Badgers Cricket Club – Season 2000 Match Reports
This page holds the match reports for some of the games played during the 2000 season. Not all matches have reports because I hadn’t got into the habit of doing so, and some matches share a report.
The links below provide a direct route to the report for each game plus access to the reports for seasons since 2000. It is also possible to link to them from the associated rolling results page entries and I hope to extend that facility to include all of the historical results pages, once I’ve figured out the best method of doing so.
Unless otherwise noted all match reports were written by your host and webmaster, Steve Pitts. For reasons that are now lost in the mists of time, the reports are laid out in reverse chronological order, but hopefully the links above make that an unimportant detail.
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The 2000 season is over and done with, and to be brutally honest the Badgers had a truly dismal last few weeks of the season, losing one game altogether, to a last minute cry off by Newchapel, and three games on the field of play, two of them by some margin. The final week of the season was rather wet, to the extent that we were forced to play on the artificial track at Merrow, and our season ended with a real damp squib.
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(This report can be found under Blindley Heath below)
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Two ‘winning’ draws to report on this time out, with both games in the balance until the last couple of overs. Badgers visit to Blindley Heath started positively (with a ‘welcome to our new home’ barbecue put on by Mark and Dawn!!) and continued that way once the game started. Skipper Steve Pitts led the way, fuelled by two helpings of chocolate pie, with his first fifty including eleven fours. An opening stand of 67 was followed by 97 more for the second wicket, with David Jones adding to the battery with two big sixes.
Things slowed down a little when Jones departed, and Pitts followed soon after, a tired pull skied to mid wicket ending his highest ever innings just three runs short of a maiden century. A couple of lusty blows by Ian Gregg helped see Badgers through to their first score over 200 this season, leaving the prospect of a tough fielding stint against a good batting side on a small ground.
Blindley Heath started steadily, with opener Neil Burchett looking in ominously good form as the first pair put on 71 against tight bowling by John Rourke and Alan Tickner. The twenty overs started with a requirement of nearly seven an over, but Blindley Heath kept the scoreboard ticking over nicely and it was only Burchett’s eventual dismissal for a solid 76 slowing things down at a crucial time, plus some good tight bowling from Mark Gordon at the death, that saw Blindley Heath give up the chase when their eighth wicket went down off the first ball of the penultimate over with fifteen runs still needed.
The more recent game, our second ever visit to the beautiful environs of Horsley & Send, didn’t start quite as well, but after two early wickets were lost Justin Ducker and Mark Gordon settled down, rode their luck, and put on 108 runs for the third wicket. When Ducker was out, for a well-deserved 62, the scoring slowed to a crawl and the last 11 overs yielded only 30 more runs for the loss of five more wickets and a total that was probably twenty or so runs short of par.
Ian Gregg and John Rourke got our defense of that score off to such a good start, though, that those twenty runs proved unnecessary. Two early breakthroughs were followed by a regular procession of Horsley & Send batsmen to and from the pavilion, and at 88 for 7 with only twelve overs left it seemed as if there could only be one winner. Rourke finished his opening stint with the highly impressive figures of 12-4-22-2, but he was denied a chance to add to those numbers by the failing light, and the game petered out to a draw despite some powerful hitting by Horsley’s skipper, Steve Heal, who batted at number six and finished unbeaten on 72.
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This week saw our first ever visit to Oxshott (last year’s fixture was called off due to bad weather) and sadly we let ourselves down badly. Tight bowling – especially by Alan Tickner, who bowled 20 overs with six maidens – for the first two hours or so (punctuated by much scrabbling in the hedges around the outfield!!) was wasted during a final flurry that saw Oxshott rescue a good score.
When Badgers batted we were simply awful, with only two players reaching double figures, and our final total being the club’s lowest for over three years. Special mention to Mick Willmott, though, who got a chance to show the club’s ‘recognised’ batsmen how to do it, and ended up as top scorer.
