Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 1XI v Ampthill Town I on Sat 23 Jul 2022 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 53

Match report The 1s were greeted to a very brown and dry Clarence Park, barring the soaked
square – obviously the new the groundsman is still getting used to the art of
creating a wicket. After much deliberation with a judgemental Caley, Joe
decided maybe it wouldn’t be a bad toss to lose.
After a solid warm up (bizarrely from the away end), which included some
quite frankly outrageous catches during the “whack-it-up-in-the-air” drill,
spirits were high.
Regan won the toss and decided to have a bat, the sun was shining after all
and he clearly didn’t fancy spending the hottest period of the day running
around in the dirt.
Regan Jr and Sr opened up the innings and got off to a strong start. Both
running well and putting away the bad balls. The scoreboard steadily ticked
over and the brotherly partnership began to build, bringing the 50 up in the
11th over. After trying his hardest to get out cutting the off-spinner, Regan Sr
was the first man to fall, bowled by the wily Ampthill opener. Bancroft the
next man to crease the carry on the work started by the Regans.
After reaching yet another 50 Jamie fell pretty soon after Joe, leaving the
scoreboard on 104/2 from 24. A strong platform built for the middle order to
post a competitive tally on what was a tough wicket to bat on.
Bancroft and Coulman set about pushing the run rate along and began putting
the fielders to the sword. This however resulted in a relatively questionable
run out; Bancroft calling through for a second and seemingly comfortably
home – unfortunately his bat deemed to be in the air and the square leg
umpire’s finger raised.
O’Toole joined Coulman at the crease and they carried on the hard running,
boundaries seemingly hard to come by. Coulman tried his best to run out
O’Toole, calling one through to the poorest opposition fielder after hitting it
straight to him but, having not told Tom of his inability to field, it looked like a
barbecue was on the cards; Tom comfortably into his ground though and
Coulman vindicated in his assumption of said fielders ability.
Shortly after, O’Toole tried one too many reverse sweeps - given out on the
shot more than anything with the score on what was heading to a competitive
200+.
Sims joined Coulman at the crease and quickly picked up the “Abbey Aquatics
Shot of the Day” with a glorious lofted drive over extra cover. The quick
running carried on, the fitness of Coulman now being tested to the limit as he
gasped for air like a whale catching plankton. On the boundary his teammates
were vocally questioning whether he actually does any cycling given his
inability to run a few 2s in a row.
Sims dutifully partnered Coulman in the quest for the 200 and they soon
brought it up along with a well-deserved 50 for Coulman. Sims departed,
walking for an LBW so plumb he didn’t even bother looking for the umpire’s
decision, which brought Josh Mulvaney to the crease with around 5 overs left
and a chance of nearing 250 , which would be a brilliant score on this particular
deck.
With Coulman now unable to find the boundary and hauling his extra pounds
up and down the wicket, Josh was left to club some fours and in the final over
hit two big blows over midwicket – he then bizarrely tried to reverse sweep
the same ball and was caught on the last ball of the innings (not for the first
time) with Saints eventually finishing on 244 - Coulman crawling off for an
unbeaten run-a-ball 61.
A decent all round batting performance and a great foundation laid for the
bowlers.
The Ampthill innings started with Adam ‘Hammer’ Hounslow rolling back the
years and opening the bowling, alongside Jamie Regan . Carrying on his current
bowling form Hammer was once again miserly and brought forth the wicket of
the opener, caught by Capaldi leaping at least 2cm off the ground for the grab.
Jamie at the other end drew another wicket, a tame shot straight into the
hands of Bancroft at point, leaving Ampthill 29-2 and Saints on top.
Runs carried on being hard to come by and the 1s fielded well with a special
mention going to Capaldi and his little legs firing him around the boundary – a
bit like watching Jerry running away from Tom.
Wickets carried on falling at steady intervals, Kumar doing the majority of the
legwork in the middle overs and picking up 3 wickets, the most notable of
which earned him the St Columba’s Holy Moment of the Match - an emphatic
one-handed caught and bowled.
The Ampthill innings had been thwarted somewhat by their opener’s very
pedestrian innings, Mulvaney eventually taking his wicket but this
breakthrough only brought their number 7 to the crease who very much
fancied his bowling. After being hit for 14 off one over, including a 6 followed
by a 4, which evaded the best efforts of Coulman in the deep, the
Mulvaney/Regan fan club on the boundary were vocal on the merits of how
good a drop it was. This was little consolation for Coulman and the number 7
carried on clubbing his way through his innings. Eventually Capaldi was
brought on to perform his specialist task of cleaning up the tail, taking all 4
final wickets and showing Josh precisely why he has a better average than him.
A solid performance all round from the 1s, propelling them back to the top of
the table - a near perfect batting display and some excellent bowling,
especially from the Tavah Player of the day Hounslow.
Onto Leverstock Green next week for another massive game.
Tavah Player of the Match – Adam Hounslow
Abbey Aquatics Shot of the Day – George Sims extra cover drive
St Columba’s Holy Moment of the Match – Sammy Kumar’s one handed grab
DOTD – (Quite incredibly) Olly Coulman for batting longer than anyone else
and “getting tired”


St Albans Cricket Club 1XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 2w  
for 7 wickets
3
244		        
Jamie Regan b W Sneath 55 75 7 73.33
Joe Regan b W Sneath 42 66 5 63.64
Will Bancroft run out  (Unsure) 23 30 4 76.67 2
Oliver Coulman Not Out  61 61 6 100 1
Tom O'Toole lbw L Everitt 20 29 2 68.97
Max Capaldi lbw W Sneath 4 11 36.36 2
George Sims lbw J Gage 14 18 1 77.78
Joshua Mulvaney ct B Slawinski b J Gage 22 12 2 1 183.33
Adam Hounslow   1
Chris Mude   1
Sammy Kumar   1

Ampthill Town I Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ronald Mlambo6.002900.004.83
Will Sneath10.0143314.334.30
James Gage10.0150225.005.00
Ben Slawinski10.003500.003.50
Kieran Smith5.003300.006.60
Liam Everitt9.0054154.006.00

Ampthill Town I Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
7w 4b 4lb 
for 10 wickets
15
191 (48.1 overs)		     
Tom Degnan ct M Capaldi b A Hounslow 14 35 1 40.0
Will Glenister ct O Coulman b J Mulvaney 33 80 3 41.25
Ben Slawinski ct W Bancroft b J Regan 1 4 25.00
Nick Barden ct S Kumar b S Kumar 16 20 2 80.0
Liam Everitt ct A Hounslow b S Kumar 14 32 1 43.75
Lee Archer b S Kumar 26 24 3 108.33
Ronald Mlambo ct M Capaldi b M Capaldi 48 65 3 1 73.85
Robbie Thomas ct W Bancroft b M Capaldi 12 14 2 85.71
James Gage ct C Mude b M Capaldi 7 5 1 140.0
Kieran Smith lbw M Capaldi 0 4 0
Will Sneath Not Out  5 8 62.50

St Albans Cricket Club 1XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Adam Hounslow10.0120120.002.00
Max Capaldi5.111644.003.10
Jamie Regan10.0040140.004.00
Sammy Kumar10.0036312.003.60
Joshua Mulvaney10.0054154.005.40
George Sims3.001700.005.67