Match Report
STOICS CC v Old Whits CC
July 19th 2011
Stoics CC 223-9 Dec
Old Whits CC 122.
Stoics Win by 101 Runs
Team (In batting order )
Trevor Keen (Sunbury O/Seas) 07554 608998
Freddy Hodgson (Cranleigh CC )
Rod Moore Capt (Stoics) 07790 023023
Brett Gillett (Stoics) 07979 883536
Olly Bell (Dunsfold CC ) 07956 976035
Paul Whitney (Dunsfold CC )
Simon Stevens (Candidate) 07706 418310
Rupert Sheldon (President’s Son–In– Law) 07920 151156
Raj Chatwal (Candidate)
Stuart Medley
David Daisie
Waking up our overseas star at 0800 on a very wet and overcast morning to advise that he needed to be on the 0916 out of Sunbury Central neither of us genuinely felt it likely that we would play a ball at Croham Rd that day .
To our amazement the sun was out by the time the game got under way at a very punctual 1130 and remained out for most of what turned out to be a hot and enjoyable summers day.
Raman Subba Row was at the ground to greet us on arrival and remained for the day.
Rod Moore had had an intense pre toss up conversation with the Old Whits captain and by happy coincidence he won the toss and chose to bat which appeared to suit both parties . Recognising that the first hour or so would be difficult he elected to stick to Stoics tradition, set the home side a total and endeavour to bowl them out with an over to spare .
At 14 for 3 in the 8th over it appeared that his earlier concerns had been borne out but as the wicket dried so the Stoics fortunes improved . Some determined batting from Olly Bell and Trevor Keen saw the Stoics through to lunch on 71 with Olly gifting first slip a catch off the very last ball when he heard Ken Henderson was buying port to go with the treacle tart and exotic cheeses !
The food and wines clearly warmed the Stoics and they glid without a care to a total of 223-9 after lunch off 58 overs with Trevor Keen scoring 97 and Raj Chatwal ably supporting him on 44n.o.
The Old Whits had fielded a strong side with 8 bowlers contributing – the pick of the bunch being their 1st XI opening bowler Majid Khalil who was certainly a handful on the wicket initially and well deserved his 3-32 .
In response the Stoics expected to bowl about 50 overs which meant they would have to bowl tightly on what was now an excellent batting track.
Olly Bell and Simon Stevens opened the attack and despite an aggressive start the runs came in boundaries and the Old Whits moved unchallenged to 20 off 4 overs .
At that point Olly Bell got one to nip back off the seam and stranded the no 2 in front of centre .From that point on the game drifted to the Stoics with none of the top 5 OW’s building on promising starts.
With a couple of overs to go before tea the skipper chose to slow things down and his strategy caused a dramatic change in fortune. A quick wicket fell , tea was consumed and with the advent of Stuart Medley the steady clatter of wickets became an avalanche as he wrapped things up with the finest of military medium , taking an excellent 6-26 off 7.4 overs.
Requiring 110 off the last 20 with 4 wickets in hand nobody could quite have foreseen the queue at the bar 3 overs later and the Stoics victory by 101 runs.
I am glad to say we maintained the queue at the bar until late into the evening and I can only thank the Old Whits for hosting a thoroughly enjoyable day .