Redhill and Old Coulsdon v St Lukes – Saturday 17th June 2006

St Lukes 1^st XI

Ed Hardwicke

Tim Craig

Richard Bent

Hemant Joneja

Tim Blatt

Tim Haslehurst

Karl Quinn

Matthew Haynes

Charlie Hillman

Robin Ford

Matthew Cobb

The Match:

Another belting day for cricket was provided but was soon spoilt for the St Lukes players due to their captain’s inability to toss. Therefore on a fairly dead looking track it was St Lukes who were chosen to be the ones to chase leather in the heat of the day.

Redhill and Old Coulsdon got off to a comfortable start, with both Hemant and Des struggling to find a consistent line, due to a combination of the two left handers and the subtle slope. The break through, as so often, soon came, with the Redhill’s skipper failing to get hold of a Des bouncer and Charlie did the rest taking a sharp catch a leg slip. The fall of the first wicket was the catalyst for more to follow, with a steady flow of wickets occurring during the following 15-20 overs. During this period Redhill failed to ever get a grip on the game and runs proved hard to find. Resistance was found though during a long 8^th wicket stand but St Lukes made scoring very hard, while ensuring the stronger partner had very little of the strike, with no boundaries being conceded. So it was left to Robin to follow in TB’s footsteps, who had earlier broken the back of the Redhill’s innings, by breaking the partnership and also taking the final wicket of the innings, thus restricting the opposition to a modest total.

St Lukes set about the task of chasing down the small total of 128(?) in confident mood and never looked in danger even though both Ed and Tim (somewhat unlucky) feel cheaply. After Matthew’s confident mini innings also came to end, it was left to Charlie and Hemant to see St Lukes to victory against what must be said was a very weak Redhill side. A fine attacking innings saw Heamnt reach a classy and powerful 50, while Charlie played a fluent anchor innings, or some might say, average protecting innings. (Also please note Charlie was saved being stumped by a very sporting Redhill w/keeper a few runs from victory!)

Shot of the day:

Hemant – a very cute late cut – class.

Catch of the day:

Tim Haslehurst – by his reaction time, a sharp catch a 2^nd gully.

Female Icon of the day:

Robin – elected to shin the ball up into his hands (much harder to do shin ups rather than keepy ups btw) rather than catch it – very ungainly and a dropped catch as a result!

Man of the Match (forgot to do handout of prize – it awaits):

TB – Hemant runs Tim very, very close on this after putting his money where his mouth is – well played, but TB wins it after tidily ripped the heart out of the oppositions innings.

Lessons Learnt:

Well played – showed ability to remain patience and reduce run scoring while opposition showed resistance towards the end of their innings.