Badgers Cricket Club – Season 2017 Match Reports
This page holds the match reports for all games played during the 2017 season. The links below provide a direct route to the report for each game plus access to the reports for seasons from 2000 to the present. 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 both summary and full match reports were written by your host and webmaster, Steve Pitts, as were all editorial comments and statistical notes. 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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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Jake only needed four scoring shots for his twenty runs and the second of those was sufficient to take him to the top of the tree for runs scored in a season, finishing on 814 runs for the season, 13 more than Mark compiled in 2011. He had already broken another record just by coming out to bat, for his 21st innings of the season breaking a tie with Alan Tickner, Pete Snook and himself.
Darrell’s wicket in this game took him out of a tie with Alan Wilkes into ninth place on the list of lifetime wickets taken. He should pass Steve Card into eighth early next season but thereafter the gaps get much more challenging.
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Jake’s fifty was his eighth this season, which ties his father Mark’s mark from 2011, and leaves him just seven away from the season record of 801 that Mark set in that same season.
Allan turned out for the first time this season and thus has played at least one game in 35 different seasons, including the club’s first season 1959. He is the fifth Badger to play in that many seasons, tying him with Roy Gordon and behind only the Tickner brothers and your humble correspondent.
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Bill’s maiden over in this one took him past Rob Knew into twelfth place on the all-time list. Of course, this one could run and run since both are still active.
When Darrell came to the wicket in this game he tied his grandfather for 17th on the Badgers innings list and then proceeded to reach 1500 lifetime runs for the club with his final scoring shot.
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Greggy played his 200th innings for the club, becoming the eleventh Badger to step out to the wicket that many times, opening the batting for the 13th time and making his 39th duck.
This game saw Jake make his 22nd half century for the Badgers, which ties him with David Aldwinckle for eighth on the all-time list. Something tells me that it won’t be long before he races past those of the rest of us who aren’t called Mark Gordon.
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Thirteen runs into his innings Mark joined Jake in reaching 500 runs for the season, the eighth time he has done so, which was already the best in the history of the club, with Pat Redding second on five 500 run seasons. It also makes it the third season that both Mark and Jake had reached the landmark in a single season, whereas prior to 2014 there had only been one previous occasion when more than one player scored 500 runs in a season, that being 2003 when Alan Tickner, Pat Redding and Mark all did so.
Mark had a good day for personal milestones having bowled his 450th maiden for the club during the home side’s innings, a category in which he is already in third place by some distance, but with Alan Tickner (926) and Brian Moore (1066) a long way off. When it came to our innings this also turned out to be the 100th time that he has been the top scorer in a Badgers’ knock, ignoring the three other occasions on which he has joint top-scored with someone else.
Jake’s three catches in this game mean that he has achieved that feat four times, tying him for second place in that regard (in games played since 1985, prior to that we don’t have the detail in the database) with Alan Tickner. Of course he has a long way to go to catch his old man, who has done it on 27 separate occasions!? Those catches also took him from tied with Pete Legge in thirteenth place to tied with Mick Willmott in twelfth place on the all-time catching chart with Darrell now only one ahead of him. The first of Jake’s wickets took him out of a tie with Foxy for eleventh in the list of lifetime wicket takers, although he needs to take a further 51 to catch Alan Wilkes for the next place on the list.
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Mark’s 119 was the second highest of his seven hundreds for the club, leaving him one behind Pat Redding in the all-time century club. It was also his second of the season which is a feat that has only been achieved eleven times previously by seven other Badgers (Brian Moore three times, Brent Noble once, Chris Morgan twice, Dave Tickner once, Mike Law once, Pete Legge once and Pat Redding twice). Only Pat, with three in 2004, has ever scored more in one year.
The 152 that Mark and Rod added for the second wicket is the second highest second wicket partnership, sixteen behind the best from back in 2000 (I shall say no more).
Bill bowled a single over in this one but the fact that it was a maiden took him to 150 maidens lifetime, something achieved by only twelve other Badgers. His ratio of maidens to overs bowled (29.4%) is bettered only by Badgers legend Brian Moore (31.8%).
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Eleven runs into his innings of 35 Jake reached 500 runs for the season, the 24th time that a Badger has scored at least that many in a season and the fourth season on the trot that Jake has done so, something that only Pat Redding (between 2003 and 2006) had previously achieved.
