Saturday 13th September 2008

Match Report | Jack Frost XI (Lost): Saturday’s match against Jack Frost was switched from Dunsfold to NPL Lensbury due to to a waterlogged pitch. (NPL Lensbury is actually the place where Barnes- Wallis perfected his bouncing bomb).

I lost the toss and Frost elected to bat. On an artificial pitch which obviously benefited the fast bowlers and perhaps surprisingly, was moving off the pitch, Chris opened with Paul. In Paul’s first over, their opener decided to drive but in the air to ‘safe hands’ Maddocks. A devil of a catch but it had to be held (in all truth a very easy catch and I don’t think I’ve dropped one all season. No comments from Stratts and Marco please!). Chris was making the batsmen smell the leather and in his second over bowled a peach with Kunwar taking a good sharp catch at second slip. With these two, we soon reduced them to 25-5. We then let get away with it a bit and in the process dropped four fairly straightforward catches, three by the same person, including their top scorer, Alistair Crowhurst when he was on two. Nic bowled a good spell without any luck, the pitch was doing nothing for Suraj and Christy bowled excellently. Safraz caught a very good diving catch at square leg and Paul finished off with a caught behind. Maddocks also got a wicket!

A total of 128 was easily gettable with 50 minutes plus 20 overs and I think we maybe thought precisely that. Lots of lovely gifted catches and an awful LBW decision (the ball having hit the bat first) soon saw us at 32-5. A stand of 56 between Suraj and Chris, who was ably supporting Suraj, took us to what should have been a victory. Suraj started slowly for him before getting into his stride, his fifty coming up in 75 minutes off 47 balls, including 4 sixes, two of which was massive. He was eventually caught on the long on boundary going for another six and it was left to the old and new captain to see out the last six overs and save the day. It must be mentioned that one of those last overs contained no fewer than 14 wides!

Jack Frost 128 (Costelloe 4-36: Kulasingam 2-10: Brown 2-27)
CAC 117-9 (Varma 57)

Saturday 6th September 2008

Match Report | Grannies (Abandoned): Match abandoned due to weather.

Sunday 31st August 2008

Match Report | Merriot House (Won):

CACCC: 178-7
Merriott: 138-8

S Varma 62 & 2-31
G McConnell 58

North Perrott is a picturesque ground apparently sometimes used by Somerset CC for practice games – could we have been treading on hallowed ground once trod on by giants of the game Sir Ian and Sir Viv!?

Back to reality, I won the toss and having checked on the hangover states of the team who evidently had thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality of our kind hosts Charles and George Hickey the night before, decided to bat.

On a skiddy wicket due to overnight rain this was a solid batting performance. The order was slightly reversed to give some of the usual lower order chaps a piece of the action. Francis and Ed Skillers formed a useful early partnership. Ed managed 32 off just 29 balls including 5 fours a really good effort on a slowish outfield with huge boundaries.

Gary started steadily but then accelerated scoring a solid 58 and forming a partnership with the Magician Suraj who was on his usual excellent form, despite an appalling hangover, 62 off 44 deliveries. I declared at tea with the score on 178-7.

After an excellent tea, singing Charles happy birthday and consuming large pieces of delicious cake, egg mayo sandwiches, cans of Carlsberg etc we took to the field.

Chris was to use a contemporary phrase ‘right on the money’ from the start taking a wicket with his third ball, a lifting caught behind that I took in front of first slip. Christy bowled tidily and accounted for the wicket of their dangerous looking No 4 batsmen thanks to a juggling catch by in the action again Chris at short fine leg.

Ed bowled a tidy spell finishing with 1-30 off 7 while ‘timble tumble’ the Magician got stuck in at the other end providing me with a second caught behind from a straightening ball that had been preceded by two leg cutters. A subsequent high velocity delivery thankfully hit the wicket – had the hangover finally worn off brilliant stuff!

Unfortunately we were unable to take the last two wickets and some credit should go to the batsmen including Charles Hickey as floodlights were pretty much required under increasingly darkening skies.

Saturday 30 August 2008

Match Report | Rodes (Abandoned): Match abandoned due to weather.

Saturday 16th August 2008

Match Report | Flitch Pilgrims (Abandoned): Match abandoned due to weather.

Saturday 2nd August 2008

Match Report | London Erratics (Won): On a damp day, I won a good toss and put them in. Although the ball was a nightmare to control, it didn't seem to bother Dominic who was bowling his tidy off cutters and picking off their opener and half their middle order before the score was 38. This sent them into lunch at 62-4 and we were fairly content with our morning's work. However, a very stylish 12 year old who with his uncle (I think) at the other end was not only frustrating us, but scoring some useful runs. We had let our foot off the pedal slightly, which I must take the blame for, and let their fourth wicket put on 93, before the youngster was undone by a very good ball from Chris, being caught behind. Christy and Suraj were the pick of the bowlers after lunch, Christy not having any luck in his spell which had their batsmen in all kinds of problems. Suraj picked up the last 3 wickets, including a STUNNING catch by D.Maddocks, fully stretching and leaping salmon like at Extra Cover to take their final wicket. It was THAT good - ask Suraj!. No wise cracks please and there's more!

