Scorecard

Datchworth v Radlett CC 3rd XI on Sat 06 Sep 2003 at 12:30
Radlett CC Won 11 runs

Match report This was a game of intensity. Two sides, one at the top of the table, needing to win for the championship, and the other having to win to stay in with a chance of promotion. The last match of the season. This is the one you remember for all the winter, so you’ve got to make it a good one.

This was a game of blood and guts. The blood came from Dom Ingram’s voluminous bugle, that was hit by a cruel lifter. And the guts came mostly from Richard Haxell’s stomach, closely surrounded by that tight-fitting shirt of his. But there was guts aplenty from this flinty and ferociously competitive side that outplayed the top team and deservedly won this match.

This win was a fitting tribute to Richard Haxell, who marshalled his side beautifully and imaginatively, to end his term of three years’ captaincy with a glorious victory.

Datchworth won an important toss, which gave them a decided advantage, having the knowledge of a quirky wicket, and sloping ground with varying lengths of boundary. It was noticeable how their batsmen charged the bowlers to counteract the uneven bounce in the wicket. This made Radlett’s win the more impressive.

The undisputed Man of the Match was Prabs Arumugam, a talented school-leaver whose batting we have not yet seen the best of, but he contributed an important 19 today, and who bowled beautifully on a helpful wicket to return figures of 5-43. Even his fielding wasn’t too bad!

Radlett lost the important early wickets of Barlow and Wright. Ingram and Smithers set about rebuilding, but just when bat was beginning to dominate, no small feat on this difficult track, the veteran Ingram was clobbered on the nose by a ball that lifted from nowhere, and two stretchers were brought on, one for Ingram and the other for his nose, while members of the Blood Donors Association were called in to mop this valuable blue blood for use in operations involving the Royal Family.

This destroyed the momentum that had been built up, but Smithers battled on. When he was unluckily out, his bat having split in playing a shot, and spooned up for a catch, Haxell soon followed, adjudged, (we use the word advisedly), lbw, and the score was 116-5, and with a rain break that meant a maximum of only a further 13 overs. Gitay came in to play the sort of vital spunky aggressive innings that is his forte, and with Arumpypumpi batting well, improved the score to 163 for 6, but three quick wickets brought Ingram back in to bat with his nose in a sling, and with the plucky Mark Gray eked out a further ten runs and batted out the overs. This was to prove vital.

Defending 173, and with 44 overs to bowl out the erstwhile league champions, Haxell opened with Gitay (medium-paced wobblers) and Mark Gray (real leg-breaks). This was inventive captaincy, which initially did not fully work, but Arumancoke came on for his first spell, and the game first went Radlett’s way, at 75-5, but at 141-6, it looked like Datchworth’s. Suffice it to say that Heath Paynter, with 4 balls left in the match, in dramatic style sent the batsman’s off stump cartwheeling to win a great match by 11 runs.

The electric atmosphere created by this immensely spirited team demanded nothing less than a victory, no matter what the position of the other side. This sparky performance is probably not enough to gain the promotion so badly sought by this side, but the season’s performance has reflected enormous credit on everyone who has played this season, but none more than its captain Richard Haxell, who has lived every ball of every match.

Also my thanks to the strangely quirky Malcolm Bird, the umpire who has done for red socks what King Herod did for childcare. It has been a pleasure to drive him to every away match and hear him tell the same bloody joke each week, and clean up the crisps from the floor of the car that missed his mouth. Don’t give it away Birdy, give us another year, a really honest umpire is as rare as a foreskin in Loom Lane.

Another great season. Thanks everyone.

Radlett CC 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
173
(0.0 overs)		    
Dominic Ingram Not Out  31 1
Nigel Barlow Lbw  4
Paul Wright Bowled  13 1
Tim Smithers Caught  39
Mark Evans Lbw  9
Richard Haxell Lbw  5
Zahur Gitay Bowled  34 1
Prabhu Arumugam Bowled  19
Oliver Robertson Caught  1 1
Heath Paynter Caught  0
Mark Gray Not Out  8

Datchworth Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Datchworth Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
162 (0.0 overs)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Radlett CC 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Zahur Gitay7.0323123.003.29
Mark Gray4.012000.005.00
Prabhu Arumugam12.034358.603.58
Mark Evans9.0124212.002.67
Heath Paynter11.2342221.003.71

  • Umpire :
    M Bird
  • Scorer :