Charlton Down Cricket Club

Gather round the faithful followers of the mighty CDCC 2nds and listen to another tale of woe and sorrow. My first match report brings tales of gloom, heartache and sorrow , and yet emerges with two hero’s foiled at the last.

I picked a Strong team and took the field with great hope in my heart. The bowling was industrious but at times still too generous . The fielding was summed up by a moment when Doyley lumbered across the cover area looking like a horse waiting to be shot , and yet only a few balls later the same man flew like a salmon to take a diving one hander. Inconsistency still remains with others producing excellent stops followed by ‘Fred Cano’s fielding school of stupidity! Of note were the ever accurate Mr Jacobs, ‘look and learn’ i shouted but to no avail as we allowed an extra 20-30 runs last knockings.

However set 104 to win, i looked at the batting and felt at one with the glorious summer evening as i felt rays of hope and joy realising we bat all the way down.

Blink and you would have missed the next few overs as German stood transfixed like a west German boarder guard. At the other end comrades fell without raising so much of a finger let alone bat in anger. 24 for 7 wickets tells the tale.

However two brave men would not succumb so lightly and masters Jones and Harvey took to the bowling with gusto and flashed away with lusty blows to all corners.

The opposition began to doubt themselves, catches were dropped and tempers shortened. 8 an over of the last three to win, can you believe it!

Sadly dear friends, no last hurrahhh for King Harry and England, or heroic comrades fell just short meaning a devastating 10 run loss.

We must regroup, revitalise and for Gods Sake hit a straight ball and bowl a straight ball !

I remain, your humble Servant, Swampy.

Charlton Down Second’s v Puddletown – 16 over match

Puddletown 107-4, Charlton Down 98-4

A visit to Puddletown conjures up certain things, long grassy outfield, noise from the A35 and usually a pretty naff pitch that doesn’t bounce. Well the pitch at least had improved, the grass had grown relations and hitting the ball along the ground, as so many of our class players prefer to do, frankly gets you nowhere fast.

Swampy’s heroes arrived, changed and even practiced, before he lost the toss and the fielding bit started. Well I say fielding, frankly this display owed less to that well known cricket description and more to a Stuart Hall gaffawing round of It’s a Knockout, featuring blindfolds, massive clown suits and a three legged race.

Smoother started ok before tailing off with some inconsistent bowling causing a few runs to flow, Matt Lovell also started well before sticking in a few wides, but the score still was acceptable at 30 odd from 7 overs. Tony Jacobs came on and bowled exceptional line and length before two new batsmen took to the crease and to Tony, they swiped and slogged across straight deliveries, mostly missing out the aforementioned grass, and boundaries were flowing. Jacobs eventually lulled a batsman out of his crease and the stand-in wicketkeeper did the rest. It was to be this spell of unorthodox, and some would say ugly, but ultimately effective batting, that made the difference in this match. We seemed to struggle to chase, stop and catch the ball, a major inconvenience in these situations. One batsmen hit the ball straight up in the air early doors and the wicket keeper stared round looking for it only to see the ball land 10 feet away with a flailing Merv making a brave effort to catch it.

On the positive side Merv did show us why he was so effective at times last year with a good spell to hold the score back towards the end, producing a fiendish quicker delivery to clean bowl the best slogger in the Puddletown team. Rudo continued to show his improvement this year with some accurate ‘death’ bowling and the target of ‘116 or 113 or..well I’m not really sure guvnor’ was finally set at 107.

In response Doylie and Gregster set off steadily scoring at around 4-5 an over, without really ever getting on top of the bowling. The partnership of about 43 laid a good base before Greg was out for around 18. The run rate steadily rose to 7, 8 and 9 an over. German Jonny cracked a few before being caught trying to increase the run rate and Merv came in and immediately hit two well timed slogs for 4 before being caught out from the best one by the only bloke likely to catch it. Despite these rescue attempts and Swampy and Doylie’s sterling running between the wickets the visitors ended 9 runs short in a case of ‘what might have been’. It was a fine effort despite this, although the consensus was our fielding had let us down and there is much to work on.

Your Cricket Correspondant

They came….they saw….we kicked their arse

What to say about this match….After a poor 1st game of the season we needed to kick start the season properly and that….we did.

