Harpsden Opening Pair

Harpsden v Sonning Commonn

Sun 18th July 2010

Sonning Common Village were the visitors to the Harpsden ground on Sunday afternoon and after a couple of team photos the 40over game got under way. Having won the toss stand in skipper Mick Greenwood opted to bat but Harpsden were pinned back by some accurate bowling from the Sonning Common opening pair of Pitson and Gallimore and struggled to 67 for 3 off the first 20overs with only Tom Ham, scoring 27, making any impact on the scoreboard. There then followed an excellent partnership of 90 between Andy Grimmer and James Thompson with James falling three short of 50. Grimmer finally succumbed for 71 and some firm hitting from Ian Whittaker, Ollie Heath and Mick Greenwood followed which brought the Harpsden score up to a respectable 216 after their allotted overs.
Sonning Common set about the run chase with gusto in particular the opener Cooke looked very dangerous before an excellent one handed catch from Tom Ham at midwicket sent him on his way. Some accurate bowling from Miles Hodgkiss and excellent leg spin from man of the match James Thompson choked the game off. With Toby Stevens and Ian Brown chipping in with wickets Harpsden, in the end, won comfortably by 89 runs.

Harpsden
N Sweet b.Gillimore 7
I Reissmann ct b Gillimore 0
T Ham ct b Gallimore 27
A Grimmer ct b Cann 71
J Thompson ct b Cann 47
I Whittaker ct b C Pitson 17
O Heath Not Out 17
M Greenwood Run Out 14
T Stevens Not Out 0

extras 16
TOTAL 216
Best bowling Gallimore 3 for 21, Cann 2 for 21

Sonning Common
Cooke ct b Thompson 33
Cann ct b Brown 14
C Pitson ct b Stevens 5
N Pitson b Hodgkiss 21
C Gallimore b Hodgkiss 3
Cal Gallimore ct b Thompson 9
Welsh Run Out (Greenwood) 9
Barker ct b Thompson 0
Mee b Stevens 9
Tidewell Not Out 6
L Gallimore Not Out 10
extras 8
TOTAL 127
Best bowling Thompson 3 for 29, Hodgkiss 2 for 10.

Harpsden Net Easy Win Against The Deadbats

Harpsden won the toss and as “Sjneider” of the teams wanted to bowl, elected to bat first. Harpsden kicked the game off with a Sweet drive into the “offside”. Adam Hurst hit the ball half way to south Africa with a massive six. The openers got Harpsden off to a good start with an opening partnership of 125 before Hursty was out for 51. After such a strong start harpsden looked set to make 4-4-2 possibly even 5-4-1 but the defensive fielding formation didn't allow this to happen. Another quick wicket fell and harpsden were looking in trouble. This brought Tom Hancock to the crease who played some “hansen” shots before he “pique”d out the fielder for a good 44. Sweet played beautifully to reach his century before he let the ball “hit the woodwork”. In the end harpsden fell short of 3-5-2 to make a total of 264 on a good wicket and the game was by no means over. Bowling figures.

After a short halftime teamtalk from captain Hancock the team was raring to go. At the start of the bowling Heath and Cracknell were getting the ball to move about like a jabulani. Crackers broke through the deadlock with a couple of well earned wickets. A strong partnership was forming and it was birkett who had the job of removing the pair, he duly did so and finished with 2 wickets for just 12 runs. He was getting the ball to “Shoot” off the wicket causing all sorts of trouble. Cary came on and spun his “Webb” taking 2 wickets. Hursty didn't put a foot “de jong” all day in the field. The crossbatters were well “off the target” and eventually fell 130 short as James Thompson cleared up the tail taking 4 wickets.

