Scorecard

Milton Keynes 2nd XI v Olney Town Cricket Club Olney Town CC 2nd XI on Sat 15 May 2010 at 1:30pm
Olney Town Cricket Club Lost by 15 runs

Match report 2nd XI lose, when they should have won (but do cling on to top spot in the league)

Away to Milton Keynes Village – is becoming a bit ‘always a chore, never a pleasure’. You have to feel sorry for them really but the cricket teams seem to come a very distant second to the bar trade at that pavilion. I don’t object to having to share changing rooms because there’s other cricket going on – more that tea is in a tent and late because the bar is rammed with FA Cup punters... and the bar isn’t open after the game. That and the pitch could do with a bit of a seeing to. Anyway, back to the cricket...

Guts lost the toss again but MKV chose to bat first. Things started well (once Guts had fetched the match ball; and Harrison putting the 8 in l8) with Oli Knowles taking two wickets in his first over and enjoying some seam and bounce in a good opening spell from the top end (7-1-26-2). Ray opened at the other end and seemed to be struggling to find the form of the previous game with a loss of rhythm causing the umpire to stretch his wings and Mary to flash the ‘ok’ card, but it seemed a spell of two halves with Ray turning 6-1-27-0 into 10-3-31-0 as the screws tightened. But MKV were building a partnership between their No 2 (45) and No 4 (35). First change saw Ben Brown (6-0-29-0) replacing Oli and James (8.4-2-22-5) for Ray. It was when coming on for Ray I understood his rhythm problems – the run up from that end takes you in five directions and uphill before you get to the crease – that’s my excuse for going for 11 off my first over. Griffin put in a spell of slow bowling (6-1-18-1) to help tie things up and there was some excellent fielding again – holding all our catches (despite Ben Brown’s best efforts to drop it – good job Ray was there to pick up the pieces) and Jewson taking all his chances behind the stumps (3 catches and 1 bye) in an almost exemplary performance (apart from a dozen stumpings when the batsmen had at least two feet behind the line, and kicking the ball to the boundary for Ben to lose it right under his nose). A distinct lack of comedy in the field from Gary Brown this week however – fielding like a demon and knocking the stumps down to run out a chap who didn’t even face a ball and would have been in if he had run his bat in. The other run out was comedy, with their opener being run out by Chapster in simple fashion, courtesy of their other batsman calling for a single whilst he had it in his hands. Fall of wickets was 0-95-95-95-102-117-117-119-131. I think that tells the story, 131 on that pitch was easily gettable but a steeper challenge than 131 at Olney.

Olney’s batting story can be told in the same way: FoW: 12-16-33-42-42-56-75-78-78-116 with a good knock from Gary Brown (23) top scoring, and the highest partnership (38) coming from the 10th wicket with Ben Brown finishing on 17 no and James on 18 (not really in the mood to lose, to be honest) giving it the long-handle and running properly (Filip take note) to take us within 16. I do have to own up to being hit on the head by possibly the slowest bowler I have ever faced whilst playing a forward defensive but at least I can claim I had my head in line – text book.

Despite this minor setback, I think we should be aiming at promotion this year, we have a competitive side, we’re sitting on top of the league and I think we are strong enough to go up. Things are going well in the field – we need to keep that bar high, with a bit of work on our batting, and a slightly higher valuation of our own wickets it should pay dividends with some decent partnerships and when that clicks – we’ll be off and running, because with strength in depth with bowling we should be well set up to beat sides.

A big thanks to Mary and Nev for giving up their time on a Saturday to score and umpire. It’s much appreciated.

Milton Keynes 2nd XI Batting
131 for 10
Player name Runs
N. Fairborther Bowled  Knowles 0
N Chauda Run out  (Chaproniere) 45
M Hood Caught  Jewson bowled Knowles 0
S Grantham Caught  Jewson bowled James 35
J Russell Caught  Filip bowled James 0
R Acharya Run out  (G. Brown) 0
R Davies Bowled  James 4
M Ahwadyla Caught  B. Brown bowled S. Griffin 8
F D'Costa Caught  Jewson bowled James 0
B Tompkins Not Out  14
L Grantham Bowled  James 0

Olney Town Cricket Club Olney Town CC 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Oli Knowles7.0126213.003.71
Ray Filip10.033100.003.10
Ben Brown6.002900.004.83
Iain James8.422254.402.54
Stuart Griffin6.0118118.003.00

Olney Town Cricket Club Olney Town CC 2nd XI Batting
116 for 10
Player Name RunsCatchesStumpingsRun outs
Dave Hurley Bowled  8
Jon Hurley Caught  4
Dave Harrison Bowled  9
Tony Chaproniere Bowled  7 1
Jack Jewson Lbw  9 3
Stuart Griffin Bowled  2
Gary Brown Bowled  23 1
Ben Brown Not Out  17 1
Oli Knowles Bowled  0
Ray Filip Run out  0 1
Iain James Lbw  18

Milton Keynes 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
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