So we started out in our reply, with the first three seemingly intent on getting themselves out. It was a modest total to aim for with the very short boundary on the road side and maybe their eyes lit up and couldn't resist it. Admittedly, all the shots went straight to fielders, but they were good catches and the Erratics catching and fielding was impressive. So at 29-3 Suraj and Christy were at the wicket. Suraj was obviously having none of it and in a partnership of 51, smashed 37 off 23 balls. It was Christy and Henry who actually seemed to have the match winning partnership, with Christy playing probably his finest Arts Club innings so far, keeping the scoreboard ticking over and making full use of the short boundary. He batted quite brilliantly for the situation and his fifty came up in 116 minutes off 58 balls. So at 140-4, it seemed to be all over. But we had a classic collapse and found ourselves at 172-9 with 7 overs left. Daryl Hunter-Cohen, who was playing his first game for the Club in over 10 years was left to survive or win with the rabbit Maddocks. And do you know we actually contrived to win with classic batting as you seldom see and friendly umpires. A captain's match, leading from the front!

L Erratics 184 (Thomas 4-38; Varma 3-14)
CAC 185-9 (Kulasingam 66; Varma 37; Maddocks 1*!)

Wednesday 30th July 2008

Match Report | Royal Logistics Corps (Lost): Royal Logistic Corps, Wednesday: Deepcut is a lovely place to play cricket and being Army, immaculate.
They are great hosts and the concensus was that we do want to keep this fixture. That is if we can manage to play better cricket. we batted first and although the bowling was accurate, at least six people got themselves out. Our batting was quite frankly abysmal and only managing to score 81 off 40 overs was abysmal to say the least. I don't single people out, but it was a collective pig's ear of an innings. Our bowling was also woeful, RLC cantering to a victory in 15 overs. For the record (although it doesn't count in the stats) we were stuffed in the beer match too, although we did put up a better show.

CAC 81
RLC 82-3

Saturday 26th July 2008

Match Report | Refreshers (Won): Saturday saw us back to winning ways with a fairly easy victory.

On the hottest day of the year, I managed to lose the toss and the Refreshers elected to bat consigning us to wilt in the field. However, Chris and Christy bowled very tidy opening spells, with Christy tempting their opener to cut one and brilliantly caught in the gully by Alex diving full stretch. At the other end, Chris was unsettling the batsmen, having their no 3 caught behind from a ball that moved away after pitching on middle & off and then a plumb LBW. Adrian and Omar Ali continued the tight bowling and they lunched at 61-4. Omar’s first spell included a quite fantastic catch by Chris Mair behind the stumps, catching one in his right hand down the off after having moved a considerable way down the leg side. We rather let it go immediately after lunch, but after Chris had bowled their skipper, we got their last 5 wickets for 30 runs.

A total of 160 in a minimum of about 45 overs seemed to be easily gettable with our batting line up, but after Chris Mair played on, Nic holed out at long on and Michael caught, !60 at 39-3 looked a long way off. However a stand of 76 for the fourth wicket between Alex and Adrian steadied the ship and Alex saw us home. After Alex had made clear his intention of keeping his end intact and compiling a steady fifty of 82 balls in 95 minutes, he came out of his shell in an explosive way, his next 47 coming off 21 balls. Unfortunately the total came too soon for him to score a deserved ton.

Refreshers 160 (Ali 3-24; Brown 3-34)
CAC 164-4 (Chamberlin 97*; De Jager 33)

Saturday 19th July 2008

Match Report | Antelopians (Lost):

Suraj Varma 57

‘Dropped catches lose matches’

We arrived at Dunsfold on a bright morning and once the children had been cleared away, Suraj unfortunately lost the toss and we were put in to bat in what was agreed to be a 50 over match. It was then that the catastrophic news reached us that the ‘Magic’ bat had disappeared from the kit bag, which effectively lost us the game before a ball had been bowled – at least that was the opinion of some of our more knowledgeable players. We went out to bat and the scorer set about reading the complex set of highlighted instructions. The outfield was drying out and the wicket was very springy, allowing their opening bowlers to generate a very lively attack, their no1 being the pick of them.

The Alex’s got off to a solid start and although Chamberlin’s bat was making some strange broken sounds, balls eventually made it out to the boundary. Other Alex (14) played some impressive shots through the covers. His impressive running kept the run rate up and we looked set. Unfortunately a miss timed pull shot sent the ball vertically behind the wicket and despite some comedy fielding Chamberlin (28) was sent back to the pavilion, the score on 45.

