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June 14th/15th 2003

	Don't These Young Whipper-Snappers Know That They Are Supposed To Lose This Match?
	(And A Tense Victory On Sunday 15th)

Presidents Match June 14th:

On Saturday June 14th, on a perfect summer's day, the Denham XI (captained by Dave Maynard) broke with tradition and soundly beat the Presidents XI, captained by former Denham star Gary Hales. (Pictures)

"A Fine All-Round Performance"

As is traditional, the Presidents XI batted first and President JR Richardson opened the batting, effecting a smart straight drive in the process, before retiring after a couple of overs.

Alex Hales was just beginning to cut loose before Joe O'Hara produced a stunning catch on the boundary to dismiss him for 23, but his opening partner Bobby Rai went on to post a stylish 53 before retiring. Harish produced a tidy opening spell of 6 overs for 15, but even better for the Denham XI, he managed to cripple Bobby Rai with a fierce misdirected runout attempt that crashed into his knee and stopped him bowling in the second innings.

In came the Hales brothers and the scoring rate naturally went up, but there was some jug evasion there (Gary 38) and it was left to Stuart Payne (34 not out) to bring the score over the 200 mark. There was a nice little cameo at the end from young Nick Hales to help the Presidents XI reach 213/5 off their 45 overs.

Andy Leach picked up 2/24, while Jeff Simpson bowled with real venom from the other end.

Andy Leach was in merciless form with the bat also (51, retired) and he and the elegant Ambrose Treacy (47) kept the Denham XI up with the required run rate from the start. The baton passed to Dave Matthews and Joe O'Hara (both 28) who kept Denham in the hunt, then Dave Maynard and Jeff Simpson brought Denham to within a whisker of victory with 7 or so overs to spare, before Jeff Simpson went rather too far down the track to young Nick Hales and was smartly stumped (well he missed the ball and walked off assuming he had beeen stumped).

Suddenly there was no Denham batsman ready with his pads on - Richie Brathwaite came out without any, but the winning boundary was soon scored without injury.

Pick of the bowlers were Alex Hales (7 overs, 1/24) and Phil Ashworth (9 overs, 1/37).

Skipper Maynard accepted the President's Cup (the first Denham skipper to win it) and praised his team's fine all-round performance: everybody had made a useful contribution.

An excellent curry was served in the pavilion afterwards (thanks Jim and Jen) and lots of former players met up with each other, remembered old times and downed copious amounts of beer - as is proper for such an occasion.

Sunday XI v Woodley June 15th: A Close-Run Thing

The Sunday XI got back to winning ways with a narrow 2-wickets victory over Woodley in a time game.

On a baking hot day Phil Dickson bowled unchanged for 20 overs of real pace and control, gaining 6 for 56. Two of his wickets were as a result of excellent slip catches by Dave Matthews (who finished with 3 catches in all).

For Woodley, Stone contributed a useful 34 at the top of the order, and Razni chipped in with 23, but the innnings was held together by Geddes's 51, as they reached 161 all out. Andy Leach got 2 wickets, with Phil Ashworth and Simon Johnson getting one apiece.

Denham's reply was inhibited by a long spell of accurate slow bowling by Figzal (3/58 off 18 overs) and Geddes (2/37 off 17 overs). Messrs Bull, Leach and Matthews all contributed useful runs, but at 66/5 we were in some trouble.

Stuart Payne then began hitting the ball with increasing authority and when he unluckily played on for 57, he and Geoff Inglis (21) had virtually doubled the score.

Wickets tumbled near the end. At length we wanted 6 to win off the last 2 overs with only young Sam left in the hutch.

Captain Brathwaite was seen chewing his nails right down. Dot Ball after dot ball went by, then Phil Ashworth slashed first a four (which broke the tension) and then the winning 2, and we had scraped home by 2 wickets with barely an over remaining.

No League matches for Denham this weekend, but the relevant Morrant Chiltern League Tables for 16/6/2003 are here