Harpsden

N.Sweet Bowled.. Cooke 114

A.Hurst Bowled.. Dicker 51

J.Paice Ct. Dicker 0

T.Hancock Ct Cooke 44

I.Whittaker NOT OUT 10

A.Cary Ct Cooke 1

Total 254-5

Deadbats

D.Cassmussow Ct. Cary 38

M.Malvuy RUN OUT 1

R.Parsons Ct. Cracknell 12

M.Hosgkiss Bowled Cracknell 0

I.Brown ct Cary 20

P.O'Conner LBW Birkett 1

D.Rowles ct Thompson 1

P.Clothier NOT OUT 21

N.Swann Bowled Thompson 8

B.Dicker ct. Thompson 0

N.Cooke ct Thompson 0

Total 124

Harpsden Thrash Mortagees

On a warm summers evening, Harpsden tort the Mortagees a lesson. Brown cross examined the technique of N. Weston and he was judged to be out despite evidence to suggest the ball never touched the bat. After S. Gosper was well court by Bradley at cover, it was a case of polishing off the long tail which was done quickly. Eventually the Mortagees were dismissed for 61 runs thanks to the excellent bowling of the Browns and Welford, who exhibited prodigious skill in removing their 10 and 11.

The result looked a foregone conclusion but after Cary was guilty of throwing his wicket away in the first over, the jury was out. Ian Brown and Adam Birkett restored order with a stand of 30 and the match was won after just 13 overs.

Boomerang ball bugs brilliant Norton

On a warm yet overcast day Harpsden entertained Twyford. Twyford won the toss and elected to bat first on an un-characteristically hard Harpsden pitch.

Wright struck early with a very fortunate wicket with a terrible ball,
getting Benjamin caught brilliantly by the diving Norton, the first of his five chances of the day. After his first brilliant catch the safe Norton hands then dropped the next two difficult chances but followed up with two first-rate clingers. Toby Stevens also got into the action with admirable efforts in the field, most notably his outstanding catch at backward point. After the early wicket of Benjamin, Twyford started to re-build the innings with Woodman (33) and Tom Fort(54) building momentum by putting on a crucial 87 run partnership in which Fort batted excellently for his deserved half-century. Rod Birkett’s demon
in-swing broke the partnership with his second ball. From there wickets
started to fall at regular intervals with Sam Imlay (3-16) and Rod Birkett(3-16) being the pick of the bowlers. Twyford finished on a below par 146.

After a long hot time in the field it was Harpsden’s turn to bat.
However, they suffered a serious blow in their run chase as the weary
looking Sweet recorded the first ruby duck in the last 25 years of
Harpsden’s history. His return to the pavilion was greeted by sarcastic applause and the washing up. This brought Will Stevens to the crease to try and stabilise the innings which is precisely what he did with the help of Mick Greenwood. Greenwood was then caught outstandingly by Edward Farrah (12 years old) trying to hit a good length ball into the cemetry. This brought 60% Andrew Norton to the crease showing no fear with Harpsden at 24-2. Norton batted exquisitely with the in-form Stevens in support. Norton took no time to get started and very quickly they both raced to their half centuries. They saw Harpsden home with ample time to spare thus completing a comprehensive 8 wicket victory. The pick of the bowlers was Hackett with 2 for 34.



Innings of Twyford



P. Woodman B. R. Birkett 33 D. Benjamin ct. Norton B. Wright 3
T. Fort ct. T. Stevens B. Hodgkiss 54
K. Cochrane ct. Norton B. Hodgkiss 3
H. Fort ct. T. Stevens B. R. Birkett 0
C. Fort B. Imlay 2
T. Downes ct. W. Stevens B. Imlay 7
S. Farrah ct. Norton B. Imlay 6
T. Cooper ct. and B. W. Stevens 1
P. Hackett ct. Sweet B. R. Birkett 4
E. Farrah Not Out 0

Extras 33

Total (All out) 146

Harpsden Bowlers

T. Ham 6-1-23-0, J. Wright 6-1-20-1, T. Stevens 3-0-9-0, A. Birkett
2-0-13-0, W. Stevens 6-1-9-1, M. Hodgkiss 7-0-28-2, R. Birkett 9-2-16-3, S. Imlay 5-0-16-3


Innings of Harpsden


N. Sweet Ct. T. Downes b. P. Hackett 0
M. Greenwood Ct. E. Farrah b. P. Hackett 9
W. Stevens NOT OUT 73
A. Norton NOT OUT 64

Extras 1

Total (for 2 wkts) 147


Twyford Bowlers

P. Hackett 6-0-34-2, T. Cooper 5-0-28-0, T. Downes 4-0-42-0, T. Fort
5-0-23-0, E. Farrah 2-0-11-0, S. Farrah 0.4-0-10-0