Nick, deciding that attack was the best form of defence came in a set about the bowling in a flamboyant manner, reminiscent of Ripley, and after Alex 2 left the square had a good partnership with omar, who produced and extraordinary ‘tennis’ shot off the back foot which dropped just short of the mid off boundary and rolled for 4. Nick (22) genuinely had the oppo terrified and unfortunately carved away at a full toss too many, getting caught at mid on (the bat).

Julian(4) came in and was stumped after hitting a 4 with a decision from square leg that on other days may have required the services of the third umpire. Christy (0) was obviously saving himself for his bowling as he offered a catch to the slips, which left us 93 for 5. Suraj came in and played a wonderful innings which effectively kept us in the game. Omar (18) was eventually caught out, and sadly fell 20 minutes before lunch, bringing in our fearsome lunch watchman, Francis.

Francis (8) faced a number of balls before unleashing his trademark crushing straight drive which was achieved with huge economy of body movement. Unfortunately a delicately placed looping cut shot down the throat of their point fielder saw the end of Francis –after 16 minutes at the crease and Amit came in.

Lunch was indigestible, with a bottle of pink dye having clearly been dropped into the coronation chicken. Chatting to the oppo at this point, they seemed impressed with our run rate, but with 7 down we needed some serious run getting.

Play having resumed Suraj and Amit looked like saving the match for us – they certainly saved us embarrassment – Suraj scoring well with some beautiful shots and Amit(13) giving us half an hour of hope and the score being an almost respectable 177 when he left. Robert (3 N/o) came in and gave further support to Suraj and looked like he should have been batting further up the order with some solid looking defence shots. Suraj (57) was finally caught with a good catch at point. We ended up 194 all out after 32 overs. After a stirring team talk we went out to field and our bowling was aggressive - Julian (0/36 off 10) kicked off with some quick balls coming in hard from a great height. He managed a very aggressive bouncer and we appeared to be close to getting a wicket, with Omar fielding exceptionally in the gully.

Rob bowled from the pavilion end, into the wind and was getting some big movement which made it hard to control. He dropped his pace in the middle of his second over and the swing started to really play in his favour and looking like he would take a wicket. Ironically it was a loose ball that prompted the batsman to hit the ball in the air back to Rob, and we all celebrated. Unfortunately we hadn’t counted on the no ball and so deflated we tried again.

Christy then replaced Rob(1/30 off 4) and bowled some fantastic deliveries – one LBW so obvious that after we appealed the umpire, confused, turned and walked to the pavilion before realising that he was not actually batting and duly awarded us the wicket!

Their batting was very strong and they were certainly in form. Unfortunately although we were sprightly in the field and there was no sloppiness, we just couldn’t hold our catches. Dropped catches certainly lose matches as we found out when several key catches went down, and some catches didn’t carry.

So it was left to our bowlers to do the best that they could to bowl/stump or lbw the batsmen. Christy (2/41 off 10) maintained an economy and menace was admirable with chances edged past the wicket keeper and LBW decisions that just didn’t quite make the scorebook.

It became clear that the batsmen were going to make runs, so our priority was to get wickets. It was a credit to Suraj’s captaincy that he kept an attacking field throughout and that certainly improved our chances of win, as limiting their scoring would have made the game a slow and unsightly struggle.

Suraj bowled well in his second spell and a fantastic throw from Alex 2 to Alex 1 ensured a run out and a yelp of pain from the recipient of said missile. Apart from Suraj denying their lead batsman a “not out” score, there was a sense of inevitability to the final result, with the oppo winning by 4 wickets.

Although our catching let us down and we could have done with some more runs, most importantly, we all enjoyed a peaceful and good humoured day out under the calm stewardship of Suraj.

Desperate to glean some good news from this result I looked back through the analysis and note that we got our runs in 32.1 overs, whereas they managed it in 35.4, so had this been a 35 over match, we would have won – so perhaps in the words of David – “a winning loss?”.

Sunday 13th July 2008

Match Report | Cotton 'Test Match' (Won):

The result of the Wine Trade had filtered through to me (and if you haven't read Gary McConnell's match report I strongly advise you to - a masterpiece), I thought it would be good to have a double winning weekend in a competition that we have won once and been runners-up once.

There isn't actually a great deal to report except that we were honoured to have the services of Don Topley (Essex 1984-94) and also the captain of the England Ladies Indoor Cricket Team, who arguably was our player of the day.

We won our group matches quite comfortably and then a close semi-final, which was won by very tight bowling. It was a similar story in the final when, having batted first with an easily gettable target, our bowlers saw us through, Chris (Brown) especially bowling a superb spell.

Having accepted the trophy (which is actually a shield), I announced that this was our swan-song and we would bow out gracefully, as I felt that us winning or getting to the final all the time would actually put the local teams off in what is essentially a fun day out.

