Askham Bryan Cricket Club

Cawood 108 all out lost to Askham Bryan by 7 wickets

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A new look Askham Bryan Cricket Club arrived at Cawood CC on the 17th April for their pre-season warmup game, ready for action after several weeks of intense practise at the University. A new captain – Robert “Sirius” Dale – was at the helm, with a 12 man team comprising of a mixture of the club’s first and second team, with 4 debutants in the squad.

Yet it was clear quite early on that something was wrong. The situation clearly wasn’t as expected – was it to do with the new captain, the mix of players old and new, the unfamiliar venue? No, it was none of those. It was of course, the club’s old adversary – the weather – which had for the first time in several seasons decided to be uninterrupted sunshine for the whole game.

After arriving early for the game in spite of hitting some unexpected traffic in Cawood city centre, Robert Dale promptly won the toss and decided to bowl. The pitch was dry and dusty, with perhaps a hint of also being wet, skiddy and green. The team then assembled for an early team talk, part of Dale’s new captaincy regime, and took to the field energised and ready for anything.

Bowling

Charging in off his familiar run-up, James McCullogh opened the bowling with a straight, full, quick delivery…which was promptly missed by the Cawood opener, taking them to 0-1 off one ball. Not a bad start! He continued to bowl with pace and aggression and, most importantly, his trademark bouncing hair.

His partner in crime for the opening overs would be The Grewer, who was clearly in good form following the winter, getting the ball to spit up and stay low off the surface, like an expert snake charmer. The pair continued to make chances, with a number of difficult catches being put down. Jim had further success and broke through a further 2 times in his uninterrupted 8 over spell, ending on 3-35 off 8. The Grewer was unlucky not to have similar success with the ball, but gave only 6 runs off his 4 overs.

Terry “Porridge” Kiernan replaced The Grewer and was immediately on the money, bowling on a lovely length on his first few balls, and was rewarded with a wicket on his third delivery. Indeed, Terry’s performance was so complete that his only fine on the day was the prestigious “no fines” fine, as he continued to bowl accurately and keep the Cawood batsmen guessing. He ended on 1 for 9 off 5 overs.

Replacing Jim was Albert Hall, who had clearly taken a pastry course over the winter, and was ready to serve up some pies. After a couple of early boundaries, Albert got on a good line and extracted some spin from the pitch. Following some decent balls, he served up a rank full toss in his 4th over and was rewarded with a wicket. Scooby Thornton replaced Terry at the other end and bowled a great variety of deliveries, getting the ball to jump and move well. A clever off break earned him a wicket, clean bowling one of the Cawood middle order.

After Albert grew tired, finishing on 1-24 off 6, he was replaced with debutant Afshin. A tall spin bowler playing in glasses, he was reminiscent of Anil Kumble as he strided in. The similarity continued as he baffled the batsmen with his beautifully flighted, accurate spin, getting the ball to turn remarkably off the pitch. He gained his first wicket for the club – surely to be one of many – tempting a batsmen into a catch at mid wicket. A pleasure to watch – he ended on 2 for 8 off 4.4 overs.

Praveen replaced Scooby (3-16), another debutant for the club, and bowled some lovely, tight, medium-fast bowling. He was also rewarded with a deserved early wicket, and ended on 1-6 off 2 overs. Cawood were all out for 108, with Afshin taking the final wicket. The fielding performance got better and better as the match progressed, with all the team producing some great stops and putting energy into the fielding. Special mentions should go to:

* Bradley Wood, for some fine stops and energetic chasing
* Steve Mason, for some great catches and a beautiful “sliding” stop
* The skipper himself, for several diving stops behind the stumps and marshalling his field well

Tea

Cawood put a good, solid, early tea display in. The theme was “cricket tea classic”, with a mixture of cheese, tuna, ham and egg sandwiches, delighting carnivores and vegetarians alike. The mini-flapjacks and chocolate crispie cakes were well received, though special mention should be made for the french fancies, a rarely seen provision in the York Vale cricket tea. Our Tea Reporter spoke to the tea lady at Cawood, who remarked on the beautiful weather, and had been preparing herself to make “Jacket Potato and Chilli” in the April cold. He could only hope that they get to visit Cawood in the cold next year, to sample these delights. Garlic bread, anyone?

Batting

Skipper Dale penned his batting lineup on yellow lined paper and the players were focussed and ready to bat. He then strode off to score, with Terry and Jim donning the umpires coats as The Grewer and debutant Phil “Key” Allen opened the batting against some fiery early bowling. They batted with great patience, until The Grewer connected well, but not well enough, with a ball and was caught, out at mid wicket for 1.

Peter Sharpe, also making his first appearance for the club, replaced the Grewer as the score was under 20. However, Phil Allen was already batting with some assurance, and Peter settled in quickly, first stabilising the innings and then putting runs on the board, finding plenty of gaps in the 12 man field. Both players batted fluently, with Phil hitting some beautiful drives and Peter hitting powerfully, including the season’s first entry into the six league. They brought up their 50 partnership and looked as though they might take Askham over the finishing line, which would have been apt given their performances.

However, it wasn’t to be as Phil was given out LBW, after a well-crafted innings of 30. Albert Hall went out to the wicket with 30 more required for victory, in an unfamiliar middle order batting position. After some early blocking, he quickly decided it was time to bring out the brush and scored almost the entirity of his runs with a mixed bag of sweep shots. It is what the crowd had paid to see, after all.

Meanwhile Peter continued to bat well and continued to accumulate runs, with the pair taking the score to the hundred mark. Unfortunately they couldn’t finish the job, as Hall changed tactics against a young, accurate bowler and decided to play straight, immediately feathering an edge to the keeper, scoring 10 in total. He vowed never to play straight again.

Paul Thornton, fresh from his recent experience in the IPL, decided to finish the game without delay, promptly hitting 9 not out from 5 balls, included 2 beautiful drives for 4.

Peter Sharpe finished the game on 46 not out, a grand innings and surely indicative of good things to come.

Summary

Overall, on a beautifully sunny day, with the game played in good spirits, one could say that cricket was the real winner. However, sentimentality aside, Askham Bryan were the winners, and an elated skipper Dale continued his 100% record in charge of the side. In spite of his well-known enjoyment for off-season cricket administration tasks, it was clear the skipper relished being back out on the field of play, and was looking forward to the challenge of the league…

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 9:40 am and is filed under Match Report, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.