Ben’s fifty was his fifth for the club and his first in just over four years. He also passed David Winter into 22nd place on the all-time innings list. My not out was my 67th for the club, taking me into sole possession of third place on the all-time list, although Roy had 66 from less than half of the innings it has taken me.
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Halfway through his third over Bill notched up 500 overs, becoming the 26th Badger to send down that many.
Not really a statistical item, but this is almost certainly the first time I have ever seen someone run out not just without facing a ball but without even reaching the wicket, in that Bill was still making his way onto the field when Mark, at square leg umpire, decided the wait had been too long and went to act as the non-striker so that Vinny could face the next ball. They almost succeeded in running two but Mark was just short on the return leg and thus Bill was recorded as run out without facing.
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Mark caught his tenth catch of the year for the Badgers to record double figures in that regard for the 21st season on the trot!!
Andy Curtis came within a well struck shot of recording his first fifty for the Badgers and bettered his previous high score, made on debut against Hampton Wick back in May.
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Bill took his fourth five-fer for the club whilst Vinny, despite only having 170 lifetime runs to his name has now top scored in an innings twice (I know, it was a thin week).
PLEASE NOTE that there were a number of queries regarding the scoring record when I came to process the game after my holiday (I really need to avoid missing games), the boring detail of which can be found in the Statistical Sett.
View the detailed scorecard of this game
My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Jake recorded his twentieth fifty for the club, passing Darren Hanley into sole possession of ninth place in that list, albeit that Darren also has four tons to his name.
Darrell batted for the 133rd time for the club, taking him past Mike Law into 18th place on the lifetime list, with my old man just two more ahead of him.
Mark’s 32 runs against were sufficient to take him past 8,000 lifetime runs allowed, comfortably in second place but with nearly 4,500 more required to pass Alan Tickner for most ever.
PLEASE NOTE that despite having a competent scorer, albeit one working on his own for much of the game, this week’s scorebook caused me many hours of heartache, the boring detail of which can be found in the Statistical Sett.
View the detailed scorecard of this game
My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Whilst not one of the most impressive of such performances, Mark’s top scoring 33 now means that he has been the top scorer (or at least joint top scorer) in 100 of the 476 matches that he has played for the Badgers!! Unfortunately I do not have full data going all of the way back to 1959, so it is impossible to include Brian Moore or all of Alan Tickner’s performances, but since 1985 only Pat Redding, with 55, has more than 50 such top scoring efforts.
Jake’s wicket in this game took him to exactly 150, the fourteenth Badger to capture that many victims, and joint twelfth on the all-time list.
My not out at the tail end of our innings is the 66th I have posted, tying club President Roy Gordon for third place on the all-time list, albeit that he required exactly half the number of innings that it has taken me. The 17 runs I recorded also took me past 7500 for the club, in fourth place by some distance but the 407 runs that I am behind Dave Tickner in third place look a long, long way off.
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Darrell’s second five-fer in two weeks took him past 200 wickets for the Badgers, becoming the tenth player to record that many for the club. The eighth and ninth spots are within his immediate grasp but thereafter the gaps get a lot wider. Since he wasn’t as economical as last week he also passed 4000 runs allowed, becoming the eighth Badger to concede that many!?
This was the club’s 32nd consecutive game without a draw, tying a record that dates back to 1959-1961 (when we played no limited overs cricket, so the streaks are not really comparable). My guess is that we’ll break the record next week since that will almost certainly be another limited overs game.
PLEASE NOTE that despite having two competent scorers working in tandem this week there were still some issues with the match record this week, the boring detail of which can be found in the Statistical Sett.
View the detailed scorecard of this game
My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Darrell’s five-fer was the first for the Badgers this season and the best bowling for the club since Mark snared seven victims at Dormansland in May 2012.
Jake took his fiftieth catch for the club, becoming the fourteenth Badger to snare that many. Whilst he has a long way to go to catch up with his old man I reckon that at his current rate of progress he might reach the top ten by the end of next season.
Greggy also reached a couple of milestones in this game, taking his 78th catch to tie Foxy in seventh place on the all-time list and playing his 267th game to pass Mick Willmott into sole possession of eighth on that list.
