|
PENN 1ST XI V’S OSWESTRY – 31/05/2010
RESULT: WINNING DRAW FOR PENN.
The bank holiday Monday fixture through up an away day trip to a very sunny
Oswestry. The trip down was a good one, as the roads were fairly quiet, and
when we finally arrived at the ground we soon realised that this would be
one of the nicest grounds we would play at all season with a nice surround
of lush greenery and old Victorian houses. We warmed up as professional as
ever, and then unsurprisingly Meldrew lost the toss and Penn were invited to
Bat on an old used wicket. Bradders and Sandeep opened the batting, and
could not have started any better. Meldrew Bradford went off like a ‘west
coast mainline train’ and soon got in to his groove playing quality shots
all around the wicket whilst using his feet to good effect when the spinners
came on. Sanders took a more cautious approach for his first few overs
before he also opened up with an array of excellent strokes all round the
wicket. Both raced to fifty inside 20 overs. The score was racing along and
at one stage Penn were on course for well in excess of 300. However, wickets
started to fall at steady intervals, due largely to the fact that Oswestry’s
captain Robinson, came on to bowl with at last for their boys some sort of
control. In fairness he bowled very well, as did the lad known as ‘sumo’ at
the other end. Bradders made 70, before being stumped, and that’s where the
steady loss of wickets started. Apart from Bradders and Sandeep none of the
other top seven made any telling contributions with the exception of Ben
Maddox, who continued his fine form from Saturday’s fixture with a steady
but well compiled 52 not out. Maddo played the two spinners well and
certainly looked back to his best. One comedy moment came when Tommy tittles
Nutting hit one to cow corner and was so impressed with the shot that he
forgot to run! Maddo at the other end however did not and ran a single down
to Tom’s end where Tom finally realised the ball had not crossed the
boundary and had to scarper to the other end to avoid being run out! Penn
ended their inning on 264, which was probably 50 short after the start we
had had but a good total nevertheless.
Oswestry had a tough task in getting 265 to win. But they certainly gave it
a good go! Penn’s bowlers toiled on what was now a dead wicket. Dip bowled
well early on, and deservedly got one of the openers out LBW with the score
not even past 20. Oswestry then had a good partnership for the second wicket
with Cardiff university student Pasha coming in at number 3, and the other
opener who was a young 14 year old. The two put on over 100, before a
fantastic piece of fielding turned the game. Rich Brooker dived to his left
to stop the ball in the covers but by this time the two batsmen had already
set off. When they realised the ball had been stopped they froze in the
middle of the wicket undecided on whether to complete the single.
Instinctively, Brooky turned over whilst still on the deck and through the
stumps down at the bowlers end running out the young 14 year old opener.
Pasha continued on his merry way, but wickets started to fall at the other
end. Hiren bowled well as did Brooky at the other end and the pressure
started to tell when more good fielding from Penn brought about their 3rd
wicket when the Oswestry batsmen attempted a third run only for Meldrew
Bradford to throw the ball in from the boundary and run out the number four
batsman. The game was still in Oswestry’s favour and when their captain
Marvel Robinson came in at five he didn’t hang around. A nice boundary and a
big six got the crowd going but in the next over bowled by ‘Shaggy’, from
the cartoon Scooby doo aka Calvin Murray he tried to go big again, only to
hit his full toss straight in to the grateful hands of Hiren on the
boundary. Pasha made a quality 97 before Brooky caught him smack in front of
middle stump and was out plumb LBW ( well, according to brooky and the
umpire he was anyway!!!). This signalled the end of Oswestry’s chase as
there was no way in the world their numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9 were going to get
the runs they needed and they finished on a valiant 231 for 8. Credit must
go to Brooky who bowled and fielded superbly, and dip for both his first and
second spell where he gave nothing for the batsman to hit.
A good day’s cricket was had by all, and Oswestry is certainly a lovely
place to play. Apologies for the scores and figures not being as accurate as
normal, but they were not in the paper, and I forgot to write them down
after the game on Monday! Anyway, another positive performance, and we sit
handily in 3rd place going into this weekend’s home visit of
Coleshill.
PENN 1ST XI VS BABLAKE OLD BOYS: 29/05/2010
RESULT: Match abandoned.
Another frustrating day’s cricket for our first team boys.