Saturday 12th July 2008

Match Report | Wine Trade (Won):

6-49. “Oh F. What the hell are we going to tell Maddocks?” was the spine-chilling thought on all of our team-members’ rattled minds as The Wine Trade subjected us to a “Wine and Skittles” bowling display. Many of them seemed to take have smuggled some of their merchandise onto the field inside their
bodies, and the uproarious merriment lasted well into lunch-time as Chelsea struggled to post a 3-digit score. A polite suggestion that perhaps we should play a 4-innings game was despatched by the opposition and Chelsea quivered at the very real possibility that they would have to return to London and all change their phone numbers, lose the scorebook ... anything to avoid having to begin the tale ... “well you see David there was this fearsome opening bowler, no, well, two of them, and“

But let me begin at the beginning. Indian Sociable Democrat Suraj Varma won the toss and carried the win back with him to the dressing room, politely then enquiring of his players whether it would be OK were we to bat first (this on advice from Meteorologist McConnell, whose forecast and assessment of playing conditions turned out to be 100% inaccurate). On assent from his party and subsequent instructions one Gary and two Chrisses began to pad up and finally it was decided by Chris “Pregnant” Brown that he was going to be the chosen Chris, Mair could wait his turn, and that McConnell could face the first ball because the opening bowler looked worryingly fearsome. McConnell bravely fronted up to the first delivery kitted out like an exhibit from a WWI gas attack preparation drill, and batting as though his helmet was on backwards proceeded to survive a caught-and-bowled chance, which the bowler correctly surmised was not worth the effort to dive for, and next (ie 3rd) ball edged a drifting inswinger off his backside into the keeper’s gloves. Brilliant.

Portrait-Painting Pin-up de Jager was then dropped off his first ball and by the end of the first over we were a shaky 1-0 (known as 0-1 in England). Brown was now to face the second opener, a Pict more than twice his height (yes David, really). He and Adrian finally managed to notch up a decent few runs, batting unusually respectfully and being caught off-guard many times by the swing induced by the pregnant black clouds overhead, and by the uneven bounce, both of which McConnell had skilfully predicted for the opposition’s innings but not ours. Adrian was out for a gracefully-sculpted 13 and Armani air came to the crease, settled in in his usual style by disdainfully glaring down two balls and then playing a magnificent hook shot which missed the ball. His disdain extended into the next over where he allowed a ball to swing onto his stumps, not quite believing the curvature attained and he was out for 3, bringing a slightly bemused Captain Varma into play. By this time we were 3 wickets down for about 30, and feeling like it was not going to be a long day.

Now I have seen The Magician Varma in action many a time, pulling runs and wickets out of his hat like David Copperfield. But today he pulled out a shining golden duck and although he had the grace and aplomb to smile, we his flock were feeling decidedly hopeless. Our new recruit Tim “Surfie” Soper then
came to the wicket and while he found the same difficulties we all had done with the swing initially, he quickly settled in and despite losing Chris B for an excellent 23 and Francis Palmer unluckily for another gilded waterfowl, managed to bat through with Omar Ali until lunchtime, taking us from a perilous 6-49
at our nadir, to more like 6-80.

After lunch Tim and Omar continued their match-saving partnership and even when Omar was out after a punishing 31 off 36 balls, Mark Litchfield continued the work scoring a careful and most helpful 17, replete with the occasional classically-timed boundary. He was followed by a splendid 18 not out from Andrew Gow who - after Tim finally got out for a vital and at times electrifying 65 (off 84 balls) - managed to wrap up the innings hitting some valuable runs with our self-appointed number 11 Dominic Thomas (5), for whom while batting was of some interest, really looked rather more eager to bowl.

So we finished with exactly 200 runs to defend: a respectable total, especially considering the ridiculous start and some excellent bowling and catching from the Winos, as they called themselves. The weather had largely held out however which meant that the batting wicket was a lot better now than it had been earlier on, again flying in the face of Meteor Mac’s pre-match pronouncements. We quietly extended Adrian’s generous offer of £10 (to anyone who could manage to hit a 6 on the long boundary) to the opposition, and took the field with considerably less nausea than we had expected. Suraj called a huddle, all rather San Francisco I thought, and on realising neither he nor anyone else knew what to say in such a pre-conga configuration, we scattered ourselves in battle formation.

