Rod's dinner speech 2007

2007 has been another tremendous season for Harspden Cricket Club – even surpassing the heady heights of 2006. Despite the dreadful summer weather, we have still managed to play an incredible 40 matches plus the Fathers and Sons, Presidents vs Chairmans and Harpsden Sixes. The fact that we have played so much cricket, despite losing 8 matches to the weather, is testimony to the enormous effort that goes into organising our fixtures. Suzie Bradley puts in a lot of work every year to organise opponents to come to Harpsden, just to be beaten – her powers of persuasion must be immense! I have here just a small token or appreciation to Suzie for managing to keep these lambs coming back to the slaughter year after year! SUZIE [Plant].

Of the 40 matches that we have played, incredibly only 6 of those have ended in defeat. One to Will and Horatio’s team from Oxford University, who beat us off the last ball (my guess is that’s the last time we let either of them play on the other team!), one to Shiplake College where our skipper decided in his wisdom, and the pursuit of long term cordial relations, that it was about time WE batted in the dark and not them, once each to a couple of new teams, The Wall and Young Lions, just enough to entice them into our lair before subjecting them to a series of defeats over the next few years (it makes Suzie’s job just a little bit easier for the new fixtures). The other 2 defeats were to Shiplake and Sonning Common Village – and they were definitely not going to want to play us again unless we lost following many years of humiliation at the hands of Harpsden.

What I find amazing is that of the other 34 matches only 10 were drawn, and ONE tie. One is a recurring theme this year so be prepared! All the other 22 resulted in thrilling, and well-deserved, victories.

In 2006 we just couldn’t stop piling on the runs and, from time to time, we couldn’t finish the opponents off by bowling them out. 2007 has been a marked contrast with our bowling being truly devastating and our batting, at times, losing consistency. Maybe the weather and the pitches have had some impact but we have been much more able to strike the killer blow with our bowling than our batting.

Let’s look firstly at the batting. Last year we had 2 double century partnerships and countless century partnerships, this year we have had only 3 century partnerships. The highest of those was against Reading University Vikings. In response to the Vikings very respectable 188, Rob Harris opened the batting– quick as a flash he lost five partners, including Miles – leaving us in the almost dead and buried position of 20 for 5. In strolls Balaji to join Rob – they started slowly but then accelerated with Rob scoring his maiden half-century for Harspden, eventually finishing on 74. When Rob was out, he and Balaji had put on 113. This still left 56 to win with 4 wickets remaining. Balaji decided it was time to attack – and attack he did. Balaji marched to HIS maiden Harspden 50, finishing on 66 not out and Harspden pulled off another amazing recovery with a magical 3 wicket victory. A little something for BALAJI [Wine] and ROB [Photo] in celebration of the highest partnership in 2007.

The second highest partnership for the year was a family affair. As I mentioned last year I am keen to beat any team who hasn’t been given a sound thrashing by us in the last few years – one of those who we always used to beat but haven’t beaten them for about 3 years is the Reading Lawyers. Batting first and at 78 for 6, it didn’t look like 2007 was going be our year either. On the fall of the 6th wicket, Ian Whittaker who was already at the crease, was joined by son Christian. After a period of steady accumulation the partnership started to flourish with Ian being particularly brutal on anything full, in fact, anything he felt like. Ian’s knock that day in early June proved to be Harspden’s only century of the summer – after 11 hundreds last year, only one (back to that number again) in 2007. Up on the screen is a picture of Ian when he scored his last hundred. IAN [Photo] – here’s a photo taken during that innings and will give you something to remember your first hundred for……well, let’s just say, your first hundred for a while!