The forecasters got it right and it rained for most of the day! We did
manage to play some cricket though after some sterling efforts from the boys
to get the pitch ready when we did have some breaks in the rain!
The game was reduced to 32 over’s per side. Meldrew Bradford
lost the toss and Penn were put in to bat. Sandeep and Bradders opened up
and the latter was soon on the way back to the pavilion with an unfortunate
four ball duck! Ben Maddox then joined Sandeep in a re-jigged batting line
up and both batted superbly with some big hitting and aggressive running.
San passed his fifty first bringing it up in style with a towering six over
wide mid on. He went on to get 79 effortlessly until skying a high chance
which was well caught by the Bablake fielder. Maddo then passed fifty and
was 52 not out when the rain came. He also batted extremely well and it was
a welcome return to form for both him and the team going in to Monday’s game
against Oswestry. Huddo went in at four and with licence to thrash hit a
breezy 10 from six balls before slicing the ball to short third man who held
on to the catch well. This was the time when the rain came down again and no
more play was possible for the duration of the day.
1ST XI Match report: Penn vs Studley: 22/05/2010
Result: Penn win by one wicket off the last ball!!!!
The weather was hot and sunny, the local’s were out in force
and Penn had a real challenge on their hands! The grumpy one won the toss
and decided to bowl first on a pitch that looked very good to bat on!!!
Studley started their innings very cautiously and had a good
look at the opening Penn attack of Greg Lawley and Dipesh Patel who both
bowled well early on with little reward. Dip had a catch dropped at slip
which in fairness to Sandeep flew off the outside edge but then came back to
bowl another good ball at the Studley opener who was caught behind for just
the one run. This bought Brandon Miller to the crease and he and the other
opener, a seventeen year old by the name of Dodd dug in and started to build
a platform for their innings. Greg disappeared to the boundary a few times
in his fourth over prompting a quick change at his end with Hiren Patel
coming on to bowl. H bowled well early on and really restricted the two
Studley batsmen to the point where they had to start improvising and
reverted to sweeping him with some success. The two guys batted well but
chances came and went. Young Dodd was dropped off the bowling of Dipesh by
our illustrious leader when only on about 20, it was a tough dipping chance
to Meldrew at mid off but he certainly would expect himself to swallow those
chances up on a regular basis and this would have been no exception. Dip was
replaced in the attack by Tommy tittles Nutting who bowled seven very
miserly over’s of good seam bowling. Tom also had a tough chance dropped
behind the stumps but did not let this affect him and continued to bowl well
with a very good LBW shout also being turned down not long after. The game
turned when the two spinners, Richard Brooker and overseas player Calvin
Murray came on to bowl. Calvin was a bit rusty early on but soon got his act
together to bowl a good stint of off spin bowling whilst at the other end
Brookstein was his usual self bowling quality leg spin and keeping the
batsmen guessing. Penn had two good bits of fortune that changed the game.
First the dangerous Miller was given out LBW for a very well constructed 50
off the bowling of Brooky although it did look as though he hit the ball!
Not long after Penn got the other big breakthrough when young Dodd went for
a risky single only for the lightning fast reactions of keeper Ben Maddox
and good work by Calvin Murray to scupper this and run him out for a well
constructed 75. After this the two Penn spinners continued to bowl well and
pick up wickets throughout. It also included Calvin being hit for two rather
large sixes and Sandeep taking a fantastic catch in the deep off the bowling
of Brooky to make up for his earlier spilled chance. In the end Brooky
finished with 4-41 off 14 and Calvin 2-84 off 15 and both played a big part
in pegging back the Studley total as they finished on 210-9 off their 55
over’s.