Well, any absurd thoughts we had had of this being easy were dispelled in the first over. The Australian commentator’s delight Dommo Tommo bowled very well but anything remotely loose was punished by their opening batsman (the 7’9” Pict). Despite a first-ball breakthrough by Andrew Gow dismissing their number 2 (requiring a typically well-judged catch after a bovine “my ball” from the outer paddocks by DJ de Jager), the Pict continued to bash everything he could reach down to and they were running at a rate of around 10 per over for the first few overs. This despite some excellent seam bowling from our two veteran openers. Eventually the Pict hit one too many in the air and provided this live commentary as he watched his dismissal caught Brown off Gow: “oh, yeah, go on then, hit it right down his bloody throat...“

This gave us some respite, but their number 3 was a fiercely compit-t-v Kiwi who was run out early on except that a sudden cataract had descended upon the unfortunate umpire which prevented him from seeing it and so he and their number 4 proceeded to build a decent partnership. But then ... no, better , THEN .... C&B GOW!! A firmly-hit straight drive by the “Kiwi-That-McConnell-Dropped-At-Gully-Before- He-Really-Got-Going” just seemed magically to stick to Gow’s casually-lofted bowling hand and we had them 3-something-not-in-their-scorebook, with Gow having taken all three wickets. Omar and Adrian then came on to bowl and Omar took a magical couple of wickets in his second over – one beautiful clean-bowled of their dangerous number 4 and the second, the very next delivery, a miraculous stumping of their number 6 by born-again-wicketkeeper Mair, whose cleverly-designed Armani sunglasses actually retain their darkness in low cloud cover and so virtually blind he somehow rolled the ball 10 metres in front of him into the stumps while the batsman remained oblivious he was out of his crease. More was to come later, a true champagne moment from our wicketkeeper ... but I digress.

The Magician changed bowlers and field placings very frequently so as not to let the opposition batsmen settle in. This very much upset one of their batsmen and we all felt great sympathy towards him. The movement of the ball was still important and so various exciting spells were bowled by Adrian, Chris Brown, Tim “Andrew Symonds” Soper and finally the Magician himself. Unfortunately our catching and fielding were not the best at times - although Dominic and Adrian deserve special mention for superb fielding all day - and their captain (number 5) and number 7 were able to build a hefty partnership,
hitting enough runs to make the game look all-but-over by the time the first 5 overs had been bowled of the final 20 from 6pm. With some persistent and at times very fast seaming, Adrian managed to bowl out their number 7 and then as always, Suraj (known apparently now as “The Varminator”) was able to
produce a Karmic Breakthrough Moment and bowl their number 8, opening a fissure in the dam wall which needed to be attacked ruthlessly if we were to have any chance at all in the game. Their captain Boycottly kept control and it became more and more frustrating as we simply could not get at the tail
end to bowl them out.

Adrian and Suraj plugged away however and Adrian eventually was able to knock out their captain for a frustrating 94 with a beautiful away-swinger which was edged to second slip. Why would we have a second slip at that stage of the innings, one may well ask ... But Lo!!, it was the abovementioned classic
champagne moment from Chris “Ray Charles” Mair who managed to scoop a catch 1 inch from the ground diving full-length to his right and making up single-handedly for the missing slips cordon ... truly an athletic feat. This was a great relief to all of us not because it might lead to us winning the game, but
because it would enable their captain to pick up his grand-daughter, which – it had been made clear to us peasants in the field - was of paramount importance that day.

Well, we might have had them 8 down, but they only needed 6 runs to win and even a few extras would give them that off the last 4 overs. True, they had lost all of their regular batsmen but the task was not that hard. Suraj ... varminating … claimed his second wicket with a brilliant lbw of their brave young
number 10 (he was only 14 – although we were told he was 9 – and had been responsible for two of our illustrious batsmen’s demise … whom I shall not “name and shame”) and that left us with 3 overs to get them out for fewer than 3 runs ... AND PIN-UP DJ DID IT!! Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!! We could keep our mobile phone numbers!! Adrian DJ bowled a classic to dismiss their number 9 and we had them all out for 198 with just 2.5 overs to spare ...

Unbelievable.

But true.

CACCC all out 200 (Soper 65, Ali 31)
Wine Trade all out 198 (Gow 3-47, De Jager 3-34)

Saturday 5th July 2008

Match Report | Hogarth's XI (Abandoned):

Match abandoned due to weather.

CACCC 176-7 (S Varma 57)
Hogarths XI 11-2

Saturday 28th June 2008

Match Report | Rascals (Won): Maddocksless and Henriless CACCC was sent in to field first under the captaincy of Suraj Varma against the usual strong side from the Rascals, in a 35-over match at Stonegate. Dominic Thomas and Andrew Gow both opened accurately and energetically but were unable to break the opening partnership. It was in fact Omar Ali as second change who with a now-seldom-seen brand of right-arm leg-cutters claimed two wickets in succession and enabled Chelsea to begin to get some traction in the game. First-change bowler Julian Whiting bowled quickly and aggressively, using the lean of the Stonegate pitch to pound the ball into the batsmen. Again, he was unlucky not to get a wicket.

