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Penn & Tylers Green1st XI v Denham 1st XI

June 4th 2006

Denham lost against bottom of the league Penn & Tylers Green, because Usman failed again to score another ton. 85 is just not good enough.

Penn & Tylers Green 250/5 off 50 overs, us 203 all out (Usman Khan 85).

Points 30 them, 7 us.

Next week we have the league leaders, Chalfont St Giles. Wot hopes!

Denham 2nd XI v Wargrave 2nd XI

June 4th 2006

Skipper Mark Dalton's Report

The day began in a positive fashion. The toss was won for the first time this season. Hurrah! Another positive: the sun was shining, the sky was blue not a cloud in sight to spoil the cricket.

Wargrave were naturally given the chance to bat first as is the custom of the toss winner. The Wargrave batsmen were quickly tied down by some excellent bowling from openers Grover (15-8-12-4) and Saberwhal (10.4-3-34-2). Much to everyone's amazement Wargrave quickly subsided to 20 for 5 after 15 overs.

Only the stubborn Clark (22) remained. The general feeling was that if we could remove Clark early (which is rarely the case in our games with Wargrave) we could finish off the tail quickly.

Simpson (5-1-20-1) managed to get Clark with a straight one (the only one in the over) and our bogeyman trudged off. Jeffrey (36) and Morton (32) came together and rebuilt the shattered Wargrave innings. A respectable total of 152 all out in 52 overs was our final target.

The Denham reply got off to the worst possible start with Clark snaring a fine slip catch to remove Simpson (0) for a duck. Tang (4) strode to the crease and back again leaving Denham 23 for 2. Payne (a well crafted 22) joined Dalton in the middle and the pair proceeded to build an 80 run partnership and put Denham back in the drving seat. The loss of Payne and JK (2) in quick succession brought new hope to Wargave with Denham on 105 for 4 the game was back in the balance.

Fortunately Akhil (a fluid 31*) realised he should use the bat to hit the ball (and not his pad) and Dalton (carrying his bat for a hard working 77*) both drove, cut and pulled with aplomb and confidence to take us to 154 for 4 from 38 overs.

An excellent win for Denham. Denham 20 pts Wargrave 5pts

The Juggler

Champagne Moment(s): JK now known as 'the Juggler'. An excellent juggling slip catch to remove the dangerous Wargrave skipper Drew (1) and a second juggling catch at mid wicket to remove Morton. Unfortunately for the Juggler the second performance brought about a blooded finger and spilt webbing. Ouch! Soft hands next time.

Sunday XI Versus Perivale Phoenicians:

Sunday 5th June

Russell Bowry's Report

Bitchie Raithwaite was man-of-the-match because he looks like Carl Weathers.

Having lost the toss Denham were very grateful to be put into bat on a hot afternoon. But after Russell Bowry was dismissed very first ball, to a combination of a dross full-toss and an excellent catch at square leg, and Sir Stuart Payne picked out the same fielder 2 overs later, Denham needed some large contributions from the other batsmen.

Fortunately Premul Mehta (61) and Jameel Shaikh (65), beefed it up large and put on an excellent partnership of 126, which meant there would be a decent total to defend.

After their dismissals, there were some brainless innings from Joe O'hara , Gerald O 'Hara, Bitchie Raithwaite and Harish Bhatt, but Bobby Rai (33) and Alan Coulson (12*) scored well, and the Denham total of 220 for 9 off 40 overs looked good.

TEA REPORT. It was a decent effort but not as good as the previous 2 weeks. I have no problem with variation, indeed it is something to be encouraged, but the corned beef sandwiches and the salad (which everyone avoided) were bad ideas. Everything will be fine next week I'm sure, particularly if the rice is brought back, accompanied by pink wafers.

But back to the cricket. Shaikh and G O'Hara got Denham off to a flyer by dimissing an opener each and Sir Stuart Payne took a beautiful catch at gully that seemed to just stick in his stomach. In fact, I was waiting for Stuart to say something like "look, no hands" but there were no jokes and this was his only contribution to the game.

Anyway, this early brace of wickets brought Perivale's danger player Mian to the crease and he proceeded to despatch the bowl to all parts of the boundary. The opposition looked to be cruising to an easy victory. Captain Bowry thought "I can stop him," but was carted for 15 off 1 over, much to the delight everyone else.

There was only one option left - Fabulous Phil Ashworth. Ashworth proceeded to bowl the slowest, loopiest left arm spin, and Mian lost his patience and was bowled for 54. But Denham had much to do to force a victory. Luckily Harish Bhatt decided to copy Phil and flummoxed the Perivale batsmen with his complete lack of pace. After both of these bowlers finished their spells (PA 8-2/31, HB 8-1/39), Perivale needed about 44 off 7 overs with 2 wickets in hand.

Joe O'Hara was redeeming himself at one end, and Russell Bowry decided to redeem himself at the other. A tense run chase led to Perivale needing 20 runs off 3 overs, but Bowry out-redeemed O'Hara by taking the final two wickets and Denham won an enjoyably close game by 17 runs.