Penn knew that Studley possessed to good opening bowlers and
needed to build their platform early on in order to push for a victory. This
was soon dealt a big blow though as Sandeep had a stinker of a ball that
pitched halfway down and then practically rolled along the floor off the
bowling of Miller to dismiss him LBW for only 2. Calvin Murray then joined
the party but could only make 17 before being bowled by a clever slower ball
by the impressive Miller and Penn were in some early trouble. Huddo then
joined his captain at the crease and made hard work off a good bouncer first
ball which caused him some discomfort!! However he knuckled down after this
and started working the ball round well to get the innings going again. Down
the other end the captain looked quality in his new opening role playing
shots all round the crease and timing the ball to perfection. He eventually
reached 50 and Penn looked well on course to reach there target as they were
100-2 off 20 over’s. However, Penn try not to do things too easy and soon
the captain was on his way for a very impressive 53 after being caught
behind off the versatile bowling of Studley’s stalwart captain Steve Harris
who had opened the bowling with some accurate seam before changing to some
cheeky little off spinners. Ben Maddox then quickly followed after being
bowled and Huddo and Tom Nutting soon followed both out LBW leaving Penn on
a precarious score of 120-6. However, the spirit in this seasons Penn side
is superb and would again show its true colours. Nick Lawley and Dipesh both
came together at the crease and set about grinding down the total set by
Studley. They both looked comfortable at the crease and played some very
entertaining strokes all round the wicket. Penn were edging ever closer to
their target until Dip was trapped LBW for 36 by the returning and once
again impressive Miller with Richard Brooker soon following him back after
playing some nice shots himself and Penn were now 182-8. Next to face the
music was one of the hero’s at Lichfield Greg Lawley. He strode out with
purpose, and then straight back with not so much purpose after Miller sent
his stumps flying first ball to leave Penn 182-9 needing another 19 runs for
victory. The other hero of Lichfield then came out and it was all down to
Hiren and Nick to see us home. Hiren was on a hat trick from the bowling of
Miller and just about survived his first ball to the relief of the Penn team
who gasped as the ball flew perilously close to H’s off stump!!!! In a nail
biting last five over’s Penn ground down the runs needed with some good
shots and even better running and eventually needed 8 runs off the last over
to win the game which would be bowled by a nervous looking Swanick. Nick
played the ball round and ran like hell, as did Hiren and they managed to
get Penn to at least a tie off the fifth ball leaving us with one ball and
one run needed to win the game. The place fell silent as the bowler ran in,
Nick was facing. He played the ball in to the leg side to mid wicket and the
pair just ran as fast as they could. Luckily, the fielder did not pick the
ball up cleanly and Nick and Hiren made it home! Nick finished with 31 not
out and celebrated like a champion whilst the Penn lads jumped up in
celebration at another closely fought win, the victory ale would taste so
much nicer now!
Match
Summary: Penn win by one wicket
Studley
210-9 Penn 211-9
Dodd 75, Miller
50 Bradford 53
D. Patel 36,
D. Patel
7-2-16-1 N. Hudson 34
G. Lawley
4-1-22-0 N. Lawley 31 N.O
H.Patel 8-4-24-0
T.Nutting 7-3-16-0
C.Murray 15-1-84-2
R.Brooker 14-2-41-4
PENN 1ST XI VS SUTTON COLDFIELD : 15/05/2010
RESULT = WINNING DRAW FOR PENN. PENN – 16PTS, SUTTON 7PTS.
A lovely sunny day greeted the boys when everyone turned up
at the club on Saturday for our third Birmingham League Division Three game
of the season against Sutton Coldfield. The track looked good and we were
all set for a good days cricket.
Sutton won the toss and decided to put Penn in to bat. This
was not too much of a disaster for us as we thought the track looked a good
one to bat on and we could post a decent total on there and put Sutton under
some early pressure. However, we could not have got off to a worse start and
Penn were soon in trouble. Jimmy Lawley was the first to go, out for a
golden duck to the first ball of the second over of the day caught behind
off the bowling of Owen. In fairness to Jim the ball was there to be hit but
it was one of those that if it goes for four everyone shouts praise and if
he gets out to it everyone has a moan!!! Jim realised this though and was
extremely annoyed at his shot selection. Next to go was Sandeep who again
looked impressive until he was run out by the silent but deadly Aussie
Calvin Murray for 7 much to his dissappointment!!!! The captain Richard
‘Victor Meldrew’ Bradford then joined the Aussie and they both looked in
good touch playing shots all around the wicket with Bradford especially
looking very comfortable in his new role at number 4 until he skied a pull
shot again off the bowling of owen and was caught at a deepish point for 18.
