Ist XI: Clash of Titans

...Only One Can Win.

Dave Maynard's Report

On a overcast day, Denham lost the toss and were put into bat by Braywood on a bowler's wickets and wasn’t long before Denham lost a couple of quick wickets in Tobin 8 and Nicholas 8.

In came in-form Paul Hazell, again displaying a good range of shots for a fine 35, who created a vigorous partnership with Usman Khan before the latter was out for an excellent 40. Lee Webber was next out for 2 in a dubious lbw decision.

In came Dave Maynard who helped to increase the run rate with Hazell before he departed for an well deserve 35, Faisal Mahmood was out shortly afterwards and big hitter Joe O’Hara came in and scored an excellent 20 before being stumped.

Maynard, running out of partners, then decided to go for a stupid second run to keep the strike and run himself out for a grafted 38 in difficult conditions and Denham were bowled out for 181.

Denham began their reply in excellent fashion with Mahmood taking 2 quick wickets in his first few overs, leaving them 8-2 then Braywood created a partnership and managed to bring the score up to 40-2, when Khan came on and ripped through the middle order leaving Braywood reeling at 80-7.

Braywood created another little partnership before O’Hara took a wicket leaving Braywood 106-8. Victory was in sight, but with the bowlers tiring Denham changed them and Braywood scored some quick runs taking them up to 154-8. Danger of disaster!

But this just set up the champagne moment of the game when Joe O’Hara took two wickets in an over to win the game for Denham.

Notable performances were: Batting Usman Khan 40, Dave Maynard 38, Paul Hazell 35 and Joe O’Hara 20; Bowling: Khan 4-22, O’Hara 3-19, Mahmood 2-32 and excellent keeping from Maynard who took a brilliant catch in front of 1st slip

Denham 29pts Braywood 8pts

DENHAM INNINGS
C.TOBIN CT. B.SIDHU B. G.WILLIAMS 8
U.KHAN CT. J.NUNN B. S.BENNETT 40
J.NICHOLAS LBW B. S.BENNETT 8
P.HAZELL LBW B. A.LANGLEY 35
L.WEBBER LBW B. S.BENNETT 2
D.MAYNARD RUN OUT 38
F.MAHMOOD CT AND BOWLED A.LANGLEY 6
J.O’HARA ST. B.SIDHU B. H.SHAFIQ 20
K.WALFORD B. F.SAEED 5
S.TIDBURY B. F.SAEED 0
P.DICKSON NOT OUT 0
TOTAL 181 ALL OUT OFF 49.3 OVERS

BOWLING Overs Maidens Runs Wkts E/Rate Avge S.BENNETT 15 5 36 3 12 30 2.40, G.WILLIAMS 12 2 38 1 38 72 3.16, H.SHAFIQ 9 0 38 1 38 54 4.22, A.LANGLEY 9 0 46 2 23 27 5,11 F.SAEED 1 0 3 2 1.5 3 3.00

BRAYWOOD INNINGS
F.SAEED CT. C.TOBIN B. U.KHAN 25
H.SHAFIQ LBW B. F.MAHMOOD 1
B.SIDHU RUN OUT 22
C.PHILLIPS B. F.MAHMOOD 0
P.BUCKLEY B. U.KHAN 0
C.RUSSELL B. U.KHAN 18
B.CARTER CT. MAYNARD B. U.KHAN 13
J.NUNN CT. L.WEBBER B. J.O’HARA 0
A.LANGLEY NOT OUT 9
S.BENNETT B. J.O’HARA 33
G.WILLIAMS B. J.O’HARA 0
TOTAL 154 ALL OUT OFF 37 OVERS

BOWLING Overs Maidens Runs Wkts E/Rate Avge
F.MAHMOOD 11 3 32 2 16 33 2.90, P.DICKSON 7 1 29 0 4.14, U.KHAN 6 1 22 4 5.5 9 3.66, J.O’HARA 8 3 19 3 6.3 16 2.37, K.WALFORD 3 0 33 0 11.0, J.NICHOLAS 2 1 6 0 3.0

2nd XI :

Braywood Felix

Braywood Felix is what this little fellow is called, Lucky Braywood, we say.

Skipper Payne's Report

Denham 2's winning run finally came to an end.

Travelling to Braywood, we found ourselves put in on a typical Braywood track.

With low bounce, and an accurate attack, we lost Dalts stumped early on, and Bobby Rai and Ambrose Treacy grafted a 52 run partnership, which took 22 overs.

When an attempt to pick up the scoring rate was begun, wickets began to fall, and Braywood's Davis availed himself of 7 for only 32 runs, as we succumbed to 140 all out.

Our opponents began steadily, and we toiled away with no luck at all. While during our attampts to score by lofting the ball, we found fielders, they managed to find the gaps.

Akhil finally managed to bowl opener Rolls, and we thought we had a chance when Braywood's 3 dog was caught short of his crease by a throw from bowler Grover in his follow through, only to find the umpire's view blocked by backward square leg.

When asked why he was between the umpire and the stumps, he who-shall-not-be-named explained he was backing up the throw, fully 90 degrees out of alignment.

Jack Grover continued to toil, and was rewarded with 4 for 44 from his 15 overs, and with Ambrose's 2 for 23 from 10, we almost wore them down.

With 7 down for 126, we thought we had a chance, but Ansell taking 14 off an over, Braywood prevailed.

Denham 5 pts Braywood 20 pts

Meanwhile Littlewick Green thrashed Hurley, which makes them 50 points ahead of Denham, with Braywood after today's (cough) lucky display, 17 points clear of Denham

Sunday XI 26th June:

Knotty Green Tied in Knots by Denham

Alan Coulson's Report

A weakened Denham side were put in to bat by Knotty Green on Sunday, responding with a respectable score of 221.

Useful early runs were scored by Bobby Rai (25) and skipper Russell Bowry (41), followed by a stand of 59 for the fifth wicket featuring Dan Kugler (52) and the returning Olly Bareham (35).

Knotty Green. were soon under pressure from the opening attack of Jack Grover and Gerald O'Hara, both of whom moved the ball prodigously and both claimed two wickets.

Several bowlers were used to prise out the Knotty Green batsmen, the most successful being Harish Bhatt with three wickets.

His mystifying appeals and enthusiastic comments like "let's hit the woods" inspired the normally shy Bobby Rai and Russell Bowry into suitable verbal encouragement.

Knotty Green were well short at 154 all out in the 39th over, giving Denham a 67 run victory.