Sid lost the toss and the visitors from Winton elected to bat. With an abundance of bowling option the ball was given to Sids tried and tested pair of Park and Pretty. they started tightly and the only runs of note came in the form of 4 byes through the legs of Weasly taking the gloves from jambo this week. In the 7th over Park struck, decimating the stumps of the visitors opening bat.

1st change for Park was debutant in league cricket , Martin langford. langers carried on where Park left off picking up 2 wickets in both his 2nd and 4th over. At the other end JP (8-3-8-1) did his swing thing and picking up a well deserved wicket with a smart catch from roe atoning for his early byes. Homewood (2-0-10-2) got his chance ” to bowl at the bunnies” with a swinging ball and made the most of it picking up a wicket in both his overs including a fantastic hanging C&B. Langers (6-2-6-4) had destroyed the Winton middle order but Sid turned to Park to finish things off and he did with 1 ball with Sid himself rapidly back pedalling to take a smart over head catch to end the visitors pain.

20.1 overs bowled and just 34 scored.

Everything about this CDCC fielding performance was fantastic, energy, great stops in the field particularly from England and pretty, catches held, a run out from Jambo and an exibition from all 4 bowlers.

Tea was not even made by this point so CDCC went straight out and Jambo England and Roe saw off some hostile but inaccurate bowling to see the home side to the target in just 7.1 overs with 156 extras from winton claiming the highest score of the match.

Many thanks to Shed and Rich for umpiring and it was great to sit and have a few beers and a net on a fantastic summers day after the cricket was over. It doesn’t happen very often but when it goes this well the game was over almost as quickly as it has taken you to read this report.

Junior cricket correspondant (Sid)

Charlton Down Slain by Symene…..Again

It seemed like the now traditional first game of the season against Symene started as it meant to go on. Nick Roe phoned 40 minutes before the game to find out when the meet was only to be told, “20 minutes ago we are now half way there”. Cue JP turning around to pick up the newly monikered G.P.Enis and the day carried on in the same way.

Sid lost the toss and Charlton Down were put into bat on a track that 3 days before hand had been underwater. This showed when Ben went out to inspect the track and was nearly ankle deep on a length. However Sid had a plan. Open with P.Enis and German. This was to counter the Symenes opening bowler attack of the very slow G.Bartlett in the hope German would bash him for a few. But as Robbie Burns once said…The best laid plans of mice and men oft gang a glae….. Or to be more precise at 1.30 G.P.Enis was still not present and Symene had changed their bowling plans to. So Jambo and the German waded to the middle and the match was off. Jambo , fresh from his century against Martinstown last week fell for a Duck(still no sign of G.P) and Ben G attatched flippers and went out. German swashed and sliced and heaved and grunted and even connected with the ball a few times before falling for 4.

Spirits were high and nerves setttled with the arrival of Mr Enis. He had eventually turned up and slowly got changed and now he was here…cometh the hour, cometh the man…..or not, a quick single before Homewoods’ finger went up sending Mr P.Enis packing LBW. Debutant Ollie Harvey looked determined and so he proved to be. Ben chipped to wicket , Sid played round a straight one and Mark could and should have been out 4 times before poor shot selection left him returning for 12. JP opted for water skis as his footwear and used the to plant the front foot for a textbook forward defensive shot first ball. However on the second the middle stump went cartwheeling away on the rot continued. A spirited 6 with some well timed bottom handed shots for late call up Andy Mathews on his début and a golden duck for Scots Eric meant it was all down to Ollie and 3rd début boy Tony Jacobs to try and steer us toward the first batting point at 90. Not to be. 82 was the total after Tony top edged for 1 . Ollie Harvey had played exceptionally for 43 not out showing patience and intelligence all through.

Tea munched and with the possibility of G.P.Enis needing to bowl due tot he late withdrawal of Kim Park then Jambo took the gloves. Homewood and Pretty opened the bowling and were bending the ball like beckham. The bowling was tight as was the fielding. JP beat and took the edge many times but to no avail. Mark took a good LBW but although he run rate was slow it was on track. Oli Harvey took a wicket with his worst ball of the day and Tony J picked up 2. However Symene were heading toward to target. Things were desperate Sid brought on G.P.Enis who picked up a wicket with his second ball but the game was done. The home team reached the total with 10 overs to spare and with 5 wickets in hand.

Looking at the game as a whole the senior players post mortem result left us in no doubt….It was all the fault of G.P.Enis