This bought Nick Hudson to the crease who batted with Calvin for a short
time before the Aussie became Sutton’s fourth wicket edging behind to the
keeper off the bowling of Owen for a well constructed 26. He admitted
himself after the game that he was very nervous before the start but now he
has played in the league and settled in Im sure he will score plenty of runs
for Penn as he looks a solid batsman with a sound technique (and loves a
beer!). At 60-4 Penn were in a spot of bother but little did Sutton know
that little ‘Tommy Tittles’ aka Tom Nutting was about to join the party. Tom
was very careful early on in his innings and played every ball on its merits
while slowly forming a partnership with Huddo. The scoreboard started to
tick along now and 50 had been added before Huddo got a rush of blood and
tried to Hit Sutton’s captain back over his head for six but instead took
his eye off the ball and hit a big thick inside edge to mid wicket and was
caught for 25, wounder!!! Its safe to say that Huddo was livid with himself
after and duely apologised to his team for such a terrible shot when batting
well. The score was about 115-5 when Nick ‘get your beer belly out’ Lawley
came to the crease and decided to leave his first ball which happened to be
a googly!!!! There was a massive shout for LBW but to Penn’s delight it was
turned down and Nick and Tom preceeded to play some great cricket with
sublime shots all around the wicket including some big sixes from both
coupled with some aggressive running between the wickets. They took the
score up to about 200 until Tom was run out going for one to many cheeky
singles but he had hit 58 and done a great job for the team. Nick continued
on his merry way and scored a very valuable 64 not out and Penn finished on
221-7. A great recovery from 60-4.
Senior Hudson did a quality tea for the boys and Penn were
ready to go out and make some early inroads in to Sutton’s top order. Both
Sutton’s openers were cautious early doors until Irvine skied a pull shot
off the bowling of Greg Lawley and Sanders did the honours in taking the
catch. Both Greg and Dipesh at the other end were bowling really well and
Greg got another wicket when the other opener drove the ball straight to
Hiren at cover who held on well as it was hit with some venom. By now
Sutton’s captain Guest had come to the crease and was looking very solid. He
batted well and waited for the ball’s he could score off in his scoring
zones which were mainly through the covers. Wickets continued to fall for
Sutton though and Dipesh had there number four out LBW for 2 which brought
Sutton’s burly overseas player Nupier to the crease. He played his first
ball with a nice forward defensive but then for his second ball decided to
pump Dipesh back over his head for a six on to the scorebox!!!! This woke us
all up a bit and even more so in the next over where their Aussie decided to
pump Dip in to the pavilion for six as well!! However Dip is a class act and
very rarely does he get beaten in a challenge. He followed up with a beauty
to Nupier who couldn’t get his bat out the way in time and nicked one to
Sanders who was already jumping up in celebration before he had actually
caught the ball!! Genius!! Penn were on fire now and Dip followed the Nupier
ball up with one of the best first ball yorkers I have ever seen! Its safe
to say that there number 6 had no chance of playing it and would probably
have got a lot of first class cricketers out it was that good. Sutton’s
number seven was then run out by a quality piece of fielding by Nick Lawley.
There captain played the ball to Nick who was at a deepish point position
and called for the single. Nick ran round to his right and picked the ball
up before throwing a missile at the stumps to run out Owen with a direct hit
who’s dad happens to be the Midlands today news reader Nick Owen!! Shame!!!
Sutton were in deep trouble now at 59-6 but with theircaptain at the crease
they always stood a chance. Guest continued to bat well and him and Sutton’s
number 8 batted well for about 20 overs before Brooky got two wickets in two
balls to leave Sutton with only two wickets remaining. Brooky was a bit
loose early on by his own high standards but soon got back to his old ways
and bowled well. Penn tried in vain to get the last two wickets but to no
avail. Sutton’s captain and number ten batted stubbornly for the remaining
overs and they held on for a draw with the score 161-8.
Overall Penn played some very good cricket in this game and
there were lots of positives to take in to the game against Studley next
Saturday. Thare batting held up well and they bowled superbly for the first
30 overs or so before Sutton shut up shop with Greg Lawley and Dipesh being
the main threats with the ball.
MATCH SUMMARY:
PENN 221-7
SUTTON 161-8
N.LAWLEY 64 NOT OUT
GUEST 87 NOT OUT.
T.NUTTING 58
D.PATEL 14-1-53-3
C.MURRAY 26
G.LAWLEY 14-4-46-2
N.HUDSON 25
R.BROOKER 14-6-19-2
H.PATEL 6-0-18-0
T.NUTTING 4-0-13-0
C.MURRAY 3-0-7-0
8th May - 1ST XI v. Olton and West Warwick
RESULT: Match abandoned due to rain. 5pts each.