Suraj “The Magician” Varma then came on and over an excellent spell claimed a further two wickets. Aside from the opener Paul Ross, who scored 59, none of the Rascals’ batsmen really got going and so with their number four running himself out for 22, the stage was set to restrict them to a reasonable total. However the last few overs proved expensive after Neil Grigson came in at number 6 and knocked a rapid 34 not out, and we were left facing a chase of 194 (for 5 wickets) off the 35 overs. The innings was ended on a statistician’s nightmare: there was some debate over how many overs Suraj had bowled and since this was only raised after the first ball of his eighth over, confusion and terror reigned throughout the realm until Alex Chamberlin strode proudly off to the boundary to begin the run-up for his “Five Last Balls”.

Perhaps the greatest discovery for the day was the Rod Marsh-like agility displayed by Jaffer Akbany as wicketkeeper, the wind and the humidity contriving with the somewhat Himalayan topography to make the ball move around considerably and The Good Doctor Jaffer was up to taking all of it cleanly.

With fewer than six runs required per over and lacking the usual Maddocks gentle encouragement from the sidelines, our openers began carefully, scoring around 5 per over and not feeling too hurried. McConnell (20) then had an epiphany – time was marching on – and called for a second run on a ball
hit straight to Skilbeck at fine leg. Chamberlin duly obliged, wondering what he had missed, and McConnell managed a full five yards of the second run before changing his trajectory and jogging back to the pavilion.

It fell then to Jaffer to pair up with Alex in what proved to be the match-saving partnership. Seeing the swing early on, Alex adjusted his shots and settled in to a flawless innings of 82 with some terrifyingly powerful cross-bats in his trademark style. He then was bowled by a 14-year-old’s superb inswinger allowing Chris Mair, replete with a pair of Armani sunglasses and a sleeveless shirt, to complement the Doctor in the final run-chase.

Mair’s coming to the crease deserves a special mention. A couple of wild swings greeted the first two balls. Deciding that he had had ample time to settle in, he played a quick leg-stump ball off his pads with a kind of upright cross-pitch straight bat, timing it perfectly and lofting the ball like a V1 to the square-leg boundary, to the utter bewilderment and dismay of the fielding side. An astonishing shot. He then went from strength to strength, beautifully reinforced by the understated but deadly well-timed batting of the Doctor. They had to get 45 off the last 7 overs and whittled the target down to 29 off 4… daunting for some, but Chris and Jaffer began to whack the ball around savagely and in the end we were able to win on the first ball of the 33rd over. Chris finished with 25 not out, and Jaffer 31 not out.

“Ed of all teams and Mastered by none” Skilbeck would like it to be on record here that his bowling figures were 7-2-11-0, and that mainly he was faced by McConnell.

Rascals 194 (Ali 7-0-42-2, Varma 7.1-1-40-2)
CACCC 195 (Chamberlin 82, Akbany 31n.o.)

Wednesday 25th June 2008

Match Report | Friend & Falcke Marauders (Tie):

I lost the toss (which was performed by the Lady Mayoress of the Royal Borough) and they are elected to bat in a 45 over match. The opener, Chris and Andrew restricted them to 27 after the first ten overs and at lunch they were still only at 69 off 23 overs. Their fourth wicket added 140, but we dropped any number of catches, including their top scorer when he was on ten and the ground fielding should have a lot better for a limited overs match. The bowlers all kept at it , Gowy (8-2-23-0) was probly the pick, although Nic (9-1-39-2) bowled beautifully and Adrian was also tight (9-1-36-1Anyway, we kept them to 217 which was less than 5 an over and comfortably gettable with a quick outfield. We started slowly but steadily, until we suddenly stopped going for the odd quick single or any single at all unless it went well past a fielder. It was strange and one that our president (Henry Blofeld) noted, encouraging me to send a message out to the batsmen. Unfortunately, these missed singles probably cost us our win. On the positive side, Gary (McConnell) (50: 96 balls; 103 mins) and Dommo (50: 62 balls; 86 mins) shared a stand of 89 for the second wicket. By the time we got to 10 overs left we were badly behind the rate and with 5 overs left still needed 46. It took a stylish innings by Suraj (ably supported by the injured Chris, who is still unbeaten this season) to haul us up to challenge their total. After an enormous 6 in the 45rd over we were left 10 to win in the last over. Suraj was on strike and two came off the 1st ball then a horrific dot ball on the second (huge groans from the spectators who were all for CAC!). The third produced 3 which left Chris on strike and they ran a cheeky single off the 4th. so 5 to win off 2. The first Suraj got 2 (or so everyone thought) and the off the last 3, due to a wild throw to win a famous victory. BUT, one of the two stalwarts didn't ground their bat of the penultimate ball and so the 2 turned into a 1 and the final ball enabled us to tie the match (the 5th in our history). Probably a fair result after 90 overs of pulsating cricket, although as one of my senior players said, definitely a winning tie!

F&F 217-3 (Singleton 2-39)
CAC 217-6 (McConnell 60; Wilkinson 50)

Sunday 22nd June 2008

Match Report | Dunsfold (Won):

A thrilling match yesterday which went down to the very last ball.

