 28th April 2007

Denham vs Harrow 2nd XI

Jack Grover's Report

A date that will live on in cricketing memories as the occasion of a defining match of cricket, the culmination of weeks, or even months and years, of preparation...

The crowd had gathered with barbecues and a carnival atmosphere descended on the Field of Dreams. This was the big one, would the greatest team on Earth continue to vanquish all who came before them, or was there one team that just might be able to throw a spanner in the works? That's right - it was Denham vs Harrow 2nd XI and the weather couldn't have been better.

Denham made a positive start, winning the toss and choosing to bat on a wicket that looked patchy but played well. However, despite the trademark domination of Usman "The Mighty" Khan, who bullied his way to 95, only two other names on the scorecard made double figures: Bobby "Spiller" Rai and Extras. Thus the innings started promisingly but stalled towards the end and Denham finished on 187 with a wicket or two in hand.

Tea passed without any major upsets and the game moved to the second innings. Conscious of the meagre target, Denham planned to begin their defence with the two most economical bowlers in the club. Unfortunately they weren't playing and so it was up to makeshift captain Jack "Left Arm Over" Grover to take the semi-new ball. And yes! An early breakthrough came in the first over as the Harrow's opener was bamboozled and the sweet sweet sound of leather crashing into ash serenaded the Denham faithful.

However, Harrow's poorly named Junior opened a batting masterclass in the middle and was soon coaching his partners through a constant 6+ per over run rate. Even the raw power of Gerald "G-Dog" O'Hara and the raw aggression of Faisal "the Chicken" Mahmood couldn't cause any consistent hold-ups, and the game seemed to be getting away from Denham.

But cometh the hour, cometh the cliché. A cunning new tactic of sightscreen hypnosis lulled the batsmen into a trance and Alex "Bitburger shandy please, Barman" Marman took three quick wickets to get Denham back into the game. The wily square veteran "Fabulous" Phil Ashworth was putting the brakes on at the other end, and soon Junior was sent on his way as Peter "Slick Gloves" Schembri gathered a patented bamboozler from Phil and flattened the stumps with the Harrow man out of his ground. Suddenly it was game on, and bowlers who earlier had been running with mere shrapnel wounds were volunteering for front-line duties.

Unfortunately it was too late to rally and Harrow cruised to their target of 188 with around 10 overs to spare. Several interesting lessons to learn from this game before the league starts next week, for example: catches win matches; never judge a huge West Indian cricketer by his name; and apparently it is possible to bowl right arm over the wicket to a left-hander.

Come on Denham!

Saturday 29th April 2007

Denham vs Sonning

It was a familiar story concerning the Denham batting against Sonning last Sunday. Three batsmen did well, but had little support from the rest.

On this occasion the successful batsmen were James Nicholas with another solid 59, Joe O'Hara with a rapid 46, including 3 sixes and 6 fours and Akhil Saberwal, who just missed top-scoring with 57. These players were mainly responsible for Denham reaching 191 for 4, but again the batting fell away as the home side subsided to 221 all out, with Richie Braithwaite making the other worthwhile contribution of 20.

The Sonning openers had been eyeing the short boundary on the Pavilion side enviously when Joe was trying to lose as many balls as possible during the Denham innings, and Richards set to work immediately in chasing the target.

Despite his 8 overs costing 47 runs, the new "opening" bowler Harish Bhatt took 2 wickets. However, once Richards (109) had found good support from other players, the target was reached after 32 overs with the loss of only 4 wickets. Bobby Rai and Hemen Mehta claimed the other two wickets to fall.