Scorecard

Letchworth V v Radlett CC 5th XI on Sat 26 Jun 2010 at 1.00
Radlett CC Won by 5 wickets

Match report The Radlett V convoy set off from Coben Hill for their Division 11 game at Letchworth with four key players unavailable -- their captain, two top wicket-takers and leading run-scorer, who stood in as a Captain Marvel in last week’s victory. To make matters worse the convoy somehow managed to separate, with only three people turning up at the correct ground.

At present Radlett V seem to have taken a leaf from long running BBC panel shows by inviting a new captain for each match. This week schoolmaster Toby Sutherland was in the host’s seat against Letchworth V and he must have felt at home at the picturesque St Christopher School ground.

Sutherland lost the toss and Radlett were invited to field on what was a scalding hot day. Letchworth found it almost impossible to score runs due to some tight bowling from the ever-improving Harry Will and Asad Hussain, who were superbly backed up by excellent ground fielding.

It was only a matter of time before the pressure told and the first wicket fell. It was the usually unlucky Will who finally got his first victim of the season. Ender Tahsin, who can usually be relied on for safe hands, had either got over-confident or had been watching too much of the football. Instead of catching a fiercely hit drive he decided to chest control the ball before it somehow ended in his hands. Luis Fabiano would have been proud of this sporting crossover after showing off his basketball skills against the Ivory Coast.

Wickets kept falling, and at the halfway drinks Letchworth were 45 for six, having scored only one boundary off the bat. To be fair to Letchworth the tail wagged and the heat eventually told as the Radlett fielding started to get sloppy. Sohaib Rehman took the final wicket with the last ball of the innings. Having recovered from a bad start to 141 all out, Letchworth were no doubt pleased to have given their bowlers something to defend. Tea had to be taken back at the main Letchworth ground as it turns out that St Christopher School is a Quaker school for vegetarians.

The Radlett innings started with a pulled four from Shabbir Foyez, but he clearly hadn’t had his fill at tea as the very next over, instead of doing the same thing to an identical ball, he decided to swallow it right up by mouth. Foyez was soon back in the hutch, closely followed by Tahsin and Johnny Armitage. It was looking like the fifths of old -- scoring way ahead of the run rate but losing wickets at a quick rate. This season the fifths are a much tougher unit and the rebuilding process began with Lee Greenland and Rob Millard putting on a steady 59-run partnership.

Fresh from taking 4-40 in the first innings, Millard, with new bat in hand, tucked into the bad ball with some meaty shots. Luckily there was no St Christopher School vegetarian police on site as Millard would surely have been in detention for such beefy shot making. It was clearly Millard’s day as this was far from a chanceless innings. He was eventually caught for 84, leaving Dean Caplin and James Tinney, an example to all in the field, to steer the team home with little fuss for a five-wicket victory.

There is no doubt that Millard was man of the match, but the off the field highlight goes to Tinney. Searching for a ball that had gone through a fence he noticed a women sunbathing and decided to declare that he was “in the bush” and that he had "lost his ball”. Strangely enough this unique method failed to get the ball back, but did lead to threats of the police being called.

This was Radlett’s third win on the spin, and the team now find themselves seventh, well up on points compared with this time last year and with a good chance of being serious promotion contenders.

MoM: Rob Millard
Tfc: Johnny Armitage


Letchworth V Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
141 (0.0 overs)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Radlett CC 5th XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Asad Hussain14.0423123.001.64
Harry Will6.0210110.001.67
Robert Millard10.0240410.004.00
James Tinney7.011400.002.00
Toby Sutherland 5.011929.503.80
Sohaib Rehman5.001025.002.00

Radlett CC 5th XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 5 wickets
0
142
(0.0 overs)		    
Shabbir Foyez Caught  4 1
Robert Millard Caught  84
Ender Tahsin Bowled  3 1
John Armitage Caught  3
Lee Greenland Bowled  20
Dean Caplin Not Out  15 1
James Tinney Not Out  13 1
Harry Will  
Toby Sutherland  
Asad Hussain  
Sohaib Rehman  

Letchworth V Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.