Secondly, we are still looking for players for the Cotton Test Match on 13 July. Please let me or Henry know asap.

Sunday: I lost the toss and put the oppo in. Chris and Ed (Aldwinckle ) both bowled beautiful opening spells, Ed taking 2-21 and Chris although not taking a wicket had figures of 7-6-1-0. Our fielding although not as good as we would have liked, still produced a stunning catch by Gary (McConnell) belted hard to him at gully (getting rid of Matthew Richardson, their best bat who has hurt us badly over the years). Gary also performed a remarkable one-handed catch, again at gully later in their innings. Ed's prodigious in-swinger to gat rid of the opener and Chris's leg stump yorker to dismiss their skipper were the balls of the innings. To restrict them to 158 was a good team effort and a great chance to beat them for the first time in 5 or 6 years. Our reply could not have got off to a worse start, leaving us 3 down with only 4 on the board. It was decided to promote Chris right up the order, just to see off their openers before our big hitting middle order could come in and play their shots. What a fantastic decision, the 40th BIRTHDAY BOY batting with discipline, sensibly and elan, winning us the game with his beautifully controlled innings and finishing up undefeated on 61 (50: 70 balls; 94 balls). It sounds like it was quite comfortable, but it was anything but! At the start of the last 20, we were only 62 and with 5 wickets down. This soon became 83 and 6 down with 14 overs to go. A short cameo from Suraj was then followed with a stand of 39 for the eighth wicket between Chris and Francis, whose batting was a revelation, giving Chris great support whilst scoring a few himself. In all this, whilst we still should just about have won, when we needed 7 off 12 balls, 3 off 6 balls and 2 off the last ball, hit by Ed, it was nail-biting time.

Dunsfold 158-6 (Aldwinckle 4-51)
CAC 159-8 (Brown 61*)

Saturday 14th June 2008

Match Report | V&A Museum (Draw):

Another draw (winning of course as you will see from the scores), so I think it is time we bowled first for a change. The batting this year has been very odd with stuttering performances and the middle order failing more often than not. However we are posting decent totals, so it isn't a worry, but just odd.

V&A: Once again I won the toss and elected to bat, Chris (Mair) started tonking the ball immediately and after 2 overs we were on an astonishing 26! We obviously couldn't maintain and after his cameo (or should that be pinch hitting) of 25 off 18 balls, he was bowled. Adrian and Henry then put on 43 for the
second wicket before Henry's long vigil came to an end. Unfortunately Adrian didn't get any support from the middle order (which again failed), but played very patiently for his, in the situation, excellent 59 (50: 74 balls; 101 mins). The other notable innings was Christy's, who after starting slowly then hit 19 off 11 balls and was ably supported by Francis. Our declaration at 213 was easily within reach as on the recount they required 5 an over. However, good, accurate pace bowling by both Chris and Ed kept them tied down to 34 after 16 overs. Ed in particular bowled two excellent spells, his best wicket being one that moved then lifted and took out the tip off stump. Adrian then came on and bowled very well without any luck, whilst eventually at the other Nic had a superb spell of 5-2-9-2, including a 'special' Alex catch, running towards the boundary from mid off as the ball arced over him and catching it inches from the ground. It was much better to see! We eventually had them 8 down, but couldn't claim the last two wickets. I wish we could have played limited overs!

CAC 213-6 (De Jager 59; Kulasingam 36*)
V&A 126-8 (Aldwinckle 3-35; Singleton 2-9)

Saturday 7th June 2008

Match Report | Rode (Abandoned): Match abandoned due to weather.

Sunday 1st June 2008

Match Report | Keevil (Abandoned): Match abandoned due to weather.

Sunday 25th May 2008

Match Report | Penzance Arts Club (Abandoned): Match abandoned due to weather.

Saturday 24th May 2008

Match Report | Trengilly (Abandoned): Match abandoned due to weather.

Saturday 17th May 2008

Match Report | Chelsea Nomads (Won):

Chelsea Nomads: 128 all out
CACCC: 129-6

S Varma 37* & 3-12,
A de Jager 27* & 4-36

This was a game played in damp, cold and overcast conditions with intermittent drizzle but we were able to play all day which was fortuitous. There was no toss as such because there were only a handful of the opposition at the ground by 12.30 so it was decided they should bat.

Nic Singleton and Christy opened the bowling on a firm green top wicket which should have given them some assistance but although the ball lifted, surprisingly there was little movement in the air or initially off the pitch. They gave us a good start with Christy taking a wicket in his first over but the runs kept coming.

The first change pair, Ed Aldwinckle and Adrian both bowled beautifully finding their line and length immediately. Ed bowled with genuine pace unsettling the batsmen with lift and movement off the pitch producing an excellent but unfortunately wicketless spell. On another day he would have picked up a handful of wickets. At the other end Adrian was running through the mid-order with some unplayable balls pitching middle and leg and hitting off.