James Butler, last year, kindly organised for Tabbits (Henley’s best car repair operation), to sponsor our 6 batting, bowling and all rounder awards and the clubman shield. They have all now been engraved with the names of last years winners and are here to be presented again for this years winners to look after until this time next year. The first of our awards is for the junior batsman which was won last year by Sam Imlay. Christian Whittaker has had some superb knocks, Ed Birkett scored a great 70 for the Golf Club against Harpsden including big sixes off both Tom Hancock and Miles. Alfred Cary scored a tremendous match saving 58 in a 90 run 8th wicket partnership with Mick Greenwood against the London Erratics and has looked good on several occasions but has probably come in too low down the order to build another innings like that – maybe Alfred’s in a shout for this award next year. Dan Hayden has batted superbly on the 3 times he has played for us when Peppard haven’t had a game; a lovely 50 against Hurst on his maiden appearance and two very impressive 30’s against the quicks of West Reading and Bradford. Kit’s 50 against Hurst was another Stormont masterclass, Mark Thomas has had a few decent knocks including a destructive display in the 20/20 against the Effigies, and Matt Thomas playing a couple of very important innings including a match-winning 37 against the might of Stonor in a low scoring game. But our young batsman of 2007 goes to master reliable at the top of the order – essentially all his scores have been between 16 and 43. For always getting us off to a solid start – congratulations SAM IMLAY [Photo].

Now to the batsman of the year. With over 1000 runs, and 5 centuries, this was won in 2006 by Andy Bryan. This years batting feats have not reached the same heights but nonetheless there have been some tremendous displays, not least Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes in an over off Stuart Broad earlier this week – sorry about that one, I couldn’t resist it! I have already touched on some of the great performances by Rob, Balaji and Ian. Will has had a great season with the bat, including a brilliant 93 against BBC Caversham. Miles has batted beautifully, on occasion, although given the amount of bowling he has done he has not had as much of a chance as he has had in previous years to display his swashbuckling style. Andrew Norton scored a superb 80 against West Reading and has been involved in several important partnerships. But before coming to the main award I would like to mention a special achievement this year – our second longest serving player, started off his Harspden career as a youngster. Although he bowled a lot for Harspden in those days he doesn’t normally bowl now in fact he has bowled just one ball (that number again) in 2007 and got one wicket. Though the special achievement award is not for that it is for his 87 against Crazies Hill, almost as many runs as Crazies Hill managed as a whole team. It was a performance of pure devastation and was the highest score that he has scored for Harpsden in his over two decades with us. 2007’s special achievement award goes to JUSTIN BRADLEY [Wine].

Back to the batting trophy, there have also been important knocks from Tom Caston, Matt Hayward, Ollie Heath, Ian Reissman, most notably in partnership with Will against BBC Caversham, Tom Hancock and Andy Bryan but the person who we feel is most deserving of the award has scored his 373 runs at an average of 34. He tore into the Fiddlers and his 89 produced a win for us against a side we had not previously beaten, his 66 against Cranbourne displayed Yuvraj-esque hitting skills and his 58 for Tax Avoidance Cricket Club, the guys at Oxford University, against the best and quickest we had to offer was full of guts and determination. His hitting in the Sixes tournament set up several of the wins for us. The 2007 batting trophy goes to HORATIO [Photo].

At this point I would like to pop in a couple of special thank yous. Umpiring is a seemingly thankless task but NEIL CRAIG [Photo] comes to wherever we are, every Sunday afternoon. Neil is the undoubtedly the fairest umpire on the circuit, despite the pressure that we in general, and I’m sure me in particular, put him under. Neil, a special thank you for all your support.

Talking of support there are many people who come to support us on a regular basis but there are three that we would like to single out. Our young supporter, nearly doesn’t qualify because he has now played 2 games for Harspden on the tour, but we will make an exception this year. He is always around to help with the scoring, preparing the pitches, helping out behind the bar and just generally cheering us on. Our young supporter of the year award goes to ADAM BIRKETT [Photo]. The next mention goes to someone who because both her dad and her brother plays spends hours at Harspden – she is not a cricketer herself, probably doesn’t understand many of the rules, doesn’t do a lot of cheering but for all her smiling, friendliness, cooking of burgers and hot dogs and hours of presence at the ground, reluctant supporter of the year goes to FLORENCE WHITTAKER [Photo]. The third person is at every single game, come rain or shine, sits on the hill surveying the scene, considers carefully where our guys are going right, and wrong, and only disappears when he has to put the dogs away when the balloons come out – our supporter of the year for 2007 goes to President, JULIAN BURTT [Photo].