The previous week had seen a far better performance against Ceraf. Our bowling was equally tight, with Alan Tickner again the star in that department in an opening spell of ten overs with six maidens, and whilst we did let Ceraf off the hook a little, some good catching, especially off John Minnett’s bad balls (the good ones didn’t seem to cause the batsmen the same problems!!) saw us restrict them to a below par total.
A solid batting performance followed, with David Aldwinckle carrying his bat for an unbeaten 56, Graham Davenport chipping in to keep things moving along after a couple of wickets went down around the 50 mark, and then Mark Gordon finishing the game with a flourish, battering two sixes and a four off what turned out to be the final over.
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(This report can be found under Oxshott above)
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A hot and sunny day at Ewhurst saw the Badgers play another good game to extend their winning streak to two games. After a shaky start, it was again the club captain, Steve Pitts, and captain for the day, Mark Gordon who pulled things together, with a stand of sixty for the third wicket. Mark was unlucky to be given out for 39, LBW to a ball that almost everyone felt he’d got a big inside edge to, but Steve continued to plod along whilst Allan Butt smashed the ball to all parts at the other end, on his way to an unbeaten 44.
When Steve was dismissed, by a good catch from one of Ewhurst’s young colts, for 48 runs, the pair had added another 48 runs, but it was Allan who supplied the final acceleration to a total of 177.
Ewhurst set off at a gallop after this score, hitting 41 from the first six overs, but the game was then turned by two stupendous catches off his own bowling by Mark Gordon. From 51 for 1 Ewhurst declined steadily, with Mark taking his first-ever five wicket haul, and Alan Tickner and Mick Willmott bowling tidily to clean up the tail.
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Badgers paid our first ever visit to the Joseph Hood Recreation ground in SW20 to take on long-time opponents Seveno on Saturday. For a public rec it was a nice ground, in good condition, but the continuing wet weather meant yet another slow wicket that made strokeplay difficult and resulted in some fairly comical mishits and air shots.
Economical opening spells from Mark Gordon, and another marathon effort from Ian Gregg (18-5-33-2), pegged the Seveno batting down and with first change Alan Tickner (16-2-33-3) equally stingy, the scoring rate stayed below three an over despite some late innings acceleration from the lower order.
Badgers reply got off to a solid start, with openers Steve Pitts and Graham Davenport riding their luck to put on 51 in the first thirteen and a half overs. However, Graham’s departure was followed by some poor middle order batting in the face of a committed bowling attack – especially left arm spinner Frater, who finished with figures of 4 for 29 and was one sharp chance at the wicket away from turning the match in Seveno’s favour.
Club captain Steve Pitts, on 41 at the time, was the recipient of that piece of good fortune, and when captain for the day Mark Gordon joined him at 91 for 6, it was a second captain’s innings that carried Badgers to victory despite Steve’s dismissal seven runs short of the victory target.
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Tour once again started with a whimper, with our Friday afternoon opponent, Chipping Norton, failing to turn up. Since we only had a pitch but no opposition for the Saturday, this put a bit of a damper on things, but we made the best of it, especially in the bar.
Saturday saw us play a double wicket competition on a very nice ground at Deddington, just south of Banbury. The competition was fierce, with all and sundry ending up close to exhaustion after an afternoon of unrelenting activity, but the day closed with David Aldwinckle and Barry Davenport getting the better of Darren Hanley and Keith Miller in a slightly one-sided final. A good time was had by all, and Dave Tickner was especially pleased to be able to contribute handsomely to the kitty as a result of the favourites taking the day and the book ending up very flush indeed.
Finally on Sunday we were able to get a proper game of cricket, thanks to the stalwarts at Hook Norton. A sudden downpour just under an hour before the scheduled start saw the game reduced to a limited overs format, thirty overs per side, but at least we were able to play.
David Aldwinckle added a 65 to his exploits of the day before, and with Darren Hanley contributing a further 42 we were able to close at 177 for 6, despite a fighting 3 for 12 from Mike Battley. Hook Norton never got started in reply, and with Alan Wilkes taking 3 for 14 from his opening spell of four overs, and Darren Hanley chipping in with 3 for 4 from his three overs, we coasted to an easy win.