When Jake came off after his innings of 49 and expressed disappointment, I suggested that he ought to view it as another number ticked off rather than as a failure to score that more venerated half century. The discussions that followed led me to create a program that tracked each player’s individual scores, but I have not really had a chance to analyse the results since.
View the detailed scorecard of this game
My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Jake’s dominant knock was his 100th innings for the club, the 28th Badger, to come to the crease that many times. His nineteenth fifty for the club ties him with Darren Hanley in ninth place on that list and those nineteen have come in just three years, since he made his first in this fixture in 2014.
Vinny’s three for six (which was really a four-fer if you count the outrageous dropped catch in order to run out the better batsman) is his best bowling figures for the club, bettering the 3 for 17 at Horley two year’s ago.
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: About halfway through his innings Jake became the sixteenth Badger, to make 2000 runs for the club and with his very next shot passed Adrian Cowell into fifteenth place on the all-time run scoring list.
Darrell played his 129th innings for club, taking him past Keith Miller into 19th spot on the all-time list of innings played. The next couple of places should fall in short order, but thereafter things start spreading out and it will be 2018 at the earliest before he stands any chance of catching Albert Briscoe in 16th.
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: The unbroken 108 that Mark and Bill put on between them smashed the previous ninth wicket record, held by Mark and Greggy since the 2011 visit to Ham, by 35 runs. It was the 21st century partnership that the Skipper has been a part of, extending his own club record in that category.
Mark’s unbeaten 103 is his sixth century for the Badgers, taking him into joint second place on the all-time list of century makers, tied with Chris Morgan and two behind Pat Redding. He also went past 10,000 runs for the club in style – with his second scoring shot being a six – and becomes the only player in club history to reach the five figures.
PLEASE NOTE that it took me some time to sort out the scoring for this game, not helped by the fact that I didn’t play, and the boring detail can be found in the Statistical Sett.
View the detailed scorecard of this game
A lovely sunny afternoon greeted us at long-time opponents Dormansland – this was our 58th meeting, dating back to 1962 – and having lost the toss the Skipper chose to field (or at least that’s how he described the outcome). Rob Knew sent down a particularly miserly spell of opening bowling for which, in time-honoured fashion, he received absolutely no reward whilst Vinny Cibardo snared three victims at the other end courtesy of a smart slip catch from Bill Jenkins, a one-handed sprawling effort from Mark Gordon tracking from mid off to just behind the bowler and a straightforward effort off the very next ball for Ben Valentine at mid-wicket. When they finished their tandem effort after 14 overs the home side were 41 for 3 but the change bowlers offered a similar degree of niggardliness with Greggy picking up a victim courtesy of one that kept low and Darrell Pitts being thwarted in his efforts to get the batsmen to hit out at him despite giving it more than enough air.
When Ben and Mark took over the bowling chores the score had reached just 73 off 25 overs, for five wickets down courtesy of a very daft run out (which Amy Gordon, keeping wicket, later tried to wheedle the scorer into crediting to her rather than the thrower Bill. My decision was that neither of them should get it), with Dave Tribe serene at one end but nothing much happening at the other. This pattern continued with Ben trapping Josh Varney in front of all three (for a Varney-leading three runs on the day – his brother having made the golden duck and his old man then slapping one straight back to Ben in his next over after recording just a single). At this point Dave, rapidly running out of partners as Ben snared his third victim in the same over as the caught and bowled courtesy of another Mark special, started to show a little more aggression, hitting a couple of straight sixes off Mark but when George Jarrett had his bails trimmed without troubling the scorer either it looked like Dormansland might be rolled over for less than a hundred.
Some sterling resistance from Stuart Hellier, a disallowed catch by Darrell at square leg that would have been Ben’s five-fer had he not over-stepped and a couple of lusty blows that tripled Ben’s runs allowed saw the hosts reach 119 before Stuart became the third leg before victim of the innings (an indicator of the havoc the rainfall in the days prior had wreaked on the track rather than any reflection on the umpiring) leaving Dave stranded on 78 of those and thus 22 runs shy of making a second hundred against us nearly 37 years after his first.
