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| Horsted Keynes CC v TWCC | |||||||||
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July 5th 2026
Another Sunday and... well.. it has to be said... another dodgy wicket,
with balls unpredictably flying about if bowled even at moderate pace
from the top end. This isn't to deny the appeal of playing at Horsted
Keynes, with a friendly bunch of increasingly familiar players who all like
a bit Sunday fun, but after Tom won the toss and chose to bat first in
yet another 35 over game, (...), he and Henry were faced with some seriously
in-your-face variable bounce that almost defied cricket as we know it.
Very tricky, but the two did well to survive and to even score now and
then. The bounce was less of an issue facing balls bowled from the
lower end, but it was from this end that, actually, the early wickets
fell as Dan(?) Simpson bowled his round arm left arm swingers. Tom went
first, as one got through dipping in between bat and pad to find the
stumps, and Henry top-edged a ball that he tried to work to leg,
lobbing a gentle leading edge catch to Horsted Keynes’s skipper Ollie Wright
in the covers. TWCC two down in the tenth over, but with 34 tricky runs
in the bank. It doesn’t maybe look that inspiring a start, but
just staying in to score any runs at all was a challenge.38
Match report J
Simon (Sharon-free as, apparently, she is a cow)
There then followed a period of recovery as Rob, in at three, was joined by new hotshot Pranab, and the two put on 44 in nine overs with Rob being very determined and Pranab being equally aggressive, which exuberance manifested itself with a tennis shot low 6 swatted to the straight boundary. Plenty of boundaries from these two as, once the ball didn’t get you out, it tended to run away over the small and fast outfield. But all good things and all that, and Pranab was bowled by the pacy Jack Bacon for a handy 16. Rob was briefly joined by James but he was out in an unfortunate way as he half gloved a leg side ball to be caught at slip. Enter Jonathan; two lefties, two quality batters. What could possibly go wrong? Well, Rob showed what as he uppercut a rising ball from Bacon over cover point, only to underhit the stroke, and in the end a good high catch from Egleton brought Rob’s impressively careful innings to a close, out for 30 having faced plenty of tough moments along the way. 83 for 5, with Jim in at 7, and as the bowling changed to something less life-threatening, Jonathan and Jim were able to not only stay in, but also to score some runs. Some good running and not getting out helped the score along to 152 by the time the last ball was bowled, which, sadly for Jonathan’s average, he met with the finest of top edges as the ball got up even from the slow bowling of Lee Duly, and he was caught behind, out for 21, having shared a 79 ball partnership with Jim. Jim ended up not out on 39, which even included a clunky 6 to mid-wicket, and the visitors ended up with 152 runs on the board at the end of the 35 overs. Horsted Keynes tea is always a joy, as is any tea from a club who like to honour the hospitality code of Sunday cricket, but Horsted Keynes’s teas are right up there. So thank you to them for all their efforts. Ed and Brocky opened up the TWCC bowling to great effect. Well, to be honest, the effect of Ed’s first ball was to make Henry go over the road to find the brand new Readers under a car, but after the poor ball was back with us he and Brocky settled into a fine run of tight bowling, with only the occasional run. Or 4. Brocky took the first wicket as Jim held on to a dolly at mid-on catching Dan Simpson’s checked drive, and then everything went south. Or north. And east and west come to think of it. But mostly north and south as Bacon and Purvis, but especially Bacon, began to cut loose with some ease. Purvis was next to go, but not until the 24th over, by which time the batters had added 79 runs and the target was about to overhauled on way or another, as George, with his beguiling leg spin, caused a false shot and Henry took a nice catch in the covers. Well done George – a pleasure to have you along. Bacon continued on, largely focussing on his see-house hit-house technique, but in the end he swung once too often, out for a fine, six-ridden 46, as Rob, newly energised by George’s chivvying up, found the toe end of Bacon’s bat and a fine nick shot through to Jonathan. An excellent innings, driven perhaps by the desire to go home or to the pub or, more likely, to get ahead with his bread and butter work as the local roofer, who knows? The Carey’s, husband and wife I gather, batting 5 and 6, saw the final runs scored, and Horsted Keynes’s last single took them to 153 and us to the pub. One thing to emphasise in the conclusions is to highlight, again, Jonathan’s excellent wicket keeping. Given the unpredictable wicket (and bowling?) to have only 1 bye in the book is remarkable. His footwork was exemplary, and low bounce, high bounce, no bounce, wides and other wides... all but one were hauled in. What’s that I hear those scorebook diehards say? “Five byes”? I know that’s what the book says, but the ball given as four byes was four wides really. I can’t change the umpire’s call at the time, but the ball shot up and passed about five feet above Jonathan’s upstretched gloves. But all through, with speedy stumping attempts thrown in, Jonathan’s performance as always wonderfully underpinned TWCC fielding presence. Another thing to say is that the game was won more easily by Horsted Keynes than I think TWCC felt would be the case after their innings. 152 felt like at least a competitive score, given the wicket, but it wasn’t. Scorecard TWCC (Tom F) won the toss, and chose to bat first in a(nother...) 35 overs limited over no draw game. TWCC Innings: T Firth* bld D Simpson 14; H Short ct O Wright, bld D Simpson 7; R Rydon ct R Egleton bld J Bacon 30; P Mendiratta bld J Bacon 16; J Rowland† ct S Parker (wk) bld B Duly 21; J Taylor ct J Carey bld I Prevett 1; J Simon not out 39. DNB R Brock, G Chessun, M Brock, E Howes. Extras 20 (B8, LB2, W3) Total 152 for 6(35 overs). Fall: 1-24; 2-34; 3-78; 4-79; 5-83; 6-152. Horsted Keynes Bowling: R Egleton 7-1-23-0; D Simpson 7-0-21-2; J Bacon 7-0-18-2; I Prevett 7-1-39-1; L Duly 7-0-38-1. Horsted Keynes Innings: D Simpson ct J Simon bld R Brock 20; J Purvis ct H Short bld G Chessun 40; J Bacon ct J Rowland (wk) bld R Rydon 46; S Parker† retd 16; L Carey not out 3; J Carey not out 5. DNB L Duly, I Prevett, D Elwell, O Wright*, R Egleton. Extras 9 (B5*, W2*, NB2) Total 153 for 3 (28.4 overs). Fall: 1-43, 2-122, 3-128. TWCC Bowling: E Howes 5-1-25-0; R Brock 7-0-24-1; M Brock 3-0-28-0; J Taylor 3-1-18-0; R Rydon 6.4-1-27-1; G Chessun 4-0-26-1; Horsted Keynes win by 7 wickets. *This should really be 1 bye and 6 wides as the crazy bounce off one of Rob's energised deliveries went about five feet over Jonathan's head. But it was called byes, and so what the umpire called stays in the book. Top of page |
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