Will Stevens has done a brilliant job on the statistics and he will hand those out when I eventually sit down – the only games missing from the stats are the BBC Radio News game and the Medmenham 20/20 so apologies to all those who did well in those two games, and for those who did badly, you owe Will a drink!

Now the bowlers. I said earlier how devastating our bowling has been this season, that is particularly true of our youngsters. Last season this award was won by Tom Hancock but we have promoted him to the senior category for consideration this season. What is most impressive when one considers the potential winners of our young bowler of the year award is their economy rates – that is, how few runs they give away each over. We have some really good spinners coming up from the junior ranks; Alfred Cary has taken 9 wickets but has gone for considerably less than 4 an over, Chris Welford who takes the Andrew Symonds approach to bowling (and batting!), mixing up a heady cocktail of spin and medium pace. The other young spinner who has been in great wicket-taking form is Ben Hancock who is the equal fourth highest wicket-taker for Harpsden this season with 19. He has produced some match winning performances with his legspin and has taken a wicket every 5 overs. My tip is that next year, with just a little bit more experience, and hence economy, this could be Ben’s award.

Moving on to the young quicks. Both Mark and Matt Thomas have bowled very well on occasion and I’m sure we will see lot more of them next year. Toby Stevens, who is not far away from playing a few more games for us, and is a big Harpsden wicket taker of the future, picked up his first Harpsden scalp this year – Toby, can you remind who it was? Dan Hayden has been absolutely awesome; he has taken 5 wickets in his 12 overs for us, going at less than one and a half an over and taking his wickets at the impeccable average of 3.6! If Dan is able to play just a few more games next season (we need to hijack that Peppard fixture list!) he will be able to pick his own award. A special clap for Dan please. Harry Williams has been in good form with the ball, most particularly against Whitchurch in the Sixes. Christian Whittaker has bowled exceptionally well for us but the award this year goes a youngster who Will describes as the Harpsden bowler he least likes facing. His 70 overs this season have gone for considerably less than 3 per over at an average of just over 16 per wicket. In a high scoring match against Reading Lawyers he only went for 14 runs in his 6 overs, whilst in the game against our strongest opposition, Greys Green, he bowled 10 overs, 5 maidens and took 1 for 21. He then destroyed Cranbourne with his second consecutive 5 wicket haul against them, 5 for 15. Our young bowler of the year for 2007, ED BIRKETT [Photo].

Now the seniors. This was Mick Greenwood’s trophy last year. Despite the wet summer, spin has played its part. Kit opened the bowling and picked up wickets in the Effigies 20/20 match, Matt Hayward snared a few against BBC Radio News. Andy Bryan took a great ‘5 for’ against the Lawyers, Ian Whittaker produced some awesome displays of controlled legspin but the spinner who has really stood out this year is Mike Farmar. Mike has taken 34 wickets at only just over 13 per wicket, has taken a wicket less than every 4 overs and has gone for only three and a half an over. In most years this would have been enough to win the bowling trophy. If this season was all about Mike getting back into full-time cricket I think we should be getting his name engraved on this cup for next year already!