After what was reportedly a cracking tea, and it certainly looked good, the Badgers gave Bill the chance to open the innings with Ricky Cibardo, since he had not had the opportunity to exercise his bowling muscles. I’m not sure that he was all that taken by the prospect (he was dozing in the sun when the skipper gave him less than five minutes notice to pad up) but he held the early innings together in genuine opener fashion as first Ricky, then Jake (a cameo featuring two big sixes, a four and an ugly hoick across the line) and Vinny all came and went in the first eight overs. The score was 38 for 3 as Amy joined Bill in the middle, well ahead of the required run rate, and the pair initially feasted on some loose deliveries – Bill hit the 29th ball he faced for six, having taken eight singles and a two off the previous 28, and Amy deposited a maximum into the same trees at square leg as her brother had targeted – before having to knuckle down against the fourth and fifth bowlers used, Beeson and Lindsay. The pair continued to bat sensibly – Amy facing 21 dot balls between her second and third fours – and had moved the score on to eighty, their partnership of 41 being the best of the day, before Bill was trapped in front and Amy castled in consecutive overs. Greggy departed in the next over, to the sixth LBW of the day, and the Badgers, if not teetering on the brink were wobbling a little, still requiring 34 to win with only four wickets left to fall.
Rod Smith and Darrell then set about dragging the visitors to their target, although the latter was incredibly fortunate to have an absolute dolly to mid off spilled early in his innings. He made the most of that stroke of luck by taking his side to within four runs of the target before making the mistake of hitting one straight at George fielding at short cover. Ben then ambled in at number nine and smacked the winning runs with more than ten overs still to be bowled but only three wickets in hand.
Statistical Notes: Rob reached a milestone of sorts for the second week running, his tight spell taking him to the 150 maidens mark, the 12th Badger to bowl that many. Ben’s four-fer was his best bowling figures since taking 4 for 14 against Ockley in 2014 and his best at anywhere other than Ockley!
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My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Rob reached one thousand runs for the Badgers with the final single of his innings, just before valiantly holing out at long on to end his contribution. He becomes the 32nd Badger to achieve that milestone.
Westy became the second Badger this year to record a four wicket haul, which also happened to be his best bowling figures for the club, albeit only from a handful of games.
(You might also care to check out Stoke’s report on the match which has a final paragraph that one would like to hope sums up the feelings of every opponent we play)
View the detailed scorecard of this game
My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Andy Curtis made his debut for the Badgers in this game and became the first debutant to score 40 or more since Simon Clementson hit 45 on his debut against Seven Sports in 2006. Let’s hope that Andy plays rather more games for us than Simon did. For the last time that a player making their first ever appearance scored a fifty or more we have to go all of the way back to Robin Suggate in May 1989!
Jake’s unbeaten 84 was his second highest score for the club behind only the 89 that he made against Oxted & Limpsfield two years ago and it lifted him into 16th place on the all-time run scoring list. Matt Mann recorded his best bowling figures for the Badgers, bettering the 3 for 39 at Tadworth in 2012.
This is the third time in club history that we’ve lost a game by a single run – the previous occasion being last season’s vist to Malpas – and almost certainly the first time we have lost by less than a yard, with Jake’s valiant attempt to hit a match winning six off the final ball coming up agonisingly short.
PLEASE NOTE that there was considerable detective work required to sort out the first innings scoring this week and the details of those deliberations can be found in the Statistical Sett.
View the detailed scorecard of this game
My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: Ricky’s fifty was his second for the club in his nineteenth innings. Billy’s four-fer was his sixth return of four wickets or more in this 66th bowling performance.
A handful of minor personal milestones this week, with Mark taking his 400th wicket for the club, the third Badger to do so but a long, long way behind the leading pair of Alan Tickner (942) and Brian Moore (965) and also playing (and batting) in his 30th season – tied for 7th most all-time. Greggy also reached a nice round number since he has now played, batted and bowled in 20 different seasons for the club – 8th most all-time on the bowling front and tied for 15th for played/batted. Less exciting, but “longevity has its place”, I extended my own record for seasons played for the club, having appeared in at least one game in each of the last 41 seasons.
PLEASE NOTE that there was a minor disagreement between the scorers this week, the details of which can be found in the Statistical Sett.
(You might also care to check out Beechwood’s page on the match which features a lengthy match report)