Chiltern Crusaders CC

Scorecard

Penn St CC v Chiltern Crusaders CC on Sat 13 May 2017 at 1.00pm
Chiltern Crusaders CC Won By 3 wickets

Match report A day of highs and lows, that ended in disaster for one of the troops (who went down fighting heroically for the cause), but ended in unlikely and dramatic triumph. The day can best be described through the evolution of the betfair odds....

12.30pm Pre-toss - Betfair odds for CCCC win 3-1
It had been a struggle to get a team together having gone down to 8 at one stage, but 3 debutants answered the call, Bill Hurst in from Suffolk, Chris Hooley in from Brighton, and Stewart Easterbrook in from Beaconsfield. Having spent some years in the 90's drinking and (not really) studying with the first 2, Skip was not feeling too confident on cricketing ability if he was brutally honest, while the latter was an unknown quantity.

12.35pm Post-toss - Betfair odds for CCCC win 5-1
Skip completely bottled it, having won his 3rd toss out of 3, inserted the oppo. There was not a great reaction in the dressing room to the news it has to be said (oh, how things can change!).

1.40pm 12 overs gone - Betfair odds for CCCC win 10-1
108-0 ... oh god

2.05pm 17 overs gone - Betfair odds for CCCC win 20-1
150-0 ... Skip was starting to draft his resignation speech in his head.

2.10pm 18 overs gone - Betfair odds for CCCC win 20-1
156-1 The thought of 350+ after 40 overs was in everyone's head at this stage. Skip brought himself back on and snaffled one of the openers - but not the one we wanted who had been flaying us everywhere.

2.20pm 21 overs gone - Betfair odds for CCCC win 18-1
180-2 at drinks - crucially the big lad who'd opened the batting, having reached his ton (and hadn't retired, to Skips dismay), top edged one for a c&b Skip and some relief for the embattled Crusaders.

3.20pm 37 overs gone - Betfair odds for CCCC win 12-1
The hour after drinks was a magnificent team effort. Every one chipped in, wickets were shared around, top keeping from Matt including 2 sharp stumpings at the end, and great catches taken from Rob, Stewart and Bill. Bill's in particular was unexpected given he'd spent most of the afternoon wandering around chatting to other fielders and was never in the same place twice. 180-2 became 244 all out, and suddenly it wasn't such a crap game after all. Iain bowled 8 overs straight and took 3 well earned wickets. Stewart was a little unlucky to go wicket-less, but a strong debut performance.

4.35pm 9 overs gone - Betfair odds for CCCC win 14-1
The Crusaders have never been close to scoring 245, a slow and watchful start and the loss of Semi-Skip inexplicably hitting a full toss on to his stumps followed by Nick going cheaply and it was 21-2, asking rate 7.2/over.

5.30pm 23 overs gone - Betfair odds for CCCC win 10-1
A 50 partnership between Skip and Matt, whilst not exactly Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli, it was an important stage of consolidation and it was 83-3 when Skip holed out looking to push things on. The odds on a win were still long, but there was sniff with wickets in hand, asking rate 9.5/over.

6.00pm 30 overs gone - Betfair odds for CCCC win 7-1
Hello .... what's happening here.... 82-3 became 160-4. Matt cut loose after reaching his 50, accumulating a chanceless and very classy 86 before succumbing to a grubby pea-roller which trapped him in front. Stewart on his debut supported Matt nicely. Asking rate dropped to 8.5/over. The question was did the "tail" have 80-odd runs in it.

6.30pm 35 overs gone - Betfair odds for CCCC win ....... now too hard to call
160-4 became 221-6 in just 5 tumultuous overs. Chris was unlucky to get out cheaply to a fine diving catch, but then Stewart and Iain set about the Penn St attack pummelling them to all parts. Stewart brought up 50 and the 3rd 50 partnership of the game and the target was well and truly in sight. But then... the stuff that could not be predicted, and why you could not say what the odds were at this stage....

Stewart was late on one and skied it to mid off and we all wondered if that would be it. Rob had to leave early so we now only had 10 - 3 wickets left and 24 to get. Richard and Iain were then involved in a calamitous run out. I'm sure I speak for everyone when we wish Iain a good recovery from the horrendous snapped Achilles that resulted. It was actually Richard who was out, so effectively we lost 2 wickets in one ball!

Enter our last 2 gladiators - Gary ever the team man along side actor, lothario, loose cannon, unpredictable Bill Hurst. It's hard to put in to words what this looked like from the side lines. Bill in from Suffolk had been sitting outside the pub with a fag and a couple of pints of ale wearing his "tractor boys" fleece top. He transformed himself into .... well .... the same sort of thing as he ambled out to bat with his white grandad shirt half untucked with a couple of buttons open, having his last toke on a fag as he crossed the boundary line to walk out to the middle. Gary, lets not forget has been known to walk out to open the batting without pads on. I must admit I was half expecting them to be back within moments.

What followed will go down in Crusaders folklore. There was time to spare with still 3 overs to go and 12 to get, 1 wicket left, so it was all about knocking the 1's off. Gary did just that poking at a few and doing exactly what was needed. Bill then on strike crashed one through mid wicket to the boundary. 6 to win, 2 overs left. Could this really happen. Gary again doing exactly the right thing, nudged one for a single. Then Bill on strike, with a lusty swing, connected with a perfectly decent ball as sweetly as you could ever see - in the air, from the side we were watching the fielders to see if they were under it at Long on/Long off, but it was way way over them in to the trees - a magnificent hit for 6 and in unbelievable scenes the Crusaders had only gone and done it!

What a day it turned out to be. Everyone played their part, and it really was a tremendous team effort.

We should also say a big thanks to all the support we had, lots of families and injured players cheering us on(some louder than others!) definitely helps!

We also must say thanks to the oppo who were very gracious in defeat and hung around for a few beers after - it is definitely now our favourite fixture.

Skip

Penn St CC Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 5w 7b 14lb 
for 10 wickets
30
244 (37.0 overs)		     
D Jones Caught  101
W Smith Caught  37
M Yates Bowled  10
J Tollerfield Caught  17
D Adams Caught  28
C Wildman Bowled  1
N Loftus Caught  11
T Yashomon Stumped  2
A Tatton Caught  0
J Fryer Not Out  6
P Goodchild Stumped  0

Chiltern Crusaders CC Friendly XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jeremy Wilson8.0060230.007.50
Gary Partridge4.011728.504.25
Stewart Easterbrook8.005700.007.13
Alex Bartlett8.0025125.003.12
Iain McLaughlin8.0151317.006.38
Nick Beckwith1.00824.008.00

Chiltern Crusaders CC Friendly XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 10w 13b  
for 7 wickets
27
246		        
Jeremy Wilson Caught  24
Alex Bartlett Bowled  2
Nick Beckwith Caught  5
Matthew Ayre Lbw  86
Stewart Easterbrook Caught  55
Chris Hooley Caught  2
Iain McLaughlin Retired Not Out  22
Rob Bray  
Richard Walker Run out  1
Bill Hurst Not Out  13
Gary Partridge Not Out  1

Penn St CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
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