Then the ‘wicket machine,’ Suraj came on bowling a tight line and accounting for, amongst others in a 3.2 over 3 wicket haul, their dangerous looking opener just short of his fifty. Another highlight was a magnificent catch by Jaff off Adrian, a skier that seemed to linger for ever in the dark sky. A couple of run-outs contributed to the Nomads being bowled out within 30 overs for 128.

To be honest we made slightly heavy weather of chasing down the modest total. Chris Mair gave us a fantastic start scoring 23 off 17 balls. He formed a useful partnership with Nic Singleton who again looked in good touch before skewing a full toss to midon. The mid-order failed reducing us to a shaky 69-6 leaving Suraj and Adrian to wrap things up which they did with considerable style! Both timed their shots to perfection during a 60 run partnership, 42 of which were scored in boundaries with one memorable six from Adrian nearly taking out one of the pavilion’s glass doors!

Sunday 11th May 2008

Match Report | Ripley (Won):

CACCC: 293-8
Ripley: 292-8

A de Jager 104*
N Goold 98
G McConnell 44
S Varma 4-68

Ripley is always an interesting game because we never quite know what to expect. They field 5 sides altogether including a league side that plays on Saturdays. The side that they field against us comprises something of a mixture and we usually come across a compliment of league players as was the case on Sunday. The game turned out to be a real thriller.

The pitch was firm, in fact rock hard compared with Saturday’s, with a good covering of grass. Ripley won the toss and elected to field and before we knew it their opening bowler with a swinging and seaming ball had accounted for Dom, first ball myself and Alex, 12-3 help!

Fortunately Gary McConnell came to our rescue forming partnerships with Suraj briefly and then Adrian, eventually going on to a resolute 44. When Gary departed at 105-5 I decided to move Nick Goold up the order and with Adrian a formidable 138 run partnership was formed as a result of both batters excellent strike rates and running between the wickets. Adrian played a classic stroke players innings eventually going on to an unbeaten 104 off just 73 balls, twelve 4’s and two 6’s, one clean over the pavilion roof - was this de Jager or de Villiers! Nick’s innings was more a right handed version of Matty Hayden, no less than six 6’s and 10 4’s the only thing missing being a couple more runs to reach three figures (98 off 46 balls). From a very modest start we ended up at 293-8 after 40 overs.

With a target run rate of just over 7 runs an over Ripley started well against, to be honest, some slightly ‘rusty’ bowling generally with too much drifting down the leg side. They cruised to 80-1. Their no 3 proved a prolific hitter keeping in touch with the run rate as the tension mounted but failed to establish a significant partnership as batters were prized out at the other end. A much improved second spell from Chris and Adrian (2-35) put the brakes on the run rate but their no 3 hit out again taking the game down to the wire. Annoyingly he had been given not out when I took the bails off, his foot being clearly in front of the line.

An incredibly tense last over bowled by Suraj ended up with a 4 required off the last ball. Fortunately a miss timed swipe to leg only produced 2 and a great victory!

Saturday 10th May 2008

Match Report | Artificials (Draw):

CACCC: 169-6
Artificials: 108-6

D Wilkinson 40,
S Varma 38 & 3-10,
N Singleton 24

The season finally got underway on a soft wicket and green sluggish outfield, not conducive to producing results and on this occasion there were no surprises.

Having won the toss Dom and Shafraz opened the innings against a dual WI attack including Owen Roache of Refreshers fame (ringers or what!). Both openers carefully neutralised an accurate opening spell. Dom went on to a patient 40 with his usual excellent technique and impeccable timing not helped by the slow outfield.

The mid order performed well with an acceleration in the run rate as a result of some characteristic lofted drives from Nic Singleton and Alex Chamberlin both looking in excellent form. Suraj continued from where he left off last season smashing 36 runs off just 16 balls almost exclusively from boundaries, 6 fours and 2 sixes with just 2 singles! The Skip briefly opened his account before declaring at tea on 169 for the loss of 6 wickets.

Our opening bowlers Nic Singleton and Dom Thomas both bowled tidily against a NZ and Aus opening pair (more ringers!) but to be honest it never looked as though our target was going to be threatened. Their objective was made harder by some outstanding fielding in particular Suraj, Nic, Gowie, Jaff and Alex (despite a sore shoulder).

The main damage was done by Suraj who produced an excellent all-round performance with a final analysis of 3-10. Ed Skilbeck also bowled well producing a perfect late inswinger to dismiss their most threatening batsman and ending up with 2-14.

The game reached its conclusion, definitely a winning draw for CACCC!

Saturday 3rd May 2008

Match Report | Canbashers (Abandoned): Match abandoned due to weather.

Saturday 26th April 2008

Match Report | Phene Philanderers (Abandoned): Match abandoned due to weather.