The quicks have been in awesome form. Balaji, as ever, has been very hard to get away, James Butler is always able to take the important wicket and has gone for alot less than 4 an over. Horatio (fast Monty) has taken a few. Booballa has been underused and underrated – 5 wickets at less than two and a half an over and less than 6 runs per wicket – we need to see more of Booballa’s bowling next year. Mick has not been in the destructive form of last year but he is still one of the skipper’s go to bowlers when he wants to tie things up or take a wicket. This was a get back into cricket year for Tom Sampson – and get back into the opposition he did. His bowling is seemingly getting back to its best and his 4 for 13 against Shiplake nearly won us a highly unlikely victory. Ollie Heath, who has sadly spent a lot of time on the physios couch this season, has taken some important wickets, most notably destroying West Wycombe. Will Stevens has bowled some magical spells and his 5 for 17 setting up the win against Henley was the stuff of legends. But there have been two outstanding quicker bowlers for us this season – first of all, Mr. Evergreen, Miles Hodgkiss, who has bagged an incredible haul of 55 wickets at only just over 12 runs apiece. His 8 for 42 against Stonor was particularly memorable. In 2005 Ollie got a clean bowled hatrick against Greys Green, in 2006 it was Andy Bryan’s turn. Against Stonor this year Miles picked up a glorious hatrick. A little something for Miles to celebrate his hatrick. MILES [Wine]. But the bowler of the season award goes to somebody who made considerable further strides after a very good season last year. He has produced some devastating displays – most notably against Holyport where his 7 overs went for 1 (that number again) run, and that was a no ball, and 4 for 14 against the Effigies. He has picked up 38 wickets, at better than 1 every 4 overs, and costing less than 15 runs apiece, but what has been quite clear is that his aggressive bowling has helped bowlers at the other end to amass wickets. The bowler of 2007, TOM HANCOCK [Photo].

I would like now to thank the committee for all their help in what has been another tremendously busy season. David Heath has done a great job managing the money side of things and keeping us out of the US sub-prime market, and Northern Rock – David also needs to be thanked for all his scoring efforts, even when Ollie isn’t playing. David, for all your scoring we have a photo of you too – scoring! DAVID HEATH [Photo]. Ian Whittaker for being procurements officer and organising caps, shirts, jumpers, bats, balls, pads, etc. – I know he’s taking orders this evening from anyone who doesn’t feel properly kitted out. Will Stevens for organising a tremendous Sixes tournament and vice captaining. Mick Greenwood for the onerous secretarial duties, some of which Julian has mentioned earlier. Richard Moyle for an enormous amount of work on maintenance and pitch preparation. Andrew Norton for skipping. Andrew Imlay for guidance. But I would like to save the special thank you here for a wonderful lady who combines the unlikely pairing of roles of bar-lady and chairman of selectors unbelievably well and with great humour. Some days the chairman of selectors has up to 15 of us down for a game and other days only 6 – the fact that we always end up with exactly 11 is a triumph of both man management and mathematics. A little something for the very special JANE BURTT [Photo].

Good bowling is no good without good fielders and gee have we got some good fielders. I won’t run through a list of the skills of our youth contingent but I do want to present this lovely trophy for catch of the season, won last year by Rob Harris. Fifth place goes to Ed Birkett’s grab at square leg, playing for the golf club against Harpsden to dismiss Miles. Fourth place goes to Miles for his left handed diving catch at slip off Ben Hancock against West Reading. Third place goes to Mike Farmar for his brilliant diving catch at mid-wicket – what made this one so special was that he was bowling at the time. Second place goes to somebody who is great to have around – a wise cricketing head and a tremendously nice guy, Carl Pohl. Carl caught an absolute screamer, millimetres from the ground, at backward point in the President versus Chairmans match to dismiss Will. We hope to see a lot more of Carl next year. The difficulty rating on the catch that wins catch of the season this year is off the scale – 20/20 against Shiplake College, Andy Dix batting, our star at mid off. Andy Dix doesn’t get hold of the shot very well and scoops it directly over the bowlers head – only just high enough to clear the bowler. In a flurry of arms and legs Mike Farmar sprints 15 yards, sends the body horizontal, stretches out an arm and catches the ball just as it is about to hit the ground. A somersault later, and we’re not too sure if our next duty is going to be to take Mike to hospital or to congratulate him – fortunately it is congratulations that are required. Catch of the season 2007 – MIKE FARMAR [Photo]. Before moving on I did just want to say congratulations to Richard Moyle for a great year behind the stumps – a clap for Richard please.