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Having won the toss and decided to bat the Loose openers added 70 runs off the first 10 overs and things looked ominous. However Badgers managed to put the brakes on to a certain extent with Alan Tickner (4-44) and Ian Gregg (3-53) being the best of the bowlers. Three Loose batsmen posted good scores the pick being opener Hayward who scored a quickfire 66. Graham Davenport performed admirably behind the stumps (his first time ever) taking 3 good catches and stopping a lot of wides!!
In reply Badgers lost a quick early wicket but then David Jones (35) and Barry Davenport (33) added 50 for the second wicket and that was followed by another 50 partnership between David Jones and David Aldwinckle (48 no.). At 103 for 3 Badgers were in with a chance and after Graham and David Aldwinckle had pushed the score along to 172 at the fall of the eighth wicket, victory looked possible with four overs left. However, the bowling tightened up and in the end the match finished in a well contested draw. Davey was the pick of the Loose bowlers, taking 5 wickets.
Many thanks to the Kemps for the pre match BBQ!! and to Brian Moore for a great spell of umpiring
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After the disappointment of the previous week’s washout, our winning streak was extended to two matches, both under the guidance of vice-captain Mark Gordon. Another solid bowling performance was backed up by just enough batting to see us through to a four wicket victory.
With the weather the way it has been it was no surprise that this game was played on yet another sticky dog, and the bowlers took full advantage of the difficult conditions, pegging the scoring rate to less than two an over. Epsom took 54 overs, and the better part of three hours to amass their 92 runs, with tight bowling, and impressive looking bowling figures, from all concerned. Pick of the crop was Johnny Rourke, who bowled fifteen overs whilst conceding just nineteen runs and taking two wickets.
Our batting was still not at its best but a solid anchoring innings from David Jones was just enough to see us through against some accurate bowling, including a five-for from Epsom’s strike bowler.
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The unavailability of the club captain was obviously just the fillip the club needed :) and although the batting failed to spark for the third week running, a solid bowling performance saw the team through to a maiden victory for season 2000.
Batting proved difficult for both sides, but only David Aldwinckle amongst the Badgers was even able to break into double figures as the team struggled for two and a quarter hours to amass 71 runs before skipper Mark Gordon eventually ran out of partners.
When Leigh came to bat they too found things tough, and with four bowlers amongst the wickets and both Mark and David taking three wickets the Badgers were able to record their first win of the season somewhat against the odds.
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The second game of the season proved to be all too similar to the first. We inserted our opposition for the second week running, and this time failed to restrict them to an acceptable score. Despite some tidy bowling by Mark Gordon and Alan Tickner, Epsom Liberals got off to a fast start with the bad balls (and several good ones) being dispatched with alacrity. However, the breakthrough was made before things got out of hand, and Mark went on to take three wickets.
Unfortunately for us the opposition had a secret weapon lurking down the order and Tony Low-hing put our late innings bowling to the sword with some lusty hitting that saw his team to a sizeable score of 201.
Our batting was a considerable improvement over last week, with Graham Davenport shining in the middle order and Alan Tickner again running out of partners, this time with just three overs to spare. We did end up a man short on the batting front with poor Shayne Barge, playing his first ever game for the Badgers, having to retire to the local A&E after misjudging a catch at long on and suffering a ruptured eyebrow. Thankfully he returned, just as the game finished, to show off his stitches and to assure us that there was no lasting damage.
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The weather did us proud this weekend, so the first game of the 2000 season has come and gone. Sadly, we played well for only half the match, with the bowlers and fielders doing us proud, at least until tiredness crept in over the last half dozen overs, restricting a strong batting line-up to just 172 runs accumulated over nearly two and three quarter hours and 48 overs. Alan Wilkes, fresh from his cricketing holiday in Barbados, started the season with a bang (and a whole raft of wides!!) taking seven wickets courtesy of a handful of straight ones, a couple of long hops and some good fielding.
When it came our turn to bat, however, nobody got in and settled and the wickets just kept falling. In the end we finished a very poor second, but at least there is now something to see on this page.