We had some good fortune last weekend with the weather, but
this weekend was a different story. The weather forecasters got it right and
it rained over Penn nearly all day up until about 6pm. The inevitable
outcome was an abandoned game and Olton had a wasted journey. The highlight
of a very dour day was Huddo getting ‘seven balled’ in the final of the pool
competition held in the bar after and all the first team enjoying the
delights of Carling cold whilst watching the Aussie in his first weekend
slowing getting more under the influence as the day went on! Welcome to Penn
Calvin Murray!!!!!
Bring on Sutton Coldfield and the priceless Sir Richard
Norgrove!!!!!
1st May - 1st XI v.
Lichfield (away)
PENN WIN BY ONE WICKET:
The inevitable
start of the season once again with rain forecast to interrupt us at some
point and threaten to end proceedings for the day. However, we were in with
a bit of luck weather wise and we managed to get a full game in.
We arrived at Lichfield with a new team in some warm sunshine all looking
forward to the game ahead. The Lichfield pitch and surrounds had held up
pretty well considering the amount of rain that had poured down the previous
two days and we were never in doubt of starting on time.
The warm up went well and Penn’s very own ‘Victor Meldrew’ skipper Richard
Bradford duly won the toss and had no hesitation at offering Lichfield the
chance to have a bat first on what look a very seam friendly wicket.
Dipesh Patel and Greg Lawley opened the bowling and both bowled really well
early on with Dip having what looked like a stonewall LBW turned down with
the first ball of the game and Greg beating the bat on countless occasions
with no luck at all.
The first wicket eventually fell and it was a good one for us as it was
Lichfield’s overseas player Van Galen who played on from the bowling of
Dipesh. The first couple of bowling changes were made after about 14 over’s
of tight early pressure when both Hiren Patel and Tom Nutting were bought in
to the attack. The two guys bowled superbly for the next 20 over’s or so and
took regular wickets at each end which included a great bit of keeping work
by Ben Maddox off the bowling of Tom to get rid of Lichfield’s very attack
minded number three (Seager). Tom finished with three wickets and Hiren two.
Lichfield were always struggling and could not come to terms with the
swinging ball and seaming pitch so life was made even more difficult for
them when Richard Brooker came on with his leg spin and completely
bamboozled them with his varied pace and big spinners. Brooky also finished
with three wickets, two of which were caught by Tommy ‘tittles’ Nutting at
mid on which capped a good bowling and fielding display from him and the
team as a whole.
Lichfield
finished with 136-9 off there 55 over’s, a very gettable target indeed.
After tea, we
got off to the perfect start. Sandeep Dhillon and James Lawley opened up the
innings and batted really well on a very testing wicket. They shared a 50
run partnership before James was adjudged LBW and was on his way for 24.
Sandeep continued on his merry way and looked in really good fettle as he
timed the ball beautifully and never looked in any bother until he had a bit
of a rush of blood and was caught at first slip off the bowling of
Lichfield’s overseas player for a very well constructed 51. This however
triggered the classic Penn collapse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The middle to lower order
all came and went at regular intervals with a mixture of poor shots, dubious
umpiring decisions and of course some good tight bowling from the
opposition. The next top scorer after the openers was 10 from Nick Lawley
who came in at seven!! Eventually the two tail Enders Hiren and Greg came
together with the score on 126-9. We only needed 11 runs but this now seemed
a long way away! Panic not though, the two guys batted amazingly well and
although they must have been under immense pressure certainly did not show
it. They ground down the runs with a mixture of one’s, two’s and helpful
wides and won Penn the game with only a small number of balls remaining!!!!!
The reaction of the team was of loud celebration when Greg hit the winning
runs and it was great to get through the first game with a win.
On reflection
after we knew the win should have been a much easier one and certainly need
to improve on the batting side of things. We bowled well and fielded ok but
the important thing was that we held our catches! A good one to win with
hopefully more to come.
MATCH SUMMARY:
LICHFIELD
136-9
PENN 137-9
H. Patel
17-2-36-2 S. Dhillon 55
T. Nutting
10-2-18-3 J. Lawley 24
R. Brooker
09-1-14-3 N. Lawley 10
D. Patel
09-1-26-1
G. Lawley
10-2-31-0
|