The next award is the one Horatio won last year – junior all-rounder. I have already mentioned some tremendous all-round performances from the juniors; Alfred, Dan, Ed, Matt, Mark, Ben, but the junior all-rounder has excelled in both batting and bowling. He has taken 11 wickets at less than 10 runs apiece and has had the best economy rate, runs per over, of any of the top 12 wicket-takers. His batting has been magical, pulling us back from poor positions on several occasions, as well as knowing how to time an acceleration. He has averaged over 40 with the bat, and with thanks to Carl Pohl for coaching our winner last year – the award for junior all-rounder goes to CHRISTIAN WHITTAKER [Photo].

The senior all-rounders award was won last year by Ollie. This year there have been two absolutely outstanding candidates; the first of those, Miles who has taken 55 wickets at 12 runs each and scored 468 runs at nearly 25. In any other year I suspect Miles would have strolled this one. This year, however, our winner scored 571 runs at an average of 57, finishing off matches when the rest of us were throwing away our wickets, and taking 19 wickets at less than 3 per over. He has also taken an extraordinary 14 catches, not dropping many along the way, and captained the side beautifully, getting the perfect balance between including everybody and wanting to win. He has lost just one (that number again) game as skipper and has been run out backing up! I ran into one of our regular opponents last Saturday night who was paying compliments to me about Harpsden – one of things he did say was ‘everybody wants a Will Stevens, where did you get him’. All rounder of the year 2007 – WILL STEVENS [Photo].

Now, the final award for this year is the Clubman award. This is for the person who has done most for the club, but is not on the committee. In second place is Ben Hancock who does a lot both visibly but also behind the scenes. We employ Ben, and Tom, to prepare pitches for us so I’m not really counting that, but his willingness to help on all things is almost unparalleled. He will score, even when he’s not playing, he will write match reports and in fact will offer to help on almost anything. A token of appreciation for BEN HANCOCK [Photo] – shown here in characteristic pose.

But our clubman of 2007 goes to somebody who has put a tremendous amount into this club over the last 5 years or so. He is always happy to help, on the pitch, moving the sightscreen, coming up and scoring on days when he’s not involved, helping the social side of things during and after a game and feeding our dogs. He was our best batsman for 3 years in a row and watching him destroy, dare I say humiliate, the Effigies South African quick, he’s certainly not lost the skill. He’s been our highest wicket-taker this year and has caught countless inspiring catches over the years. And how many miles do you think our Miles has driven on Harspden cricket club duty over the last 5 years? (15,000!) Miles is also a great help when it comes to the cricket – he’s always happy to move the field for the skipper, he’ll change the skipper’s batting order, he’ll have a chat to the opposing batsmen to make them relax and he’ll put himself inches from the batsmen to check for bad breath. Clubman of 2007 – and there is only one (that number again) MILES HODGKISS.

So what about 2008. We‘re going to win a lot of close finishes, we’re not going to be afraid to lose in the search for victory, we’re going to get ALL the match reports into the Henley Standard, and onto the blog, (we’ve been pretty good on that this year but as a fairness to all those who play well in game we do need to get the reports in), we’re going to have even more fun with Fathers and Sons and President’s vs Chairmans, we’re going to have another great Sixes competition. We are also going to get well deserved victories over Woodcote, Reading Lawyers and Greys Green (the only 3 teams we play who we haven’t beaten in the last couple of years). In fact, anybody who wants to play in the 2008 Greys Green game had better tell Jane this evening as she has people from all over the south of England wanting to help Harpsden give them a good hammering!

That’s all from me….and well done again to Joanna for all the photos.